For a long time, the financial industry told a particular story about women and wealth: that it arrived through inheritance or marriage. New research from BlackRock tells a different one. When BlackRock surveyed affluent women and the advisors who serve them, career earnings played a much larger role in how women built their wealth than advisors expected, and inheritance and marriage played a smaller one.
I'm not surprised. The women I work with and speak to are real estate agents building a business one closing at a time, owners who paid everyone else before they paid themselves, and professionals who climbed while running a household. They earned it. Earning it is the first half. Protecting it is the second. Here are five places to start.
1. Know what you're actually working with
Many high-earning women can't quickly name their net worth, their savings rate or what they'd need to retire. That isn't a character flaw; it's a calendar problem. Start with the numbers: what comes in, what goes out, what you own and what you owe. Clarity first, strategy second.
2. Make taxes part of the plan, not an April surprise
In the same research, women ranked tax-efficient financial decisions as the number one area where they would always seek professional advice. Advisors guessed women would rank it fourth. If you're self-employed or paid on commission, no one is withholding for you, so quarterly estimates, retirement plan contributions and the timing of income and expenses all matter. A conversation with your CPA before December 31 is usually more useful than one in March.
3. Build your "closing table"
No house closes with one person at the table, and your finances shouldn't either. Coordination across professionals was the largest unmet need women identified in the research. Your CPA, advisor, estate attorney and insurance agent should each know the basics of what the others are doing, and someone should be looking at the whole picture.
4. Plan for the care you may give
Three in five family caregivers are women, and one-third of caregivers have stopped saving, according to AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving. Transamerica found that 43% of women have been caregivers during their careers, compared with 35% of men. If caregiving is in your present or your future, talk about it before it happens: how it could affect your income, your retirement contributions and your own long-term plan. Legal documents such as powers of attorney belong with an attorney; the funding and long-term planning is where an advisor can help.
5. Check the paperwork that protects everything else
Beneficiary designations, emergency savings, disability and life insurance, and an up-to-date estate plan don't make headlines, but they keep a plan intact when life happens. Beneficiary forms on retirement accounts and insurance generally pass outside your will, so they're worth reviewing at least once a year.
You built it
Protecting it doesn't have to be complicated. It just has to be intentional. If you'd like to talk through where you stand before the year ends, I'd love to sit down with you: https://app.greminders.com/c/ashlieaves
CITATION
BlackRock, Future of Wealth research (2026). Survey of 1,067 affluent and high-net-worth women investors and 409 U.S. financial advisors, fielded by Escalent, July 29 – Aug. 23, 2026. Cite the retail version: blackrock.com/gls-download/literature/presentation/future-of-wealth-research-retail.pdf | AARP & National Alliance for Caregiving, Caregiving in the U.S. 2025 (released July 24, 2025). aarp.org/caregivingintheus2025 | Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, 25th Annual Retirement Survey (as reported by InvestmentNews). Verify against the primary Transamerica report before publishing.