Affluent American women are accumulating wealth at a pace that the financial advice industry has yet to fully recognize, according to new research from BlackRock. The inaugural Future of Wealth: Women, Money & The Growing Opportunity for Advisors report challenges long-held assumptions about female investors and urges advisors to rethink their engagement strategies.
Women are projected to control $34 trillion in U.S. investable assets by 2030, per McKinsey & Company's 2024 report, and an estimated $47 trillion in generational wealth is expected to transfer to women by 2048, according to Cerulli Associates. Yet despite this scale, the BlackRock study found that 35% of women with $2 million or more in investable assets are currently unadvised, a figure that climbs to 45% among women with $10 million or more.
What advisors are getting wrong
The report, fielded by Escalent, surveyed 1,067 affluent and high-net-worth women investors and 409 financial advisors across the U.S. between July 29 and August 23, 2026. It documents significant gaps between advisor assumptions and client reality. For instance, advisors tend to associate women's financial lives with major life transitions such as widowhood, divorce, or retirement, while women themselves point to career promotions, marriage, and becoming a parent as the events that most shaped their financial trajectories.
Career earnings are the dominant source of wealth for women, cited by 79% of female respondents, but advisors estimate the figure at just 49%. At higher wealth levels, equity compensation looms larger, cited by 41% of women with $5 million or more in assets versus 19% below that threshold. The priority gap is equally striking: women ranked growing their wealth first among their top five-year financial objectives (46%), while advisors placed that goal eighth on their list of what they believe women prioritize.
Tax planning is another area where advisors are underestimating client expectations. Women ranked tax-efficient financial decisions as their single top need for professional guidance (43%), on par with investment strategy and estate planning. Advisors placed tax management fourth. The BlackRock 2026 Advisor Trends Survey found that while 92% of advisors serving high-net-worth clients report being frequently asked for tax guidance, only 17% treat after-tax return as a primary driver of portfolio decisions.
The retention risk hiding in plain sight
Even among women who already work with an advisor, the study surfaces a significant retention problem. Among advised women with $5 million to $10 million in assets, 37% say they are somewhat or very likely to consider switching advisors within two years—the highest switching likelihood of any wealth tier surveyed. That group also reports the greatest concentration of unmet needs: 35% cite an unmet need for coordination with other financial professionals, and 26% report an unmet tax-related need.
Advisors acknowledge the shortfall. Nearly 60% say earlier engagement with women (before a significant wealth transition) represents the largest gap in their relationship-building approach. Meanwhile, 45% identify prospecting and connecting with women as a leading operational challenge. Eighty-one percent say they currently build new relationships primarily through referrals from existing clients, a method that may limit reach among the growing population of unadvised high-net-worth women.
The window is particularly open among younger clients. Among advised women under 45, 42% are considering switching advisors within two years, compared with just 4% of women 65 and older—a signal that practices that fail to address unmet needs early may not hold the next generation of wealth creators. This trend echoes broader shifts in investor expectations, as seen in younger generations' views on retirement and how millennials and Gen Z are reshaping advice.
Confidence, clarity and connected advice
The study also reframes the question of financial confidence. Advisors tend to associate women's decision-making hesitancy with emotional readiness and a need for reassurance. Women, however, point to practical barriers: insufficient information, uncertainty about available options, and concern over tax implications are the factors most likely to stall a financial decision, not emotional overwhelm.
Women identified coordination across financial professionals—meaning integration between their advisor, accountant, attorney, and other specialists—as their largest unmet need. Only 12% of advised women say their advisor currently provides such coordination. As female-controlled wealth climbs toward $34 trillion, the industry has yet to pivot at scale, though some advisors are already building practices tailored to women, as noted in industry initiatives supporting women advisors.
Jaime Magyera, Head of BlackRock's U.S. Wealth and Retirement Businesses, said: "The research underscores a broader shift reshaping the future of wealth. Women are not a niche segment of investors but a leading indicator of where investor expectations are headed." The same priorities women express today—strong investment outcomes, tax-smart strategies, and expert advice that connects the different dimensions of their financial lives—reflect what all investors will expect tomorrow.
