The Power of the Purse: Women, Wealth, and Wisdom

By Mary Oliva

When Erasmus of Rotterdam wrote in the 1500s, “Women, you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them,” it captured the bias of its time.
More than half a millenniumT later, the irony endures: the world can no longer function without women and they are now reshaping the way it creates, grows, and transfers wealth.

A Shift Too Big to Ignore

Women now control an estimated $85 trillion in global wealth, nearly one-third of the world’s total, according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG); a figure projected to grow at twice the rate of overall global wealth.

By 2030, women are expected to inherit or manage the majority of personal assets across developed economies. In the U.S. alone, they will soon hold two-thirds of all wealth, fueled by entrepreneurship, professional advancement, and intergenerational transfer.

From Dubai to London, São Paulo to Singapore, women are no longer the silent partners in financial decisions they are the architects. The great wealth transfer of this century will not only change ownership; it will redefine priorities and purpose.

A Different Conversation
For generations, financial dialogue was built around control, yield, and short-term performance.
But modern women investors are reshaping that dialogue, seeking meaning alongside metrics. They ask:

• How will this decision support my family and community?
• What values will my wealth represent when I’m no longer here?
• How do I protect, not just grow, what I’ve built?

Despite their growing financial power, many women remain underrepresented and underserved. BCG’s research shows that 64% of women feel their wealth managers don’t understand their goals or values, and Fidelity found that 70% of widows change advisors within a year of their spouse’s death not because of returns, but because they never felt heard.

Legacy with Intention

For women, success and legacy isn’t defined by numbers alone. It’s about values, continuity, and care ensuring that what they’ve built continues with purpose.
That’s why tools once seen as technical, such as life insurance, are now viewed through a more strategic lens. Properly structured, it can:

• Create liquidity to preserve family enterprises
• Equalize inheritances while avoiding disruption
• Provide flexibility and autonomy across generations
• Fund philanthropic goals that extend a family’s impact
  Life insurance, when integrated thoughtfully, isn’t a product, it’s a planning principle: a way to protect intentions and reinforce long-term vision.

The Advisory Imperative

The industry’s challenge isn’t about marketing to women it’s about modernizing for them.
Women expect their advisors to bring empathy, transparency, and education into every conversation. They value relationships grounded in trust, not transactions, in shared understanding, not assumptions.

Advisors who master this connection will not only retain clients they’ll help define the next era of wealth stewardship.

Final Reflection

The next decade will mark the largest transfer of wealth in history, and women will be at its center as entrepreneurs, inheritors, and decision-makers.
They are redefining wealth as a tool for continuity, protection, and purpose.
The power of the purse is not emerging- it has arrived. And with it, the future of legacy.