Opinion: By Thomas Brennan
South African women are expected to control more family wealth as they live longer than men, but many investment firms still treat them as secondary clients.
South Africa’s wealth management industry was largely built by men, for men.
For decades, the assumption was simple: the client was a man, his adviser was a man and the person managing his money was a man too.
Women make up only about 15% of financial advisers in South Africa.
According to the Citywire Alpha Female Report 2025, just 12% of portfolio managers are women. Funds managed exclusively by women control only 6% of the industry’s assets.
This imbalance is not an accident.
Women have historically earned less, taken career breaks to raise children or care for relatives, and encountered an industry that built its products and language around the male breadwinner.
Terms such as “outperform” and “aggressive growth” were designed by men for men.
Women have often been treated as an afterthought in their husbands’ finances instead of owners of wealth in their own right.
But technology is starting to change this.
Digital investment platforms have removed some of the industry’s traditional barriers, including golf-course connections, high minimum balances and the need for a broker’s approval.
At Franc, 65% of investors are women.
When investing becomes accessible and easier to understand, more women get involved.
Another major change is coming through the transfer of family wealth.
South African women live longer than men. Statistics South Africa estimates life expectancy at 69.6 years for women and 64 years for men.
This means wives are more likely to outlive their husbands and inherit family wealth before it passes to the next generation.
That creates a serious risk for wealth management firms that built relationships only with husbands.
International studies suggest many widows change financial advisers after their husbands die, although the frequently quoted figure of 70% is disputed.
The reason is often not poor investment performance. It is that the adviser never built a meaningful relationship with the wife.
Copying someone into an email is not the same as including them in the conversation.
The firms that survive this shift will hire and promote more women, design advice around women’s real financial lives and speak to women as clients in their own right.
Those that do not may watch women leave with their inherited portfolios.
Thomas Brennan is CEO and co-founder of Franc, a digital wealth adviser.
This article was first published on Currency News and has been adapted by the author for Scrolla.
Pictured above: A woman looking at finance documents.
Image source: Pexels
