Wealth managers that treat tax planning as a side service risk losing affluent women clients, according to new BlackRock research and advisors who say the fix starts with how firms are built.
BlackRock's inaugural 2026 Future of Wealth study found that more than one in four women who already work with an advisor plan to switch within two years because their tax needs are going unmet. Research firm Escalent fielded the survey for BlackRock among 1,067 affluent and high-net-worth women investors and 409 financial advisors across the U.S.
The disconnect runs deeper than taxes. Women named growing their wealth as their top financial priority, while the advisors surveyed believed it ranked eighth and put preserving wealth first. Some 41% of women said better tax outcomes were a priority, compared with 12% of advisors who saw it as a key client concern.
That gap shows up in portfolio construction. In BlackRock's separate 2026 Advisor Trends Survey, 92% of advisors serving high-net-worth clients said they are frequently asked for tax guidance, yet only 17% said after-tax returns – what a client keeps once taxes are paid – are a primary driver of their portfolio decisions.
The untapped market is large. Nearly 40% of affluent women have no advisor at all, a share that rises to 45% among women with $10 million or more, according to BlackRock's broader findings on the advice gap. InvestmentNews asked advisors why the disconnect persists and what firms need to change.
Laura Combs, executive managing partner and head of Women & Wealth at Mercer Advisors, said the industry still underestimates how involved women already are. Many have managed the household's finances for years, from cash flow to bill paying to budgeting, and investing is a natural extension of those skills. Women are also building wealth on their own, Combs said, noting they make up 46% of U.S. entrepreneurs.
The problem, she said, is structural. Many families rely on outside tax professionals who are not part of the broader financial plan, and coordinating all of them is difficult. When tax work is siloed, the advice tends to arrive after decisions have already been made rather than before.
"Having tax professionals in-house helps us meet women where they are. We're helping them with their time by taking something off their plate and off their list. They don't need to coordinate another relationship," Combs said.
For firms trying to win and retain these clients, Combs said the first step is making sure the woman is part of the conversation from the first meeting – not an observer in her spouse's relationship.
"Many women tell us they were sidelined by a spouse's advisor, and the industry research shows about 70% leave within a year of losing a spouse, so the relationship has to be with her. Then bring tax, investing and estate planning together so she isn't project-managing four separate professionals. Build real depth in her situation, whether she is a business owner, a widow, a divorcee or an inheritor, and explain the why in plain language. Add a community of peers, and she has a reason to stay long after the first meeting," Combs said.
Retention after a spouse's death has been a long-running weak spot for the profession, and InvestmentNews has covered how advisors can better support newly widowed clients through that transition. BlackRock's data suggests the risk is not confined to widowhood: 35% of advised women surveyed said they plan to switch advisors within two years because they want more coordinated advice.
Raj Doshi, president and chief operating officer of New York-based tax technology firm April, agreed the Great Wealth Transfer deserves a central place in every firm's strategy. But he argued that career earnings and equity compensation are the largest source of wealth creation for women, which means advisors cannot afford to wait for inheritances to land.
BlackRock's research points the same way: 79% of the women surveyed said salary or career earnings contributed most to their wealth, while 27% credited inheritances and gifts.
Doshi said firms should be delivering holistic, tax-optimized guidance today. That approach can generate immediate tax alpha – the added return that comes from reducing what a client loses to taxes – and build the trust that will matter as assets change hands over the coming years. To be taken seriously by high-earning and high-net-worth women, he said, firms must invest in their tax capabilities.
"This means delivering tax filing, planning, and insights capabilities by investing in software, data integrations, and tax professionals that together can deliver the holistic guidance that women demand," Doshi said.
Much of the industry is already moving in that direction. Schwab's latest RIA Benchmarking Study found that 88% of firms with $250 million or more in assets offer tax planning and strategy services, while 26% offer tax preparation, as InvestmentNews reported when April added IRS tax data to its platform in August 2026.
Cameron Rogers, a partner at Angeles Wealth Management, goes further. She called the Great Wealth Transfer the wrong headline – real, but a passive story that frames women as people money happens to.
"Women already control about a third of U.S. household financial assets, drive an estimated 80% of consumer decisions, make up about 39% of angel investors, and 78% of women ages 25 to 54 are in the workforce. They are earning, building, and deciding long before any inheritance arrives," Rogers said.
In her view, affluent women are not a segment to accommodate but operators who already run companies and households. She noted that women own more than 40% of U.S. businesses. The question for advisors, Rogers said, is how to serve clients who are used to being in charge.
"It starts with meeting women where they are, physically and emotionally. Early in my career I watched an advisor try to expense a nail appointment with her client, a space where they genuinely connected and talked about money, and her manager shut it down. He'd never have blinked at a steakhouse dinner. That was the 'aha' for me: it isn't that women don't want to talk about money, it's that the system rarely builds spaces and modes that work for them," Rogers said.
She added: "Many women do their best thinking on a walk, over coffee, or yes, getting their nails done, at times that don't collide with care responsibilities."
Rogers said the makeup of the advisory team matters just as much. As of the end of 2025, 53% of Angeles' partners, 69% of its employees and 58% of its investment team were diverse, according to the firm.
"When a woman sees her own perspective represented on the team, the relationship holds through life's transitions," she said.
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