Women play an outsize roll in their families’ finances, yet a majority of them are unprepared to give or receive wealth, new research by RBC Wealth Management shows.
In a survey released this week, 98 percent of women said they were the sole or joint decision maker for banking and 84 percent held joint or full responsibility for family investments.
The research also showed that inheritors are generally unprepared, uninformed and unsupported, women somewhat more so than men.
Only 29 percent of women surveyed had received guidance from benefactors on how to use inherited assets, compared with 37 percent of men. And just 22 percent of women said they had a full wealth transfer strategy in place, compared with 30 percent of men.
Related: Women's retirement status iffy
These findings are important because women, for a variety of reasons, will receive the majority of the estimated $3.2 trillion that will transfer to the next generation in the U.S. in coming years, according to the report.
“Women are becoming an economic powerhouse in the U.S.,” Angie O’Leary, head of wealth planning at RBC Wealth Management — U.S., said in a statement. “A growing number are moving into the corporate executive ranks while others are starting their own businesses.
“Couple that trend with the fact that women, on average, live longer than men, and you can see how women are both creating and controlling more wealth than ever before. As such, it is important that they have wealth transfer discussions with their benefactors and have a solid wealth transfer plan in place.”
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Michael S. Fischer
Michael S. Fischer is a longtime contributing writer for ThinkAdvisor. He previously reported on trade and intellectual property topics for the Economist Intelligence Unit and covered the hedge fund industry for MARHedge and Reuters News Service.
