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Forbes
24-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Women Are Redefining Wealth, And The Future Of Investing
A quiet revolution is underway. As trillions of dollars prepare to change hands in what economists are calling the 'Great Wealth Transfer,' women are poised to inherit and control the majority of that wealth. But this isn't just a financial milestone, it's a cultural reset. Women investors are not only shaping the future of finance; they're reshaping the future of impact. The $84 Trillion Shift, and Who Benefits Investing in what's next Over the next two decades, an estimated $84 trillion will be passed from baby boomers to younger generations. Women who live longer are increasingly the primary breadwinners, and often inherit from spouses and parents, and are expected to control two-thirds of that wealth by 2030, totaling more than $30 trillion in U.S. assets alone. But let's be clear: not all women will benefit equally. Women of color, particularly Black and Latina women, continue to face systemic barriers to wealth accumulation. According to the National Women's Law Center, for every dollar of wealth held by white men, Black women own only 8 cents and Latinas only 14 cents. The Federal Reserve reports the median wealth gap between Black and white households exceeds $220,000, and is growing. We cannot talk about women's wealth without addressing this inequity. Closing the gender wealth gap must include a serious commitment to closing the racial wealth gap. Equal opportunity is not just about inheritance, it's about access to capital, financial education, and investment networks. Women Invest Smarter Research consistently shows that women invest with greater intention and long-term focus. According to a study from Warwick Business School, women's investment portfolios outperformed men's by 1.8% annually. They traded less frequently, were more risk-aware, and prioritized steady, compounding gains. But it's not just about financial strategy, it's about values. According to a 2022 Ellevest survey, 95% of women say the financial industry wasn't built with them in mind, and another study shows that 79% want to invest in alignment with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. This is not niche investing, it's the future of smart, sustainable capital allocation. As Ellevest founder Sallie Krawcheck says, 'Nothing bad happens when women have more money.' From Powerlessness to Portfolio Power Historically, the financial industry has underserved women. Wealth management conversations often default to male clients. Retirement planning is built on male lifespans. And women are frequently perceived as risk-averse, when in reality, they are risk-aware. Yet women now control $10.9 trillion in U.S. assets and that number is accelerating. When women have the confidence and tools to invest, they don't just build wealth for themselves. They create ripple effects across families, communities, and future generations. Investing Is the New Activism Women investors are driving a purpose-driven financial movement. From backing women-led startups to funding companies that prioritize sustainability, care infrastructure, and pay equity, women are investing in the world they want to live in. The rise of gender-lens investing, where capital is directed toward businesses that benefit women and girls has grown into a multi-billion-dollar market. And it's growing fast. As Erika Karp, founder of Cornerstone Capital, put it: 'Women are realizing they can shape the world not just through politics or protest, but through portfolios.' The Call to Action To unlock the full potential of women investors, we must: When women invest, it's not just about individual gain. It's about collective progress. Women influence 85% of consumer spending, represent the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs, and increasingly fund the future of innovation. Yet they receive less than 3% of venture capital funding. That's not just a missed opportunity; it's a call to redesign the system. The future of finance is intentional, inclusive, and in power. Because when women invest, we all rise.
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
1 Thing To Do Every Year If You Want To Make More Money, According to a Money Expert
Most wealth-building practices aren't very difficult to comprehend or implement. Strategic investing, budgeting and income diversification are key. But when it comes to making more money specifically at work, the rules are a bit more situation specific — or are they? Is there something all of us can be doing to increase our income? Learn More: Read Next: Sallie Krawcheck, the co-founder of Ellevest, a women's-focused investment platform with more than $2 billion in assets under management (AUM), wrote a piece for CNBC Make It about how to increase your earning power in the workplace. The tactic? Negotiating your salary. This is hardly an unheard of maneuver, but it's one that a lot of people miss out on, perhaps because they don't know their worth as an employee or they're struggling with impostor syndrome or they think it could anger or insult their boss. Go about it tactfully and you have nothing to lose. Here's how to successfully negotiate. Negotiating for more — be it a raise or better benefits — is difficult for some, including those who consistently put 110% into their work and always go the extra mile for their boss. Advocating yourself can be hard for a lot of reasons; what's usually a lot less difficult is advocating for somebody you really care about. So, if you have mixed feelings about negotiating for you, think about the other people in your life who would benefit from a successful negotiation. It can be kids or parents or even a stranger in need of charity. 'If you want a raise, focus on how that raise will help you put funds toward your kids' college educations or your favorite non-profit,' Krawcheck wrote. 'If it's a more flexible schedule, think about how our friends and family may appreciate having us around more.' Find Out: Usually, we set out on a negotiation with our boss with a single goal in mind and usually that goal is more money. This can be a setup for failure if we walk out of the negotiation without a pay raise. Instead of heading into talks dead set on the one thing you want, be open-minded to other types of wins that may be less obvious. 'If you go in with just one ask, you sell yourself short, because if you hear 'no,' you leave empty-handed,' Krawcheck wrote. 'There are many things to negotiate for that can have value for you, and your employer, as you develop your career. This could be a more flexible schedule, exposure to other parts of the company, working on a project with a top manager or even a sabbatical.' Negotiation isn't something to do once or even just a handful of times in your career. It's something you should do on a regular basis. Krawcheck recommended doing it annually. 'You should be having the raise conversation with your boss every year,' she said. 'Ask them, 'What does it take to be successful in my role? What are the metrics I'm being measured against? If I hit these metrics, what kind of career progression and raise should I expect to see?'' If you've read all this and you're thinking, 'Sound great, but this won't work with my boss,' you're surely not alone. A 2022 survey by GoodHire found that only 44% of American workers said their manager was 'open and honest during salary and compensation conversations.' So how do you break through with your boss in order to have a productive negotiation? Consider Krawcheck's recommendation to get into the habit of talking with your boss casually and frequently. 'You don't need to have a serious, sit-down conversation with your manager every month,' she wrote. 'But I do recommend getting comfortable with talking more consistently about compensation and bonuses in a low-stress environment.' More From GOBankingRates Mark Cuban Warns of 'Red Rural Recession' -- 4 States That Could Get Hit Hard 7 Things You'll Be Happy You Downsized in Retirement Warren Buffett: 10 Things Poor People Waste Money On This article originally appeared on 1 Thing To Do Every Year If You Want To Make More Money, According to a Money Expert Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
21-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why Betterment CEO Sarah Levy Isn't Afraid Of Market Volatility
Sarah Levy in Betterment's New York City headquarters. In a small meeting room in digital investment advising firm Betterment's office in Manhattan, chief executive Sarah Levy seems relaxed in a hoodie and sneakers. Just outside the room, a wall-mounted television plays a news broadcast covering the ongoing market volatility as a result of President Donald Trump's new tariff policies. Two months earlier, Betterment had just acquired the automated business of Ellevest, a robo-advisor focused on women's wealth. It was the fourth and the latest in a string of acquisitions the company had made since Levy assumed her role in 2020. Adding Ellevest to Betterment's coffers boosted its customer count by nearly 80,000 customers, adding more than $2 billion to its assets under management. Then the market lost more than $6 trillion in the first week of April. Despite the uncertainty playing out on the television outside the meeting room, Levy remains steadfast in her plans. 'I would be more than happy to continue to consolidate in the industry,' Levy says. In other words: There is an estimated $643 billion digital advice market, and Betterment is primed to snap up the fintechs that can help the firm take on Wall Street Goliaths. So far, her buying strategy has paid off: Betterment has more than doubled its assets under management from $22 billion to $56 billion under Levy's leadership, and has grown from 300 employees to nearly 550 employees. The fintech company has been profitable for two years and surpassed $200 million in revenue in 2024. Aside from the incumbents like Vanguard, Schwab and Fidelity, Betterment is one of the biggest of the digitally native firms. Wealthfront, which has more than $35 billion AUM by comparison (and another $45 billion across other accounts), reached profitability last year and recorded nearly $200 million in revenue. For all the recent growth, Levy didn't seem like an obvious choice when she was appointed to her role by Betterment founder Jon Stein nearly five years ago. She was coming off of more than 20 years at media conglomerate Paramount Global (then Viacom), where she was chief operating officer at Nickelodeon for more than a decade before taking on the same role at Viacom Media Networks. Levy, who was listed on the 2022 Forbes 50 Over 50, had spent the better part of her career merging Viacom's cable brands into a single platform – but when Viacom and CBS merged in December 2019, she said it felt like a 'rinse and repeat' of her prior work. It felt like a good time to move on. Stein, Betterment's then-CEO who founded the company in 2008, was looking for someone with experience in launching and growing plans to help manage the business, a CRO or perhaps a COO. A game of telephone got Stein all the way to Allison Mnookin, a Harvard Business School lecturer who'd been friends with Levy in college. ''I have this crazy idea,'' Mnookin recalls telling one of Stein's board members. 'You're gonna think I'm nuts, because Sarah's not from the industry… but she's got the smarts to be strategic and the curiosity to learn new things.' Shortly thereafter, Stein met Levy; he remembers feeling an 'instant rapport' with Levy. 'As I got to know her, I became confident she could not only do any job, but she could do my job,' Stein said in an email to Forbes. He wondered if it was time to pass the torch – he had a young family, he wasn't sure if he wanted to be Betterment CEO forever, and he 'was out of ideas of what more to do' as CEO. For her part, Levy hadn't heard of Betterment before she met Stein, and she knew she didn't have experience in the investing industry. Still, the opportunity to grow a retail business into a wealth platform was too exciting to pass up. 'I thought this idea of expanding access to great financial advice was a really exciting idea, but in my mind, it was a brand that was unknown,' Levy said. 'So I thought, here's a great opportunity to build a brand that has great values and an incredible mission.' Her appointment gave some in the investing industry pause, Morningstar analyst Drew Carter said, because her executive experience had not been in investing. 'Investing is a trust business,' Carter said, pointing out that it's been a bit of a longer road for Betterment as they try to reach customers beyond those who are okay with an advisor that's digital-only. Carter said that the company has, under Levy's tenure, worked to improve its transparency with clients on its investment approach. Since taking the helm at the digital investment advisor, Levy has expanded the business beyond its robo-advisor roots. She's 'over the term robo,' she says, because 'it puts the wrong idea in people's minds about the services we provide.' Levy has spent time tweaking Betterment's products, too: Since 2020, Betterment has added the option of accessing human advice where needed and expanded its business-to-business services such as solo 401(k)s and mutual funds. It also replaced its expensive and convoluted cryptocurrency offerings with a more focused and cheaper crypto ETF last year. Levy's peers on Wall Street have been measured in their public statements about the market's tariff-induced swings, though the word 'uncertainty' has been a favored term in April earnings calls. Levy herself acknowledges that her customers are smarting from the whiplash, but she also says that her approach to business strategy is the same as advice to customers – 'by having a balanced portfolio, you weather the storm.' The company has positioned itself to reap different revenue streams from its products in retail, B2B, and tax savings tools. Automated tax-loss harvesting for individual investors—selling losing assets to offset other investing gains to lower taxes—kicks in during an unstable market, Levy says, making up most of the tremendous amount of trading volume the company has seen just this month alone. The platform has so far recorded $3 billion worth of trading in April, a threefold increase of its typical monthly volume. Betterment is now gearing up to introduce some new products and features, including a self-directed investing offering that will let customers buy single stocks at their discretion, Levy says—something that could increase the company's competitiveness with brokerages and other trading platforms, like Vanguard and Robinhood. Despite having never worked directly together, Mnookin credits Levy's leadership so far in the fast-changing markets to her curiosity, a quality of Levy's that she's seen since college. 'There's friends that you love, and they're good people, but you'd never want to work with them,' Mnookin told Forbes. '[Levy] was always one of those who I absolutely would bet a business I cared about on her.'
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Betterment buys automated investing business of Ellevest
US-based robo-advisor Betterment has purchased the automated investing business of compatriot Ellevest, a women-focused company. As part of the acquisition, Betterment will take on Ellevest's automated investing accounts and assets under management. This transfer will be effective on or about 17 April 2025, contingent on certain closing conditions, with clients having the provision to opt out of the transfer. However, Betterment will not absorb the technology, staff, operations, or additional accounts of Ellevest. Ellevest will continue to provide financial planning and wealth management services, focusing on clients with investments of at least $500,000. Ellevest CEO and CIO Dr Sylvia Kwan said: 'As we focus on our growing wealth management and financial planning business, Betterment was the natural home for our digital-first clients. 'On top of automated investing, Betterment offers features that many of our digital clients have expressed interest in, including joint accounts and other cash account options.' Betterment said that the purchase will offer Ellevest clients access to 'tax-smart' tools, as well as 'diversified' portfolios. Additionally, clients will benefit from a variety of account types, educational resources, planning tools, along with human advisors, further noted the company. The latest deal continues Betterment's expansion, following the purchase of Wealthsimple's US advisory accounts in 2021 and Goldman Sachs' Marcus Invest accounts last year. At present, Betterment caters to over 900,000 customers and manages assets exceeding $55bn. Betterment CEO Sarah Levy said: 'This acquisition further cements our leadership in the digital investing space. 'We look forward to welcoming Ellevest's clients to Betterment and to continuing to support them on their wealth-building journeys.' Ellevest is claimed to be the eighth fastest-growing fee-only registered investment advisor in the US. "Betterment buys automated investing business of Ellevest" was originally created and published by Private Banker International, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
