Capgemini: Driving Change for Female Investors

Finance is, unfortunately, still seen as a bit of a men’s club.

Out of the top banks on Forbes’ Global 2000 list, only one has a female CEO: Dame Jane Fraser. 

Earning the nickname the Queen of Wall Street, she is the first woman to lead a major US bank. This was announced as recently as 2021.

Add that to the statistic that, according to research from Bain & Co, Nationwide and Cambridge Judge Business School, only 8% of women are CEOs of FTSE 350 companies despite making up 36% of leadership roles, and you get the view of a larger, bleaker picture. 

Over the coming decades, trillions of dollars in wealth will change hands across generations.

Many women face distinct structural barriers that limit their full participation in wealth management strategies.

What can companies do to tackle these barriers and distribute a bit of equity at the table? 

Consulting firms are actively analysing industry dynamics to help wealth managers prepare for future market demands. Capgemini, a global leader in technology and business transformation services, tracks these capital shifts closely.

Jeannette Martin serves as the Head of Wealth and Asset Management Consulting for North America at Capgemini. “I lead Capgemini’s Asset and Wealth Management advisory practice for North America and have spent over two decades of my career advising C-suite and senior executives across financial services,” Jeannette reveals in an exclusive interview with Finance Chief.

She explains that the industry is facing a critical turning point as demographic shifts intersect with rapid technological advances.

According to the company’s World Wealth Report 2025, an estimated 70% of transferred wealth will move directly to women.

This shift makes female investors a central driver of future market growth and portfolio management strategies. Despite this upcoming transfer of capital, women remain criminally underrepresented as active investors and advisory professionals – industry leaders must understand the root causes of this inequality to capture the emerging market opportunity.

Understanding the structural barriers facing female investors

Income inequality remains a foundational hurdle to equal participation in personal investment and wealth building.

Lower average earnings often reduce the capital women have available to deploy into market instruments, and this financial gap shapes investor confidence and how accessible complex asset classes feel.

Jeannette notes that income differences drive ongoing gender disparities in overall market participation and investment knowledge.

Beyond these structural financial barriers, interpersonal bias within financial institutions presents a major obstacle for female clients.

Investment professionals have historically catered primarily to male head-of-household clients, creating exclusionary communication norms.

"The majority have been men, with many presuming that men are the investors," Jeannette says. This dynamic frequently leaves female decision-makers sidelined during strategic financial planning discussions.

Unexamined assumptions about risk tolerance also distort how financial advisors present investment choices to women.

Many relationship managers wrongly assume female clients are uniformly risk-averse or financially illiterate, and research suggests these negative interactions are actually worsening rather than improving over time.

A 2023 study by insurance provider New York Life highlighted widespread patronising behaviour from financial advisors.

Jeannette explains that almost half of women report facing systemic inequalities when trying to access investment services, and she notes that female clients increasingly feel treated differently than their male counterparts.

Addressing these issues requires financial institutions to recruit and promote more female wealth management advisors, since female clients often prefer working with advisors who understand their specific life goals and financial circumstances.

While entry-level hiring of women in financial services has increased, front-office and leadership representation remains low, so wealth management firms must create clearer pathways for women to reach C-suite roles.

Transforming wealth management through diversity and alternative assets

Having female leaders in senior management provides essential role models while driving client-centric strategy changes.

Firms that fail to adapt risk losing client assets during intergenerational wealth transfers, which is why companies must also modernise their product offerings to align with evolving investor preferences.

Capgemini's approach starts with attention to what the future of wealth management looks like. Jeannette explains that this could be "an industry more focused on women and the next-generation due to the great wealth transfer; AI-enabling personalisation at scale and a frictionless experience for advisors and clients; and wealth management becoming a holistic, life-integrated advisory service provider for HNW and UHNW clients."

"Our approach is to serve as an end-to-end advisor and implementation partner for wealth managers to prepare for this next era," she notes.

Technological infrastructure plays a critical role here too, and wealth managers are increasingly deploying cloud computing and application programming interfaces to streamline administrative processes.

Application programming interfaces, or APIs, allow different software systems to communicate and share data seamlessly, enabling advisors to deliver near real-time insights to clients across multiple digital channels.

Jeannette adds that financial firms see immense promise in deploying specialised AI software to handle routine tasks.

"Financial services firms are significantly investing in AI and see the promise of creating an agentic AI workforce," Jeannette says.

Agentic AI refers to autonomous software systems capable of executing complex, multi-step workflows without continuous human intervention — managing client onboarding, market research and regulatory reporting functions efficiently.

By automating back-office workflows, advisors gain more time to build direct relationships with female investors, and personalised service models are essential for establishing long-term trust with next-generation asset owners.

Preparing wealth managers for the upcoming digital era

Many wealth management firms struggle to implement new technologies effectively across their operations, and questions remain around optimal capital allocation, software procurement and system integration strategies.

Jeannette notes that many firms choose to remain fast followers rather than early tech adopters, often waiting to evaluate competitor outcomes before committing significant capital to digital transformation.

To succeed, companies must align technological upgrades directly with their overall commercial strategy and change management practices.

Firms that build robust data foundations will be best positioned to serve female investors efficiently.

Education and proactive outreach represent another vital area where companies can drive meaningful industry inclusion — for instance, by hosting targeted workshops that demystify complex market concepts like tokenisation and digital assets.

Tokenisation involves converting rights to an asset into a digital token registered on a blockchain network, enabling fractional ownership and faster settlement times for illiquid investment products.

As financial markets evolve toward continuous trading schedules, investor education becomes increasingly crucial, and companies that empower female investors through transparent communication will capture market share as capital shifts accelerate.

Ultimately, the future of wealth management depends on an industry-wide commitment to eliminating systemic gender biases, and executives must ensure their organisation's client service strategies reflect the changing demographics of global wealth.

"Focus should be on understanding the real business challenge and how technology can solve it, in a way that is differentiating the market," Jeannette concludes.