Last week the Financial Times hosted a gathering titled Guiding Generations: The Future of Estate Planning to address the topics of generational transition and technology and transformation. We know from several comprehensive surveys of family offices that intergenerational transfer is one of the most critical topics.
In what’s been dubbed The Great Wealth Transfer, Cerulli Associates projects that $124 trillion will transfer generations by 2048. While we typically think of vertical transfers between generations, in many cases horizontal transfers will precede the inter-generational transfers. Of the $54 trillion Cerulli projects will transfer between spouses, the majority – fully $40 trillion will flow to women prior to passing into the next generation.
Coinciding with higher rates of college enrollment and graduation among women, and a greater percentage of graduate degrees being earned by women, it’s clear that women are also poised to generate increasing levels of wealth. This is happening globally.
And yet surveys show that women continue to struggle to find trusted advisers. These reflections brought me back to a very well researched and nuanced book by Andrea Turner Moffit, Harness the Power of the Purse: Winning Women Investors. An important observation from Turner Moffit is that women are not a monolith: what women expect as investors is influenced differently by locale, background, level of wealth, source of wealth, financial literacy, politics, risk tolerance. Accordingly, it’s critical that advisers engage in real conversations and let women’s goals, values, and aspirations lead investment decision-making. In our experience working with women investors, we’ve observed that women tend to want to understand more, take educated risks, and find alignment between their money and values.
So, cheers to the future and the potential we hold!