DEI trailblazer says women aren’t a niche — they’re the market

When Cary Carbonaro walked on stage to accept the DEI Trailblazer of the Year accolade at the InvestmentNews Awards last year, she says the honor felt both validating and slightly misframed.

While the industry still talks about women primarily through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion, she argues that view is increasingly at odds with the reality of who will control wealth in the years ahead.

“I don’t see women as DEI,” Carbonaro told InvestmentNews. “To me, they’re the market, not the minority.”

Carbonaro, a veteran advisor and long‑time advocate for women in wealth, has spent years pushing firms to rethink how they design services, build leadership teams, and measure success. In her mind, the trailblazer award and accolades like it are more than just a chance to take a victory lap.

“Awards are wonderful, but they’re definitely not the finish line,” she said. “They’re a spotlight on you. ...You need to pull more people into the room, not just celebrate the fact that you made it.”

The 80-20 split: a challenge for women's representation

Across the industry, she sees more women entering advisory roles, sitting for exams, and building careers in wealth. But Carbonaro said that headline progress masks a stubborn structural issue in the makeup of the profession.

“We’ve made a little bit of progress, but not enough and not fast enough,” she said. “We’re still about 80–20, meaning 80% men and 20% women in the industry, which has not really changed that much over time.”

In her view, part of the problem is that older male advisors are not exiting the business at the same rate younger women are entering, making the gender divide that much harder to close.

Beyond the aggregate numbers, Carbonaro sees an issue with where women actually sit inside firms. Within the 20% who are women, she said too few are firm owners, rainmakers, or senior producers, with estimates suggesting less than one‑twentieth of women in the business occupy those positions of power at larger firms or in leadership.

“That is a number I would really love to change the most,” she said, clarifying that while support roles are important, they don't confer the same level of autonomy. "You can dictate your life and have more freedom and choices when you’re the one bringing in the money and the clients ... There’s a lot of power in that.”

Women as a business priority, not a side quest

Carbonaro argues that RIAs and broker-dealers who treat women as a DEI box to check miss the reality of where assets are going. To her, the framing of “women in wealth” as primarily a moral or reputational issue undersells the stakes.

With more women taking the driver's seat in the wealth space – one recent Citizens Wealth survey estimates women will control $34 trillion in investable assets in the US by 2030 – she believes firms that fail to adapt service models to women risk losing the next wave of household relationships altogether.

“If women are the future of wealth management clients and women want to be served differently, then the playbook that worked for the men is not going to work for the women,” she said. With that in mind, Carbonaro wrote Women and Wealth:  A Playbook to Empower Clients and Unlock their Fortune, an authoritative guide aimed at teaching the industry how to serve women effectively.

From her perspective, firms have to go beyond performative tactics like marketing campaigns or themed events, which means fundamentally rethinking how advice is delivered. As of now, she is cautiously optimistic that more leaders now see this as an economic imperative rather than a talking point.

Financial literacy in the age of AI

Carbonaro also sees the ground shifting under advisors on basic financial literacy. What used to mean going through budgeting, saving, and simple investing has become more complex, driven by algorithmic feeds as well as a wider universe of investment options.

“Now it means knowing how to navigate complexity and noise with AI‑driven content, social media influencers, and access to alternatives,” she said. "I always say there’s no way to get rich quick — only get rich slow. But nobody is going to care or click on that."

On the digital side, Carbonaro asserted that the problem is not necessarily with the technology itself, but the false confidence clients can bring into planning conversations after talking to a chatbot or seeing advice from viral creators. People are “getting answers quickly," but not ones that consider their actual life, balance sheet, or family situation.

"My clients hear 'private equity' or 'private credit,' and assume that it’s smarter or safer," she said. "Today, literacy has to cover liquidity, fees, and time horizons, and how these can fit or not fit into your plan." 

A moment in time for DEI

With respect to DEI, Carbonaro argued that the label is “out of favor right now” in some parts of the US. Her recognition as a DEI trailblazer landed in a moment of political backlash, where support for such programs is being challenged or rolled back across different states and institutions.

"Our president is taking away DEI mandates and awards, and anybody who’s doing it doesn’t get funding. It's a very difficult spot, just to call it that," she said. "I almost feel like we need a new name ... It needs a brand refresh."

As Carbonaro sees it, accolades like hers "set a standard and shape what the industry celebrates." When awards highlight growth, leadership, client impact, innovation, and DEI, they “signal to the market: this is what excellence looks like.

"It’s important that our industry is not insular. These awards need to create visibility, especially for people who might not get the microphone," she said. "These awards create community [and] raise the bar for the profession ... I think it's very good for the industry, good for the clients, and good for the next generation of advisors."

Nominations are now open for the 2026 InvestmentNews Awards to be held at the Edison Ballroom in New York. For more details, visit the official site here.

InvestmentNews Awards is one of the top RIA conferences happening in the USA in 2026 to grow your business and improve client outcomes.