How the Great Wealth Transfer is Reshaping Financial Planning

According to Cerulli Associates, an estimated $124 trillion will change hands between now and 2048, in what is widely recognized as the largest generational wealth transfer in history. Of that, $40 trillion will pass to widows, or surviving women partners. On top of that, in the next five years, women over 50 will control more than $15 trillion in spending power, and nearly two-thirds of investable wealth in the United States. They already drive a third of all consumer spending, and that’s expected to rise to over 40% by 2030.

For financial planners prepared to serve women clients well, this represents one of the most significant professional opportunities in the history of the profession. It also represents a change in how we serve clients, because the “traditional financial planning client” is changing rapidly. 

As we think about the Great Wealth Transfer, it also helps to think about how relationships with married clients will change. In some studies, 54% of women who inherit assets plan to change financial advisors.* Why are women leaving at this rate, and what does that mean for the practices that want to continue their relationships with clients even after one partner passes?

Research suggests the answer isn’t investment performance. It’s the relationship… or the lack of one. Women consistently report that they didn’t feel known by their advisor, and that their financial plan felt like it was built for their spouse. They also cite that they weren’t meaningfully included in conversations before the wealth transfer happened.

More research finds that, while 55% of women feel confident or experienced in managing their personal wealth, 45% report feeling confused or overwhelmed — compared to just 27% of men. 84% of women also say they lack confidence in their ability to manage an inheritance or other financial windfall.

This means that the biggest barrier for women isn’t a lack of knowledge or access to support. It’s a lack of confidence to take an active role in managing their wealth. This is often called the “confidence gap,” and most firms or planners will assign additional reading or learning to help their women clients understand more. But what women need from their planners isn’t always additional learning. Sometimes, it’s something more fundamental: to feel seen, heard, and genuinely understood.

* Note: Some research shows that over 70% of women leave their advisors after their husband’s death, while others find that just 14% of women plan to do so. This research is still developing and heavily debated.

Serving women clients well isn’t about adjusting your pitch or making more of your marketing pink (seriously). It’s about understanding how women experience money differently, and building a practice that genuinely reflects that understanding.

Here are a few things to consider as we enter this Great Wealth Transfer and more women start to take hold of their wealth:

Women’s relationship with money is shaped by factors that most financial planning training doesn’t address: the pay and wealth gap, longevity differences that mean women often manage wealth alone for a decade or more after a spouse’s death, and a financial services industry that has historically been built around (and for) men. This isn’t saying that men don’t have their own unique set of challenges. They do! But men have historically been favored in financial settings, and have had rights longer than women.

Women consistently rank relationship and feeling understood as the top reasons they stay with or leave an advisor. That means knowing what to ask, how to ask it, and how to listen for what isn’t being said yet is a core competency for any planner who wants to serve this client base well.

Research consistently shows that financial advisors, regardless of gender or race, hold unconscious biases that affect how they engage with clients. Recognizing those biases isn’t about self-criticism. It’s about doing your job better. Nobody is exempt from bias, and we have to be honest about where ours are.

The four Ds — death, divorce, disability, and diagnosis — are often the moments women first seek out a financial planner, or reconsider the one they have. Knowing how to show up well in those moments is the difference between a client who stays for decades and one who leaves within a year.

According to a 2025 report by AdvizorPro, fewer than a quarter of RIA firms have a female owner or executive. Women are inheriting the largest transfer of wealth in history while the profession managing that wealth remains predominantly male, and predominantly built around a client experience that wasn’t designed with women in mind.

Of course, we’re not saying men can’t serve women well. They can and do! However, it is an argument for every planner (regardless of gender) to develop the skills and awareness to do it well. If you can learn to serve women clients well, you can serve anyone. The skills required include genuine curiosity, the ability to listen for what isn’t being said, and the willingness to slow down when it matters. These work well with women, but they are the same skills that make someone exceptional with every client they serve.

For anyone entering the profession, it’s a genuine opening: the demand for planners who understand this client base is growing faster than the supply.

Some planners reading this will push back. Maybe you're thinking: women and men aren't that different. Good planning is good planning. Treating every client as an individual matters more than any generalization about gender. And aren't we just creating division by talking about this at all?

Please note: This blog isn't arguing that every woman client is the same, or that gender determines how someone relates to money. It's arguing that the financial planning profession was built around a default — and that default wasn't women. The legal history, the product design, the communication norms, the assumptions about who in a household makes financial decisions… they were all developed in an environment where women were largely absent from the table, as clients and as professionals.

That history doesn't disappear because we've made progress. It shows up in the subtle ways a meeting gets run, in the language used to explain risk, and in the questions directed at one spouse and not the other. This doesn’t happen because anyone intends it, but rather by default built by unacknowledged bias. 

The planners who push back on this content hardest are often the ones who care most about serving their clients well. That's a good thing. What we're asking is that the same rigor and self-awareness you bring to building a financial plan — the willingness to question assumptions, to look at what the data actually shows — gets applied here too.

This isn't about pandering to a specific audience to “make more money,” either. It's about being intentional about building relationships with people, because this is a helping profession!

In the next decade, experts expect 28 million widowed women to receive over $40 trillion in assets. Women are also expected to assume the majority of purchasing power in the United States. And studies show that anywhere from 15-70% of women will leave their advisor after a major life transition.

The opportunity is real, and it belongs to the planners who take preparation seriously. The wealth is already moving. The clients are already looking for someone who will show up differently. The question is whether you'll be ready when they find you.

Serving women clients well isn't a specialty. It's becoming a baseline, and the planners who develop these skills now will be better positioned than those who believe they have all the skills they need. 

The skills needed to work with women aren't complicated, but they aren't automatic for those with a very traditional education and training experience. Instead, you can build the skills needed to work with women intentionally through training, reflection, and honest examination of what you might be bringing into a client conversation without realizing it.

That's exactly what the Women & Wealth Masterclass was built to develop. Cary Carbonaro, CFP®, MBA has spent 25 years working with women clients, and watching what works, what doesn't, and what separates the planners women trust from the ones they leave. She wrote the book on how to serve women well (literally) and she’s bringing her insights and experience to Amplified Planning.

Cary is bringing her course, Women & Wealth, to Amplified Planning, with 8 modules of frameworks, real client stories, and tools you can apply immediately. The course earns 4.5 CFP Board CE credits upon completion, and everyone who enrolls before October 1, 2026 gets access to four live calls with Cary to go deeper on what they're learning. It's open to every planner who wants to serve clients better, regardless of gender or years of experience. However, please note that this course doesn't provide experience hours, and most of the program speaks to those who currently work with clients. 

The course is just $397, and you can join now. The course releases September 28th and is a self-paced program you can complete at any time.