Women represent 23.8% of CFP professionals, at a record high of 25,601 as of Dec. 31, according to the CFP Board, but the proportion remains low. Women are increasingly filling the ranks of advisors, but significant gaps remain around ownership, leadership and decision-making authority.
At the same time, Cerulli projects $124 trillion in wealth will change hands through 2048, with $40 trillion expected to transfer first to widowed women in the baby boomer and prior generations. Women of younger generations are projected to receive $47 trillion of wealth transferred intergenerationally.
As a result, advancing women in wealth management isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s also a business imperative. To address these issues, we asked the winners of the Pathfinder Awards: Top Women Industry Leaders of 2026 about glass ceilings, serving women clients, succession planning for women advisors and the Great Wealth Transfer’s implications.
Where Ceilings Hold – And Where They’re Coming Down
The most durable barriers in wealth management today are rarely about titles. The deeper problem, in Leslie Norman’s view, begins further back in a woman’s career – before she ever reaches a senior role.
“In wealth management, the strongest glass ceiling is about revenue proximity,” says Norman, Chief Technology Officer at Dynasty Financial Partners, which has 43% female employees. “If women aren’t promoted early into roles with commercial accountability, they never accumulate the operating leverage required for the top seat. And in an industry that is very risk averse, the broken rung disproportionally affects women’s ability to get exposure to the P&L.”
Anne Marie Stonich, Chief Client Experience Officer at Coldstream, contrasts the different outcomes between advisors and leadership. Progress at the advisor rank has been real and substantial, she says. “I feel we’ve achieved a near balance between men and women among advisors, especially in my region.”
“However, across firm leadership, we face a very different landscape.” The industry invested significant resources in building the advisor pipeline, and it worked, but leadership roles have not experienced the same progress, according to Stonich. As women grow their practices, she expects significant shifts at the top to follow.
For Desireé Sii, Senior Vice President, Head of Strategic Accounts at AssetMark, the most persistent ceiling is not a matter of title but of economics. Titles have improved and women are more visible in leadership, she notes, but true influence lies in who controls succession pathways and firm ownership. “That’s where the gap remains,” Sii says. “Progress is happening where women are gaining meaningful ownership and board-level authority, not just a title.”
The Next Generation Is Already Here
The pipeline of women entering advisory roles is larger than at any prior point in the profession’s history. Stonich credits past diversity initiatives for positive results at Coldstream, while arguing that the harder work of keeping women in wealth management and advancing them is only beginning.
“Without question, there are more women in this business today because the initiatives to attract women into the industry worked,” she says. “However, we need to do more to support them in these roles and better explain how women can thrive in this industry, so they stay.”
She ties that effort to a broader client imperative. Next Gen high net worth clients will include more women than men for the first time in history, she notes, and firms need their teams to reflect that reality.
Andree Mohr, President of Integrated Partners, says, “This is no longer ‘Next’ Gen, it’s generation now! Next Gen women finally see themselves reflected in leadership, turning ‘women championing women’ from a quiet effort into a standard industry culture.” Advancement is accelerating as visibility increases, she says, and as women increasingly inherit wealth and seek female leadership, the industry is evolving to meet that demand naturally.
For Lisandra Wilmott, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Savvy Wealth, one data point captures the trajectory: the proportion of female CFP professionals has roughly doubled over the past decade. She connects that growth directly to firms making a strategic commitment to female clients.
“With women controlling more wealth than ever, Savvy recognizes that meeting their needs starts with advisors who truly understand them,” she says. “When we amplify women’s strengths in communication and collaboration, advancement will follow.”
Trillions On The Move
The shift of asset ownership to women is no longer a forecast, but a current unfolding reality. Sii says it is a structural change rather than a marketing update. “As women control a growing share of assets, they’re demanding deeper planning, clearer communication, and continuity across generations,” she says. “This isn’t a marketing shift — it’s a structural one. Advisors must move beyond portfolio management and into holistic, relationship-centered planning.”
The numbers make the business case: Cerulli projects $124 trillion in wealth will change hands through 2048, with over 95% of an estimated $54 trillion in inter-spousal transfers expected to go to women. Norman says the changes are already in progress, as more female CEOs and lead advisors enter the industry and more firms build strategies around how women prefer to engage and make decisions.
“We are seeing a surge in clients and … partners specifically requesting female advisors,” Mohr says. “This demand isn’t just creating space for women; it’s forcing the industry to prioritize female talent as a strategic business imperative to capture the trillions of dollars currently in motion.”
Rethinking How Female Clients Are Served
Some experts believe women require a fundamentally different service model, while others say the real problem is more basic; that women haven’t always been treated as full clients in the first place.
To Stonich, what looks like a service problem is sometimes just a respect problem. “Clients need the same things — high-quality service and relationships based on mutual respect,” she says. “Simply, advisors need to treat their clients like clients.”
In her view, the most practical gap has nothing to do with tailored methodology. Instead, it is about advisors failing to recognize that today’s female clients are often senior executives with the same, if not greater, time constraints as their male counterparts. “Advisors must respect that our clients are busy people and work around their schedules,” she adds.
Sii advocates for a different service model, stating that female clients are actively redefining what advice should look like, and that the profession has not yet caught up. They expect transparency, education and holistic planning that reflects real-life complexity – including career pauses, caregiving responsibilities, longevity considerations and business ownership – not just portfolio management.
“What’s needed now is advisor training around life-stage complexity and better engagement across entire families,” Sii says. “Product knowledge isn’t enough. Emotional intelligence and listening are competitive advantages.”
Norman points to where that shift is most visible in practice. Service models are becoming more education-forward and relationship-driven, particularly for widows and divorcees navigating major financial transitions, which is a fast-growing segment that many advisors, both men and women, are beginning to specialize in.
“We see Dynasty network firms moving beyond basics toward holistic, life-stage advice that integrates cash flow, estate planning, and long-term decision empowerment,” she says.
Exit Strategies: A More Complicated Picture
As a growing number of female advisors approach retirement age, questions around succession and exit opportunities are coming into focus. Wilmott takes a nuanced view of the landscape. The industry remains male-dominated, she says, and structural gaps in exit opportunities persist.
But she sees the picture shifting in favor of women-owned practices as the profession evolves. “As AI reshapes technical advice, the future will favor practices built on trust and deep relationships,” Wilmott says. “Women-owned businesses rooted in those strengths will represent greater value to forward-thinking buyers.”
The independent model may offer more promising ground than other channels. Norman sees it as particularly well-suited to creating equitable exit pathways. As more women gain equity ownership and leadership roles within independent RIAs, she says, they are increasingly participating in the same succession planning and liquidity opportunities as their male peers.
“The independent model, in particular, rewards ownership and performance, creating more equitable pathways to exit, continuity, and long-term enterprise value,” she says.
Sii identifies a preference that can complicate the picture. Structural exit opportunities exist for female advisors, she says, but many intentionally seek female successors to preserve culture, client alignment and continuity. Because the pool of female buyers remains smaller than the pool of female sellers who want that outcome, that preference can narrow options. “As more women enter the industry, this will begin to solve itself,” Sii says.
Julius Buchanan is Editor in Chief at Wealth Solutions Report. He can be reached at julius.buchanan@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
