Women’s Wealth Collective

August 18, 2026

Women are shaping and directing significant wealth.

Their influence reaches across businesses, families, philanthropy, governance, community leadership, and the decisions that determine how capital is created, protected, deployed, and passed on.

Yet historically, wealth conversations have not always reflected that influence. Women may have been present in the room, but too often they were viewed as beneficiaries rather than independent creators, owners, investors, and decision-makers.

That model can no longer meet the demands of this era.

As more assets move into the hands of women through business ownership, executive compensation, liquidity events, inheritance, divorce, widowhood, philanthropy, family enterprise, and generational transition, the advisory experience must evolve with them.

Women are not an emerging wealth segment. They are already powerful financial decision-makers.

The question for the wealth management industry is whether the relationships, advice, and experiences surrounding them reflect that reality.

The Growing Influence of Women and Wealth 

The numbers make the scale of this shift clear.

Cerulli Associates projects that approximately $124 trillion will transfer through 2048, including $54 trillion expected to move first through inter-spousal transfers, more than 95% of which is expected to go to women.¹ McKinsey & Company has similarly found that women currently control about one-third of all retail financial assets in the United States and European Union, with that share expected to rise to 40% to 45% by 2030.²

31% — Share of senior leadership roles in the U.S. held by women³

$124 Trillion — Wealth projected to transfer through 2048¹

39.2% — Share of U.S. businesses owned by women⁴

This is not simply a demographic trend. It represents one of the most consequential changes in the future of wealth.

But the transfer of assets is only part of the story.

Women are building companies, funding ideas, supporting families, shaping communities, influencing governance, expanding philanthropy, preparing the next generation, and defining legacy on their own terms.

As their financial influence grows, the more important question becomes not simply how much wealth women will control, but what they will choose to do with it.

The Decisions Behind the Numbers

Wealth rarely exists in isolation. It intersects with responsibility, identity, family, leadership, ownership, and legacy.

A woman managing equity compensation may also be preparing for a liquidity event, caring for aging parents, guiding children into financial responsibility, and evaluating philanthropic commitments. A founder may be considering a business transition while navigating family governance and succession. An inheritor may suddenly assume responsibility for significant assets while still processing the loss or life change that brought her into that role.

These are not simply investment decisions. They are interconnected financial and personal decisions that can shape businesses, families, employees, communities, and future generations.

Yet they do not always surface in a traditional advisory meeting.

Serving women well requires conversations that move beyond what someone owns to understand what she is responsible for, what she is building, what she is protecting, and what she wants her wealth to make possible.

That distinction matters.

A portfolio can be managed independently. A financial life cannot.

The role of a trusted financial partner is therefore not simply to manage assets efficiently. It is to help create clarity around interconnected decisions and bring the right expertise to the table when those decisions extend across investments, banking, lending, business ownership, estate planning, philanthropy, family, and legacy.

A Different Kind of Wealth Conversation

As more women assume authority over capital, companies, families, philanthropy, and legacy, the advisory experience must reflect the way those decisions are actually made.

That requires more than products and services.

It requires access to expertise, candid conversations, thoughtful questions, and opportunities to learn from others navigating similarly complex decisions.

The strongest advisory relationships create room for questions that may not fit neatly into a portfolio review:

• How should a liquidity event change the broader financial plan?
• How should family members be prepared for future responsibility?
• What does a successful business transition look like beyond the transaction itself?
• How can philanthropy, family, and legacy reflect what someone values?
• How should newly inherited wealth fit into a financial life that already exists?
• These questions require technical expertise, but they also require context and trust.

The institutions that serve women well will recognize both.

Why First Western Trust 

This philosophy is reflected within First Western Trust itself.

Women serve across the organization, from the C-suite and executive committee to market leadership, portfolio management, private banking, and senior advisory roles. Across First Western Trust’s Mountain West footprint, they provide leadership and comprehensive advice to clients navigating complex financial lives.

That leadership also extends to First Western Financial, Inc., the parent company of First Western Trust Bank. Women serve on the company’s Board of Directors, including Julie Caponi, Julie Courkamp, and Ellen S. Robinson, while Julie Courkamp serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of First Western Trust Bank.⁶ ⁷

That representation is notable within a broader market context. As of 2025, women held 30.1% of Russell 3000 board seats, while women represented approximately one-third of S&P 500 board seats.⁸ ⁹

For First Western Trust, women’s financial leadership is not simply a market trend or an audience to reach. It is already part of how our organization operates.

The opportunity is to extend that experience outward.

That is the purpose behind First Western Trust’s Women’s Wealth Collective.

The Collective is built on a simple belief: women navigating significant wealth should have access not only to sophisticated financial expertise, but also to an environment where they can ask meaningful questions, exchange perspectives, and engage candidly with the decisions shaping their financial lives.

It brings dynamic women together to learn from one another and connect with First Western Trust experts around the financial decisions that accompany wealth, ownership, leadership, family, and legacy.

A founder preparing for a liquidity event may have different questions from an executive managing equity compensation. A widow navigating newly inherited assets may have different priorities from a daughter assuming responsibility for family wealth or a philanthropist defining her legacy.

What connects them is not a particular product, life stage, or definition of wealth.

It is the complexity and consequence of the decisions they are making.

The Collective creates a place for those conversations.

At its core, it is designed to help women engage with wealth from a position of agency, clarity, and confidence.

It is not outreach aimed at women from the outside. It is a relationship platform built around their questions, experiences, ambitions, and priorities.

That is the purpose behind First Western Trust’s Women’s Wealth Collective.

The Collective is built on a simple belief: women navigating significant wealth should have access not only to sophisticated financial expertise, but also to an environment where they can ask meaningful questions, exchange perspectives, and engage candidly with the decisions shaping their financial lives.

It brings dynamic women together to learn from one another and connect with First Western Trust experts around the financial decisions that accompany wealth, ownership, leadership, family, and legacy.

A founder preparing for a liquidity event may have different questions from an executive managing equity compensation. A widow navigating newly inherited assets may have different priorities from a daughter assuming responsibility for family wealth or a philanthropist defining her legacy.

What connects them is not a particular product, life stage, or definition of wealth.

It is the complexity and consequence of the decisions they are making.

The Collective creates a place for those conversations.

At its core, it is designed to help women engage with wealth from a position of agency, clarity, and confidence.

It is not outreach aimed at women from the outside. It is a relationship platform built around their questions, experiences, ambitions, and priorities.

The Standard for the Next Era of Wealth

The future of wealth will increasingly be shaped by women. The financial industry does not need to wait for that future to arrive. It is already here.

The opportunity is not simply to speak more often about women and wealth. It is to build advisory relationships worthy of the influence women already hold.

For First Western Trust, the Women’s Wealth Collective is one way of putting that belief into practice through expertise, education, access, shared perspective, and meaningful relationships.

Because significant wealth is not only something to be accumulated, preserved, or transferred.

It is something to be directed with intention toward the businesses, families, communities, opportunities, and legacies women are building.

And the next era of wealth will be shaped not simply by who holds capital, but by what they choose to make possible with it.

Sources 

1. Cerulli Associates. “$54 Trillion Will Transfer to Widows Through 2048; More Than 95% Will Go to Women.” January 22, 2025. 

2. McKinsey & Company. “The New Face of Wealth: The Rise of the Female Investor.” May 8, 2025. 

3. Grant Thornton. “Women in Business 2026: The Value of Visibility.” U.S. insight. March 3, 2026. 

4. WIPP Education Institute. “The 2025 Impact of Women-Owned Businesses.” Commissioned by Wells Fargo. January 2025. 

5. First Western Financial, Inc. “Investor Relations.” 

6. First Western Financial, Inc. “Board of Directors.” Investor Relations. 

7. First Western Financial, Inc. “Leadership Team.” Investor Relations. 

8. 50/50 Women on Boards. “2025 Gender Diversity Index Annual Report.” 
   
9. Altrata. “Gender Diversity in Corporate America 2025.” August 21, 2025. 

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