Women Financial Advisors | Women & Wealth Planning Team

Women are controlling more wealth than ever before — and increasingly, they're seeking advisors who understand the financial realities that shape their lives. Bouchey Financial Group built its Women & Wealth initiative around exactly that premise: that women deserve financial guidance tailored to their goals, life stages, and long-term priorities — delivered by a team that includes CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals, CPAs, and a Certified Private Wealth Advisor®.

The firm's advisory team includes Harmony Wagner, CFP®, CPWA®; Samantha Masey, CFP®; and Catherine Buck, CFP® — women advisors who bring both credentials and firsthand understanding to the financial challenges their clients face. With a $500K minimum, the firm works with clients who have accumulated meaningful wealth and need planning that reflects that complexity.

Why Women Seek Women Financial Advisors

The reasons women seek female advisors are well-documented and go beyond preference. Research from the European Central Bank found that only 15% of women have high financial literacy, compared to 27% of men — a gap that shapes how women engage with financial institutions and how they respond to traditional advisory approaches. When financial advice is delivered in a way that feels inaccessible or impersonal, many women disengage entirely.

A female advisor with deep credentials doesn't just close a knowledge gap — she changes the dynamic of the advisory relationship itself. Women clients are more likely to share the full picture of their financial lives, ask more questions, and engage more actively in planning when they feel genuinely understood by their advisor.

The Confidence Gap Is Real.

According to Aberdeen PLC research, only 35% of women feel confident making financial decisions, compared to 49% of men. That confidence gap has direct consequences: delayed investing, underutilized retirement accounts, and deferred wealth-building decisions that compound in cost over time. 

Advisors who communicate clearly, educate consistently, and build trust over time can meaningfully shift that dynamic — which is the foundation of Bouchey's Women & Wealth approach.

The Financial Challenges Women Actually Face

Women's financial lives are shaped by structural realities that generic wealth management rarely addresses. The OECD gender wage gap data shows that women earn less on average than men across most industries — a gap that directly reduces lifetime savings capacity, Social Security benefits, and retirement account accumulation. Planning that doesn't account for these dynamics produces strategies that don't reflect real life.

Career interruptions for caregiving, longer average life expectancy, and a higher likelihood of managing finances alone later in life all create planning considerations specific to women. These aren't peripheral concerns — for many clients, they are the central organizing factors of a long-term financial plan.

Social Security and the Earnings Gap

Because Social Security benefits are calculated based on lifetime earnings, the gender wage gap has a direct and lasting effect on retirement income. Women who took career breaks or worked part-time during caregiving years may find their projected benefits meaningfully lower than expected. Understanding this gap early — and planning around it through other income sources — is one of the more impactful conversations a financial planner can initiate.

Structural Barriers to Wealth Building

The OECD report on bridging the finance gap for women found that women receive significantly less access to capital and funding than men — a structural barrier that affects both entrepreneurs and investors. At the individual level, research from Banca d'Italia found that women are more likely to opt out of answering financial questions altogether — a pattern linked to lower financial literacy and confidence, not capability. An education-first advisory approach helps close that gap over time.

Why Tax Expertise Matters for Women's Wealth Planning

Tax strategy is one of the most underleveraged tools in women's financial planning. Income variability across a career — including years of reduced earnings or career pauses — creates a shifting tax picture that affects everything from Roth conversion windows to Social Security optimization. Bouchey Financial Group's 3 in-house CPAs work alongside CFP® professionals to model these scenarios as part of an integrated plan, not as a year-end afterthought.

For women navigating divorce, inheritance, or a late-career income peak, the intersection of tax planning and investment strategy is where the most consequential decisions tend to cluster. Having CPAs and CFP® professionals on the same team means those decisions are evaluated together — not handed off between separate firms with no shared context.

Tax Planning Across Life Transitions

Women are statistically more likely than men to experience major financial transitions — divorce, widowhood, a career shift, or the receipt of an inheritance — that each carry distinct tax implications. Bouchey's integrated team approach means that when a client's financial picture changes, the tax and investment strategy updates in tandem. The Investment Management services at Bouchey Financial Group are built around this kind of coordinated, transition-aware planning.

Women Investors Are a Growing Force

According to Saxo Bank's 2026 analysis of women in investing, female investing participation is growing rapidly and closing the historical gap with male investors. Women now control a significant and rising share of household financial assets in the United States — a trend that makes specialized, high-quality financial guidance more relevant, not less.

The OECD's report on empowering women through financial education confirms that systemic gender differences in financial outcomes are addressable through education, access, and tailored advisory relationships — exactly the model Bouchey's Women & Wealth initiative is built around.

What to Look for in a Women's Wealth Planning Team

Credentials matter. A financial advisor working with high-net-worth women should hold recognized designations — CFP®, CPA, or CPWA® — and be held to a fiduciary standard that legally requires them to act in the client's best interest. Fee-only compensation eliminates the commission-driven product recommendations that can erode trust and misalign advice.

Equally important is whether the team has genuine depth across the disciplines that affect women's financial lives: tax planning, estate planning, investment management, and long-term income modeling.

A Team Built Around Women's Financial Goals

Bouchey Financial Group's Women & Wealth team — Harmony Wagner, CFP®, CPWA®; Samantha Masey, CFP®; and Catherine Buck, CFP® — brings both technical expertise and a relationship-driven advisory model to clients navigating every stage of financial life. Backed by in-house CPAs and a full planning team, they work with women building wealth, protecting assets, and planning for long-term independence.

Meet the full Bouchey Financial Group team and explore the credentials and specializations behind the firm's Women & Wealth approach.

Contact Bouchey Financial Group to schedule a conversation with an advisor who understands where you are — and where you want to go.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do women financial advisors produce better outcomes for female clients? 

Research consistently shows that women investors who work with advisors they trust and communicate well with are more likely to stay invested through market volatility, engage more actively in their financial planning, and report higher satisfaction with their outcomes. A Bruegel policy brief on financial knowledge in the EU identified an approximately 18 percentage-point gap in financial knowledge between men and women — a gap that a skilled, education-focused advisor can meaningfully help address over time.

What financial planning issues are most specific to women? 

Women tend to face a distinct set of planning considerations: a longer average life expectancy that requires retirement assets to last further, a higher likelihood of experiencing widowhood or divorce, and career patterns that may include interruptions affecting Social Security benefit calculations and retirement account accumulation. These are not edge cases — they are common realities that a comprehensive financial plan should account for from the start.

How does longevity affect retirement planning differently for women? 

Women in the United States have a longer average life expectancy than men, which means retirement assets may need to sustain a longer withdrawal period — often 25 to 30 or more years. This affects decisions around Social Security claiming age, annuity considerations, portfolio withdrawal rates, and long-term care planning. The Social Security Administration's life expectancy calculator provides a useful starting point for understanding these projections in a personal context.

What is the Women & Wealth initiative at Bouchey Financial Group? 

The Women & Wealth initiative is a dedicated program within Bouchey Financial Group focused on empowering women through personalized financial planning, education, and advisory services. It is led by three female CFP® professionals — Harmony Wagner, CFP®, CPWA®; Samantha Masey, CFP®; and Catherine Buck, CFP® — and is supported by the firm's broader team of CPAs and wealth advisors. The initiative includes events, educational content, and one-on-one advisory relationships tailored to women's financial goals and life stages.

What questions should women ask when evaluating a financial advisor? 

Useful questions include: Are you a fiduciary? How are you compensated — fee-only or fee-based? Do you have CPAs on staff for integrated tax planning? What experience do you have working with clients in situations similar to mine? The SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database allows anyone to verify an advisor's registration, credentials, and any regulatory history before engaging.

How does tax planning intersect with wealth building for women? 

Tax strategy can play a meaningful role in long-term wealth accumulation — particularly for women whose income may vary across career stages. Years of lower income may present favorable windows for Roth conversions; career transitions may affect the optimal timing of capital gains realizations; and inheritance or divorce events each carry tax implications that benefit from CPA-level analysis. Integrating tax planning with investment management — rather than treating them separately — is where much of the long-term value tends to be found.

What role does estate planning play in women's financial planning? 

Estate planning is a critical component of long-term financial security, particularly for women who are statistically more likely to manage assets alone at some point. Key considerations include beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance policies, the structure of trusts for asset protection and generational transfer, and powers of attorney for financial and healthcare decisions. These documents should be reviewed whenever a major life event occurs — marriage, divorce, a significant change in assets, or the death of a spouse.