Women’s wealth is growing faster than markets recognize

Daniel Okafor

Cerulli Associates projects $124 trillion in U.S. wealth transfers through 2048, including $54 trillion between spouses; more than 95% of that spousal money will go to women. Morgan Stanley’s Ellen Zentner sees those flows as evidence that markets have yet to recognize women’s expanding economic power.

Zentner’s case links three developments: women are acquiring more assets, making more household purchasing decisions and receiving inheritance at scale. Each change reinforces the next. Greater wealth creates advisory opportunities. More spending gives companies another basis for growth. Taken together, the shifts favor businesses and services that understand women as owners, buyers and long-term decision-makers.

Women’s homeownership rose from roughly 25% to 50% over four decades, according to Zentner’s analysis. She links the increase to women’s ability to accumulate assets independently and expects the trend to continue. More women are also earning and accumulating assets in their own right. Inherited assets will add to that shift.

The four-decade rise gives women a larger asset base of their own. Zentner links that ownership to a broader change in who manages household capital after an inheritance.

What changes when spouses inherit the money?

Zentner says traditional advisory relationships often center on the primary earner, overlooking a spouse who may ultimately inherit and manage the assets, while firms that engage both spouses earlier can build longevity and lifetime income planning into their advice. The arrangement can leave the eventual asset manager outside the relationship.

Cerulli estimates nearly $40 trillion will flow to widowed women, mostly from Baby Boomer and older households. Younger women will receive about $47 trillion through 2048. Those estimates overlap because some money passing to widows later passes to children. The two figures should not be added together.

Men have managed most inherited money, and firms holding it have often adapted slowly to women’s preferences, according to Zentner. Research cited in her analysis indicates that women investors often focus on long-term goals and pay close attention to risk. Preferences still vary widely.

An inheritance can also force clients to reassess a financial relationship built primarily around the husband. Zentner sees that moment as a chance to widen the relationship and plan for the household’s longer-term income needs.

Who controls everyday spending?

MRI-Simmons consumer surveys identify women as the principal shoppers in roughly 72% of households. In many homes, women decide how money is spent on groceries and healthcare, as well as education and care for aging parents.

Zentner says many companies still design and sell products without women in mind. She tells investors to test whether a company understands who makes the buying decision, even when the product is not aimed at women.

Her framework separates the actual decision-maker from the demographic targeted by the product. For investors, that turns a demographic statistic into a test of commercial relevance.

Where is capital still missing?

PitchBook data show that startups founded exclusively by women represented 5.2% of U.S. venture capital deals in 2025, yet those companies received just 1.1% of funding.

Zentner frames the disparity as evidence that capital providers still lag the shift in economic control. Research cited in her analysis links gender-diverse leadership with stronger financial performance. She cautions that results vary and correlation does not establish causation.

Which companies are positioned for the shift?

Zentner advises investors to look for companies positioned for changing patterns of spending, homeownership and wealth management, while avoiding businesses that still operate on outdated assumptions about who controls capital.

Her framework links financial advisers, consumer companies and businesses seeking capital. In each case, investors must identify the asset owner or the person spending the money.

Her conclusion is that women’s economic influence is already measurable through ownership, spending and inheritance. Investors can start by asking which businesses are responding to it.

Zentner’s commentary cautions that wealth-transfer estimates and consumer preferences may change, and actual outcomes may differ with economic, market, demographic and regulatory factors. It presents company examples as illustrative, not investment recommendations. The near-term measure will be whether advisers, companies and capital providers adapt to an ownership and spending base that has already shifted.