EP 06: The $100 Trillion Blind Spot

What happens when women are excluded from financial conversations during the largest wealth transfer in history?

In this episode, Jackie and Candace explore the $100 trillion “blind spot” known as the widow industry, and why so many women are still financially unprepared when life suddenly changes.

They discuss:
• The importance of women being involved in financial planning
• Why avoiding money conversations creates vulnerability
• How financial literacy becomes a form of empowerment and protection
• What women can do today to take ownership of their financial future

This conversation is a powerful reminder that wealth is not just about money; it’s about identity, confidence, and independence.

🎧 Tune in now and ask yourself: what’s truly worth investing in?

Follow us on Instagram: @wtf_womentalkfinance | Spotify, YouTube & Apple Podcasts: WTF! Women Talk Finance | The Founders Office: foundersoffice.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

I'm Jackie. I'm Candice. And this is WTF.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Grab your coffee, wine, water bottle, emotional support snack, no judgment.

SPEAKER_03 0:10

And let's get into it. Hi. Hi. We're back.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

We are back, baby.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

And better than ever.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

I don't know why I said that. Better than ever. You're in Cabo. You little cutie. I'm warm. Hacienda oven.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

You're gonna notice like the gentle ocean breeze blowing my hair on a very rhythmic pattern, almost as though it's like a fan. This is a cover shoot right now. I love it. I've got, I've got the the instruction was like give me Beyoncé on the shore.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

There it is. There it is. Oh, I've got balloons. I don't know if that's even visible, but I have balloons behind me.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

So what if they were like pulling your hair into this like? I could probably make that happen. Yeah, if we want to go full effect here. Um, if it happens, that's what's going on. I love it. Okay, so today we're talking about wealth transfer and identity. We are talking about a $100 trillion blind spot. What do I mean? The widow industry.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

This was kind of crazy. You and I did some research on this and had like a brief conversation, and then we were like, we need to save this for the pod because there's so many interesting nuggets here. Um there, we we know it's this really heavily talked about thing, at least for my algorithm, the transfer of wealth that is going to be happening. And it's kind of this big number that none of us can really wrap our heads around: $100 trillion.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Well, and we've also talked about other types of transfers are going on, right? Like we do a lot of exit planning and preparation for growth and scale with our clients. And there's like baby boomers leaving huge companies, you know, potentially to next generations, potentially to their kids, or to other private or strategic buyers. Like there's there's huge transfers, a lot of different types of transfers of wealth. But specifically, um today talking about a big conversation that women are being left out of, and it's the largest wealth transfer in history, and women are involved. Um, the women receiving this wealth transfer have been systematically excluded from the conversation. And the real the real risk isn't lack of money, it's lack of inclusion in these conversations, and women can't prepare for this transfer. They're they're not um flailing, they're not failing financially, but they've been left out of rooms where huge financial decisions have been made. Think about family trusts, think about transferring a family business. Um, and so we need to talk about and help give some tips to women on how to prepare for this transfer.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Absolutely. I think when I read a lot of this stuff, I think this was kind of part of the origin of our podcast, even of Women Talk Finance. The idea that women are left out of the room, have been historically left out of the room where the financial discussions are had. Um we want to open up that room. We want to say, no, no, no, no, we have a seat at the table. Not even we have a seat at the table. Bitch, I am the table. Like I am here. Um, we should not only be a part of the conversation, we should be driving the conversation. Um, it's never too late to educate yourself on finances, on your own finances. I have friends who do not know their family's financial health, their household's financial health.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

What does that mean? What does financial health even mean?

SPEAKER_01 4:21

I would say, like, I have friends that do not know necessarily what their net worth is. They don't necessarily know where even all of their assets are. Their spouse makes financial decisions that don't include them. And I have friends my age, I have friends older, I have friends younger, that this is something that is done. On that note, I will say my husband and I do things together and we do things separate. Uh, I don't dictate necessarily all of his financial decisions, nor does he mine. We do include each other, we do structure them in a way that her our trust has all of those succession planning pieces in mind. Um, you know, because if something happens to one of us, and statistically, statistically, women outlive their husbands. So this is a women's issue, just even from the concept of we are likely going to outlive our spouse, our our male spouse, I should say. And so what do we do with that time if we have and and money? And how do we manage that if we have not been involved in the conversations until we kind of have to be?

SPEAKER_03 5:53

Well, and you mentioned people don't know where their assets are at. That's you can if you have a house, you know where your house is at, right? If you've got cars, okay, they're parked in the driveway. The type of assets we're talking about, and going back to maybe husbands or spouses not sharing information with wives and spouses, is investments. Where are your investments? What are they? And if you have a situation where Mr. passes away and Mrs. is left to say, okay, I I I get everything now. What is everything? Where do I even go to find out what we were invested in, what he was invested in? Do you keep a list of your investments? Maybe there's a brokerage account that's got stocks, maybe there's a financial advisor, but it's a lot to process, saying goodbye, grieving, logistical stuff, and being like, if if you live on cash or income from your investments, how do I pay next month's bills if I don't know what those investments are or where they're at or how to find them or who to talk to?

SPEAKER_01 7:06

A lot of people don't want to talk about this stuff because it's uncomfortable. We've discussed that. We have clients who literally don't want to do this level of kind of legacy planning because like our own mortality is not like a bright and sunny fun conversation. It is necessary. It it needs to happen. Um the difficult part about death, and I've I have you know friends who've who've experienced death across the spectrum, right? Not just a maybe a significant other, but parents or even their children. Death is a logistics challenge for everybody you leave behind. And that is one of the most painful things to witness as a bystander, to watch someone you care about having to deal with the logistics, the legal documents, the legal consequences, the financial consequences, the questions, the hunt, the Easter egg hunt of someone else's passing while they're going through this unimaginable, awful time. Um, so the best gift we can do for those we care about is including them in the conversation. I would say step one, if you cannot say that you can access every single account, that you know at least where everything is, that's a great starting point. Get an idea of even what it is that you as a related, and obviously we're talking about a relationship, but this extends beyond that, really. Um, this can be partnerships, this can be you know how whatever your situation.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

I think it's important to talk about things with your siblings. Yes, and yeah, spouse, obviously. If it's shared assets, spouse and children, immediate family, and then siblings. Because if you are going to be the ones receiving, if you're the recipient of estate proceeds, know what's going to be there, have a plan. It's really um, I've seen it divide families too many times. It it absolutely does.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

The next step would be make sure it is set up that if and when something happens, the transfer is painless. There's too many people who get a bank account, and oh, my spouse isn't here. Like, I don't, it's just a pain in the butt, it's on me, but like we were gonna add them eventually, or we meant to put this under our trust, but we never did that, so it's still in my name. Or there's so many times where it's just the easiest course of action is putting it under one of your names. I d it's fine, I dealt with it. And that can actually cause a lot of challenges. You don't just get access to a bank account because it was your spouse's bank account, but you weren't on it. Um, it you actually have to jump through a lot of hopes. So there's a lot of or or a brokerage account or a private investment. That that happens a lot. And I will tell you, being on the other side of things and having, I will say it was, I do not think there was a scenario where it was a husband calling, it was always uh a widow calling because they didn't understand even what they were looking at. That was just I don't know, I got this, I see this paperwork, it's in a file. Can you help me understand? Um, which happy to do, but also like want to go through that stuff in advance.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

You can have a board, investors, advisors, and still have nobody you can actually talk to about what is really going on. That is not unusual, that is the founder reality. And we step in right there. I'm Tom Powell, and at the founder's office, we're proud to sponsor Women Talk Finance.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

There's so some statistics. So over 50 milli or 50 trillion. Sorry, T with a trillion with a T. T. T with a T trillion will first transfer to spouses, primarily women. We think of like this estate, mom and dad's estate, and it goes to the children. That's not the reality. More often than not, husband dies first, so at least half the time, and then 50 trillion of that is going to the the widow. And 80% of those women, 80% of those widows leave their financial advisor within a year. Why? Why? What does that tell you? It's not their relationship. It's not their relationship, and they've probably been surprised and gotten information they weren't pleased with. If I was met with a financial advisor that gave me really pleasing information, pleasing advice, and and I felt like they were my advocate and they were helping me, guiding me, I wouldn't fire them. Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

I'm betting most of those women feel like it was their husband's advisor. Which again, breakdown. This should be, in my opinion, if there's going to be an asset transfer to the spouse, the spouse should be involved and included in the conversations in advance. You you can't, even with where AI is, there's there's probably questions to ask. There's things to know. We can't um do that after somebody passes. Those conversations should be had in advance. Um, so I I think there's there's something really interesting. You're talking about statistics, 70% of married women will outlive their spouses. So, and whether they have been or not, they will become the primary financial decision maker.

SPEAKER_03 13:25

Well, and I want this one to land. Only 48% of widowed women felt financially prepared after losing their spouse. It's about half. Meaning one in two felt that they were okay after leaving their spouse. That leaves the other one in two not feeling prepared. 51% of widowed women end up living paycheck to paycheck after their spouse's death. What? 51% of widowed women end up living paycheck to paycheck after their spouse's death. This is something we have to plan for. And PS, there is an entire industry built around this. So we're up against something that requires real conversation and then real action. You don't build trillion-dollar industries on everyone being informed. You count a little bit on people not being prepared. Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

And the fact that there is such a significant risk of poverty. Like, not like you you became a widow and you lost that income. That you there was you got fine, you had money, but you didn't know maybe enough about it. You didn't know what to do with it. Maybe you you hadn't, it's your first time really managing the money, and there's this increased risk of poverty, like you said, paycheck to paycheck. That is shocking. And the the education starts today, it doesn't start when this happens. And I want to be clear the thing that I think we really saw that was kind of surprising. I think we think of widow, I don't know what your impression is, but my brain went to 80s, you know, a woman in her 80s. Yes. Um the average age of uh a wit of widowhood is 59.

SPEAKER_03 15:37

Okay, that's far from 80. 21 years before 80. Nine. Yeah. And not to say there are plenty of widows that become widows at 35, at 40. Yes. Or younger.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Um, and the average life expectancy is for women is 81.

SPEAKER_03 16:00

Although widowhood is associated with a 48% increase in mortality risk. I'm sure likely because of the stress. Um, being a widow is more severe for men emotionally, but it's more severe for women financially. The stress of that. If we look at, okay, in the state of Mississippi, there's 169,000 widowed residents, which is 14% of the state's population. Guess how many organizations exist to help support them? Four. I was gonna say it's on my hand. 14% of the state's population are served by four active organizations. And you don't know what type of support that is. A lot of times our conversations are about like wealth and the transfer of wealth and the transfer of assets. How do we help women that are in a situation where there aren't investments coming to them? You've all of a sudden lost your husband, you've lost your spouse, you are now a maybe one or a zero-income household. What do you do now? And how do you prepare for that so that the what do you do now isn't as scary and isn't as urgent and isn't as devastating?

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Yeah, I think this is the best that you should have the plan. Get the plan together. I have a question on that, Jackie, because like the what do you do now? I know, I know I am not 59. But I know both my my spouse and I know what happens, where everything is. It is written out, it is it is very clearly spelled out. Not just obviously if one of us goes, but if both of us goes, what that looks like and what the plan is. Um I think the thing I hear from a lot of people, we we, you know, built out our our trust. A lot of people have wills. People have a misconception, I think, about wills and trusts. Yeah, and I think there's a lot of times where people think that they aren't like worthy of a trust or even a will. They're like, I'm not a Rockefeller, all I got is this, this, and this, or I only have this, yeah, and I already signed my house over to my kids, which is not a great way to transfer um financially, or it's just it's not a good way to transfer. What do you think? And and not giving legal advice, but what do you think there, like what do you think the real number is of when you should really start considering more legacy planning, asset protection planning?

SPEAKER_03 18:45

I don't think any number is too small, and let me say more on that. There are a lot of assets and a lot of things that you maybe haven't thought about that have value, and every state has different rules about probate and transfers. If you have children, if you have, if you have a purpose, if you have a place, if it's an animal rescue, if it's a library, if it's something that you care about and you want your stuff, whatever it is, to go there, set something up today to direct it there. And just because you don't have a plane, a train, an automobile, don't because you don't have big things, high-ticket items right now, doesn't mean you won't have something coming to you. Doesn't mean you have something coming to you that you're not aware of. Um, doesn't mean you won't get a fantastic opportunity next week and in two years have a real income stream or a really valuable asset. Um, I think it's yeah, no legal advice involved, but just it's really great to do something today. Put a piece of the puzzle in place today.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Absolutely. I think one of the best things that women could do today is literally ask, without it being too morbid, if I were the only one in charge of our financial life tomorrow, of my financial life tomorrow, what do I need to understand today? What do what's the question I need to ask today? Or what is the thing I need to go pick, go to the library and grab a book on today to educate myself? What is the one expert that I should be contacting today? Um I think it's just too important. The the stats are pretty staggering. Um and the trillion is trillion is a number that most of us, we just kind of it's become a number that we hear that has no real value to it anymore. It is its own economy. That is that's a substantial number. Um, and really important because women tend to then become responsible for everything. We take on a lot of responsibility, and in this particular situation, it's without context, education, or support.

SPEAKER_03 21:31

There's another interesting statistic is that widowers, so men who have been widowed, remarry at a rate of 14 per 1,000 widowers, so 14 in 1,000 people per year. Widows, so females, remarry at just two per 1,000. I think there might be that statistic, I at least I've experienced some flip of that in as far like society. Messaging and understanding and belief, maybe myth. The myth is that women are quicker to remarry because they need support. That's not actually what the statistics show. Men are quicker to remarry. So we've got widows, what excuse me, yeah, widows. I'm getting widowers and widows confused. Widowers and we've got women, we're talking about women, talk about finance, women who have been widowed and they're remarrying at the rate of just two per 1,000 per year. So I guess I don't know. I always think about like if everything goes tomorrow, something really bad happens, I lose all my jobs, I lose all my income, I lose all my opportunities. What is my backup plan? And I'm not trying to be morbid, I'm trying to be smart and strategic. And it's about relying on like, like, what are my skills? What are my talents? What do I have to offer? What do I know I can do? Girl, I can work in the service industry. I have worked at restaurants, I have worked at country clubs. I will hop back on a beverage cart and get around the circuit. Yeah, and I'll pour drinks. Like there are there are things. Don't forget about your skills, don't forget about your past. Don't forget what you know you're capable of, glamorous or not. Glamorous or not.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Well, most women are working now. This is a this is a different time than even it used to be. Most women are, but but our society is built off of having two income streams, right? Like we really do, like most households are a two-income household. Um, so if your home is a two-income household, it's probably time to look at life insurance if you haven't already. Like a great time to start looking into life insurance. You should absolutely have that. Um, and part of that is too thinking through life insurance on your spouse, life insurance on your children, thinking about those things. Do you want to have to go back to work right after a substantial significant loss? Good point. Does that money give you the space and freedom to? I don't think there's any healing in those losses, but to go through the motions without the requirement of going back to work, to go through what it is that your soul and your body and all of those things need to go through without the financial pressure of going back to work. There are life insurance policies that are very affordable that would at least give you time. And it's not just your, like I said, spouse and your children, anybody that you, you know, really you would need to take that bereavement period. I think it's really important to consider that.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

We've also talked about like how we spend and if we got $10 million, would our lifestyle change significantly? And I think the the converse, like the the opposite question. If something financially devastating happened, can you simplify and live smaller? Like, I don't know about you, I'm a goldfish. Meaning, if you give me a goal this big, I am a happy little goldfish. I'll do the best with my space. I don't need much. If you give me a bigger bowl, I'm gonna grow and I'm gonna fill it. And I become like, I'll get the things and I'll fill my space. But I know how to be, I know how to be a smaller goldfish.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

So I think you saw me when I moved to my new tank. I think you saw my new tank when I we up tank. My see my teeny tiny tank to my much larger tank. Yep, we're good at up tanking. And now you would not know that I ever was in a teeny tiny tank.

SPEAKER_03 26:00

But I know, I just don't know enough about you that you could be in a very petite tank and be okay. And I know that about myself too. Um, it would have like there'd maybe be like not much swimming room.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

We're open water fish anyway, so like the tank is here or there.

SPEAKER_03 26:21

I'd be bumping up against walls, my tail and my fins and everything. But I could I could go back to a little petite tank. Yeah. So, and in all seriousness, if I had to, I I know, I know my numbers, I know my budget enough where I know what I have coming in and can meet what needs to go out. And if that needs to change, if the amount coming in needs to change, I can change what goes out, right? And I think that's a good exercise for all of us just to be prepared. It's good adulting, it's good women in finance practices, it's good like acclimate yourself to those exercises and that conversation, and then you get a little breath of like, I could do it. I'm a little more prepared than I was before I did this exercise.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Even a part of that conversation, though, is so one of our conversations, and it's spelled out in our in our documents. Um, this is not just our home, this is our children's home. Yeah. And so the way we structured our trust, the way we structured everything was if something does happen to us, we do want this home to stay a home. It is an asset, but at the end of the day, it's it's our heart and soul went into this for our children. They will already have had a big uproot of a really tragic life-altering event. We do not need them to be moved out of what is their home that holds the memories and things. That's a personal choice that we made. Not everybody's going to agree with that. Some people are like, it's just a house, it's fine, like kids adapt. And that's fine. But that is one of the financial pieces we spelled out. And in that was the mapping of okay, what does that cost? What would we need to allocate? How would that get paid? How do those things happen? What then happens when they turn both, you know, both turn 18? Then we need to, so we really thought through every, and we're not perfect at it by any means, but like we just thought through each asset and really what that plan is, and then we spelled it out and had it put into writing. There's no question about it. Should that have to happen, right?

SPEAKER_03 28:39

I love the thoughtfulness of that, and I'd be curious to know. So, back to that statistic that widowhood is associated with a 40% increase in mortality risk. I have to imagine that that is the emotional toll of not only the grief, but the financial burden and the other burdens that come with all of a sudden having a support and then feeling like you're alone. So I guess my question is if you prepare a little bit and put the put your kids first, or like what whatever it is, whatever your priority is, and you get a little semblance of like, okay, I know that's there. For instance, heaven forbid, if like your spouse were to pass, do you think that the preparation and the planning that you've done to protect those you love would help, would it would help you cope, I guess, with that huge loss?

SPEAKER_01 29:36

I think because for a lot of us, and so you know, we we we do have a lot of conversations about these things. I think it would take the pressure off that I'm making, that all of a sudden now, like, I don't know what to do. I know what to do. We have a plan, I have a plan, it's written down. Even if I weren't necessarily the one driving in in our relationship the financial decisions, having the plan would help. I think when you are used to either one, not making the decisions and just kind of going along with it, or you're making the decisions as a team and you lose your teammate, I think there's this increased sense of isolation because you don't have the person you would be, you know, batting these ideas back and forth with. And so it can feel lonely. And I think that would be physically, mentally, spiritually something very difficult. I can't speak to that having that experience. I am only imagining and having watched people I know go through that. So that would be, I think having the plan would make you feel less alone. Because it was a plan that you came up with with your partner, with your teammate.

SPEAKER_03 30:55

I I totally agree. If you have those conversations, it at least puts a little bit of peace around it. And when they're when they're gone, if you've had the conversations and you have the plan, yes, you're gonna feel the loneliness and like the the grief, of course. The you're gonna have that period of mourning. But if you've had those conversations and you know who the financial advisor is, and they're your financial advisor too, I think you can feel less alone with a plan. You can you can take comfort in knowing, like, okay, Bob and I talked about this. It was really important to him that I felt that I was okay once he was gone. And here we are, he's gone. I know he wanted me. He told me he had this pension, he told me he had this, I've got this coming to me now, and we we had talked about this happening. I'm good. I'm I miss him, you know. I've got the the loneliness, but I don't feel alone. We we planned for this, yeah. So if you're a woman who's not had this conversation yet, how do you how do you start? How do you kick it off?

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Ooh, that's a good one. It's easier for me to have those conversations with my spouse because we've already had these conversations. It's a pattern you've already, it's a regular thing. He's also incredibly um, he's just a very practical guy that's he's like, oh my god, he's he usually actually drives those conversations. One of the things we've done is we've added a bit of humor to it, um, which sounds terrible, but it's how we operate and deal with morbid things. We've made some of the passwords funny things so that when, you know, if that day comes, one of us has to enter in some stupid password that makes us laugh, you know. Um you can write letters that in advance and be kind of silly and cheeky about it. Um so we have like a whole spreadsheet that's literally called the if I die spreadsheet, and it's where kind of a lot of things are held, um, you know, as things evolve and change. Um, and so we've made it a little cheeky to because it's it's you know not the most fun conversation to have. It's it's just not, but it's necessary and it's super duper um critical. It's more important for women. It just is. It's more important that women are having these conversations.

SPEAKER_03 33:30

Yeah, and it's not just about markets or money, it's about what happens when women are excluded from those conversations until they have no choice but to lead them. So I would say don't wait until you have no choice. Um, start and lead those conversations now. Just head into them, open one up.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

We know this is an episode that not everybody's gonna love listening to, but it is an important one. Um we, you know, it's not fun to talk about a widow economy, but we also need to talk about what happens when women are excluded from financial conversations until they have no choice. Um, it's not just inefficiency, it's risk, vulnerability. And really, we want to prevent financial collapse. So, this is the reason WTF exists. This was really some of the core beliefs that we have that we wanted to bring to the table. Um, we're not experts in any one of these categories. We're just bringing the conversation here and saying, we as women, let's talk about it and let's go find the experts. Um, because talking about money isn't optional for women, it's protection, power, and ownership.

SPEAKER_03 34:47

Yeah, and families are dynamic. Women are dynamic. We are not just wives, we are sisters, we are daughters, we are nieces, we are granddaughters.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

And if we're business women, we're we're business people, we're we're executives, we're you know, we're volunteers, we're philanthropists, we're investors. Yes. Baddies with bodies.

SPEAKER_03 35:18

Yeah, so this is about ultimately owning your financial future and your future, period. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Okay, that was today's episode of WTF.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

If you laughed, learned something, or felt a little less alone, make sure you hit follow.

SPEAKER_03 35:41

And send this episode to a friend who might need it. Women don't gatekeep, especially not the good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

We'll be back next week with more real talk, more stories, and probably more over sharing.

SPEAKER_03 35:52

See you next time on WTF.