All the single ladies: Meet the next generation of female investors

Single, child-free women’s wealth, as a demographic, is increasing. Financial professionals should take note.

Key points:

• Many women today are choosing to delay or forgo marriage and motherhood, often resulting in increases in their education levels and wealth
• Because women typically live longer than men, financial professionals might want to increase focus on healthcare costs and long-term care planning for their female clients¹

Women are increasing their wealth faster than ever before. In fact, women hold the largest share of wealth at 37% relative to the total regional wealth pool, and the greatest volume of assets in absolute numbers at $35 trillion in North America.²

Additionally, more women are choosing to remain single, and with that are achieving greater equality in areas like education, career advancement, homeownership, and consumer power. Clearly, this market presents a large opportunity for financial professionals.

Cultural shifts

Relationships, living arrangements, and family life have evolved over the past several decades, leading to an increase in the population of all single, working-age American adults.³ A growing number of women are also putting off motherhood or skipping it completely. In the United States, birthrates have steadily declined, and it’s projected that by 2030, 45% of women between the ages of 25 and 44 will be single and child-free.⁴

Consequently, many women are advancing further in their careers than previous generations and are entering a new era of wealth. Single, working-age American women without children had an average of $65,000 in wealth in 2019, compared with $57,000 for single, child-free men.⁵ The lifestyle and financial freedoms that a well-paying job affords are often big incentives for women seeking to move ahead in their careers.

The unique needs of female clients

Despite the shift in household structures and increased labor participation rates, never-married men typically still earn more than never-married women.⁶ This means single women tend to spend a higher share of their earnings on necessities like housing, healthcare, education, and food away from home, something financial professionals should also be aware of when working with this demographic.⁶

Leveraging higher education

In the United States, women are earning college degrees at higher rates than men, becoming the primary breadwinner in nearly 30% of married households and nearly 40% of total households.⁴ Millennial women are the most highly educated generation to date, with almost half of employed millennial women holding a bachelor’s degree or higher.7 Women today also contribute more to household incomes than women of previous generations, and control a larger share of the U.S. consumer market, at an estimated $7 trillion.⁴

Retirement and healthcare

Retirement preparedness among single women has drastically improved, proving that the movement away from marriage doesn’t have to carry a steep retirement penalty as it once did. However, as a whole, single women are putting less money toward pensions and insurance, which may suggest less saving and further highlighting their potential financial fragility.⁶ Like men, the largest expense for women as they age is healthcare. But because women generally live longer than men, it’s important to consider how healthcare expenditures in the long term might affect their wealth.

Breaking through to the next generation of female savers

For many women, financial decisions are about more than the bottom line. Unlike men, women tend to save to fund specific goals, such as leaving a legacy for the next generation, supporting a post-retirement lifestyle, endowing a family business, or making a social impact in their community.²

Many financial institutions are catering more to female clients, but many still treat women as a homogenous group rather than a diverse client base with unique needs and goals.² Some still rely on broad generalizations when it comes to working with female clients, which can result in products, services, and messaging that feel superficial, out of touch, or even condescending.

Single, child-free women present an enormous opportunity. The financial professionals who recognize this group as individuals with unique wealth and planning needs may be better positioned to attract and retain more of this special demographic.