The Great Wealth Transfer Isn’t Just About Money. It’s About Who Makes the Decisions

Written by: Clara C. Parris, CFP®

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance your financial life looks different than it did five or ten years ago.

Maybe you’ve taken a more active role in your family’s financial decisions. Maybe you’re the one making the investment decisions now, whether you expected to be or not. Maybe an inheritance, a divorce, the loss of a spouse, or your own hard-won career success has put you in the driver’s seat. Or maybe you’ve always managed your own money and you’re simply tired of receiving financial guidance that wasn’t built with you in mind.

Whatever brought you here, you’re part of something historic: a generational shift that’s placing more wealth - and more decision-making power - in the hands of more women than ever before. Over the next two decades, more than $100 trillion is expected to change hands in what’s being called the Great Wealth Transfer, and women are positioned to control an unprecedented share of it. For generations, wealth decisions were made largely by men. That era is ending. Women are stepping into a role that, not long ago, very few were given the opportunity to hold.

That’s not a footnote. That’s the headline.

Financial Success Isn’t Just a Number

In my experience as an advisor, women tend to define financial success differently than the traditional playbook assumes. And research on financial behavior often points to the same conclusion.

For many women, “doing well financially” means having the freedom to leave a job that no longer fits. For some, it might mean funding a grandchild’s education, giving generously to causes they believe in, or simply knowing that no matter what happens, the people they love are secure. Investment performance matters, but it’s rarely the whole story. Values, family, and sense of purpose can be just as essential to a sound financial plan as portfolio returns.

I believe good financial planning starts by understanding what your wealth is actually for, not just how to grow it.

Navigating Decisions You Weren’t Necessarily Taught to Make

For women who are navigating a new financial reality - whether through divorce, widowhood, inheritance, or the fruit of their own success - it’s common to feel like you’re supposed to already know what you were never taught.

That’s not a gap in ability. It’s simply a reflection of a financial system and culture that hasn’t always afforded women the opportunity, education, or encouragement to take the lead in managing wealth.

This is why choosing the right financial advisor – one who empowers and educates as much as they guide – can matter. I believe the most effective advisors don’t simply hand down instructions; they help translate choices so that they can make decisions that feel informed and intentional. They bring investments, insurance, retirement, tax strategy, and legacy planning together into a holistic strategy, rather than leaving clients to stitch together advice from five different directions. And they stay honest about when a plan needs to evolve because life has changed.

The measure of a good advisory relationship may not be how much direction an advisor gives. It can be how confident and equipped a client feels to make financial decisions for themselves – in alignment with what matters most to them.

The Realities Worth Planning For

Certain aspects of financial planning can affect women differently because of the unique financial realities and life transitions many women experience. A plan that doesn’t account for those nuances often isn’t truly complete.

Take career breaks for caregiving, for example, whether for children or aging parents. Time away from the workforce can quietly shape lifetime earnings and retirement savings in ways that are hard to see year to year but can become significant over time.

Women rebuilding their finances after a divorce, particularly when a former spouse handled most of the financial decision-making, may also find themselves taking the lead with less context or experience, through no fault of their own. And because women statistically live longer than men, many are planning for more years in retirement while also facing higher lifetime healthcare costs - up to 18% more, according to research - even as they often enter retirement with less saved.

None of this is meant to be discouraging. It’s meant to be acknowledged clearly and proactively, because a financial plan can only account for what it recognizes. When these realities are built into planning from the start, rather than treated as an afterthought, the resulting strategy can be better equipped to reflect the life it’s meant to support.

What This Moment Represents

The Great Wealth Transfer isn’t just about money changing hands. It’s about who gets to decide what happens next - and increasingly, that’s women.

As more women take direct ownership of their financial decisions, I believe the role of the advisor must evolve alongside them, focusing less on directing outcomes and more towards providing the knowledge, context, and guidance women need to make informed decisions for themselves. That shift has the potential to reshape not only who controls wealth, but also what effective financial guidance looks like for the next generation of women stepping into wealth.