Women in the UK are on the cusp of a financial revolution. By the end of this year, projections suggest they’ll control 60% of the nation’s wealth—a seismic shift driven by inheritance and entrepreneurship. Beneath this milestone, women are still sidelined when it comes to investing. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) reports that just 13% of women held a stocks and shares ISA in 2022, compared to 22% of men. So, as women’s wealth swells, are wealth firms doing enough to help them grow it? The evidence suggests they’ve barely scratched the surface.
Jurgen Vandenbroucke, managing director of everyoneINVESTED, sits down with FinTech Global to offer his expert insights on the topic.
A former general manager at KBC Group and a lecturer in financial engineering and behavioural finance, Vandenbroucke is a man who straddles the worlds of high finance and academia with ease.
Touching on the enormity of the subject, he leans forward and declares: “We are on a mission to get everyone invested, which of course is by definition a very inclusive goal, because it includes the young and the old, the less financially literate and the more financially literate, and yes, men and women.”
A Different Approach to Risk
Vandenbroucke’s work at everyoneINVESTED offers a window into the distinct needs of women investors.
“And yes, we do find that, on average, women balance risk and reward differently than men,” he says, citing research across France, Italy, and the UK.
“Our research in different countries confirms academic findings that women are more risk-averse than men. In other words, men tend to be more risk tolerant and even overconfident.”
Yet, Vandenbroucke cautions against overgeneralisation, saying, “You can drown in a river that is 1 meter deep on average. Within each group there is a large dispersion around the average, so there is a lot of diversity within each group.”
This wariness matters, because the reality is stark as women’s apparent aversion to risk often reflects cold, hard circumstance rather than mere disposition.
Lower earnings, fractured careers, and a savings shortfall at retirement age force a sharper focus on security over speculation. For instance, women’s private pension wealth at age 55 is 35% less than men’s, based on 2018/20 data.
Barriers to Entry
So why aren’t more women investing? The barriers are legion: uncertainty about where to begin, a lingering sense of exclusion, and the blunt fact of having less to play with due to the stubborn chasm that is the gender pay gap.
Per the Office for National Statistics, women earned 7.7% less than men among full-time UK workers in April 2023.
With this in mind, many women, tethered to modest means, cling to the familiarity of cash savings—however inflation gnaws away at their value—rather than braving the stock market’s choppy waters.
A 2024 Aviva report found that 35% of women invest in cash ISAs compared to just 17% in stocks and shares ISAs.
Vandenbroucke sees this as a failure of engagement. “At everyoneINVESTED, we place the relationship between the investor and the investment in a digital context,” he explains.
“From investor onboarding to investment proposal and portfolio reporting, we focus on technology that addresses the emotional component of investing without the need for human encouragement or advisor assistance. This not only reduces operational costs and improves the scalability of investment services, but also includes a relentless focus on client needs and preferences across the board.”
Room for Improvement
If wealth firms want to tap into this growing market, they’ll need to rethink their approach.
Vandenbroucke urges a shift from one-size-fits-all products to nuanced profiling, “Our advice to partner banks is to install an enhanced and refined profiling tool that captures client preferences in detail, rather than making a priori statements simply because the investor is a woman or a man.”
The need is pressing, with too many women still finding the financial world opaque and unwelcoming, their instincts for sustainable choices ignored, their hesitancy met with impatience rather than insight.
A 2024 Finder survey unveiled that 42% of women have invested at some point, up from 32% in 2023, yet 60% of men have.
Bridging this gap demands not just better tools but a fundamental shift in attitude—listening harder, explaining clearer, and meeting investors where they stand.
High Stakes
Looking ahead, a vast transfer of wealth looms on the horizon, and failing to adapt could mean failure to survive for many firms. Hargreaves Lansdown estimates women are set to inherit 70% of global wealth over the next two generations.
The guise that the future should hold is clear according to Vandenbroucke, “When it comes to investor preferences, there are of course regulatory requirements that need to be met. In this context, we talk about suitability assessment in general or refer to the MiFID regulation in Europe. Many may see this as just another regulatory requirement. We see it as an essential part of building a long-term relationship with investors.”
As we wrap up, he adds, “Our innovative solution is based on user interaction and draws on behavioural finance insights to quantify multiple, complementary aspects of investor preferences when it comes to balancing risk and reward.”
It’s a mantra wealth firms would do well to adopt—because if they don’t, women’s wealth may flow elsewhere, and the gap they’ve long lamented will only widen.
Keep up with all the latest FinTech news here
Copyright © 2025 FinTech Global
