Maddy Dychtwald

The growing financial power of women may be the most important demographic trend impacting financial services today. New generations of empowered women—bolstered by unprecedented levels of education, workforce participation, rising geopolitical power, and escalating income and wealth—are assuming increasingly influential roles in their own and their family’s financial management. The financial services industry, historically catering primarily to men, must find new ways to win the hearts, minds, and wallets of this critical and growing client base.

Drawing on insights from decades of Age Wave research, including the highly acclaimed nationwide study Women & Financial Wellness and her landmark book, Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Change Our World for the Better, Age Wave co-founder Maddy Dychtwald combines data and powerful storytelling to address these topics:

How greater longevity can catalyze women of all ages to plan for their longer lives
How a woman’s life journey is still fundamentally different than a man’s with vast financial implications
How family interdependencies impact women and their approach to money
Unpacking the gender retirement gap
Defining the lifetime pay gap and wealth gap: what they are, how they’re different, and the steps women can take right now to make up for them
The important role men can play in this new financial equation
The 5 critical characteristics women look for in their financial professional and the 5 steps financial professionals can take to more effectively meet women’s wants, needs, and goals

Deeply researched, customized for each unique audience, and packed with actionable takeaways, Maddy’s illuminating approach to these urgent issues brings new focus to a topic that grows more relevant each day, leaving audiences—whether they be women wanting to take charge of their own financial security or the financial professionals who want to better serve them—with food for thought and concrete ideas for implementing and adapting to change.

50+ women as a consumer force have been hiding in plain sight, but that is about to change. Bolstered by unprecedented levels of education and workforce participation, escalating income and wealth, and rising longevity and vitality, they are fast becoming the most powerful and influential segment of the consumer marketplace. Yet they often feel ignored or misunderstood by brands and marketers and don’t want to be defined through a youth-focused gender lens or by their age alone.

Drawing on decades of proprietary Age Wave research, including the highly acclaimed study led by Age Wave co-founder Maddy Dychtwald, Women and Financial Wellness: Beyond the Bottom Line, and insights from her landmark book, Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Change Our World for the Better, Maddy explains why 50+ women are a consumer force to be reckoned with for businesses of all kinds from financial services and healthcare to fashion and home furnishings.

From her vantage point as a successful entrepreneur, author, researcher, Wall Street Journal blogger, wife and mother—and a 50+ woman herself—Maddy combines data-driven insights with inspirational storytelling, illuminating this market segment’s core attitudes, motivations, and behavioral patterns, and offering the keys to unlocking its consumer potential.

Topics explored in this new presentation include:
The size and financial clout of this growing market segment
The consumer purchasing power and passions of this market, including their approach to spending, gifting, saving, and investing
How 50+ women are disrupting aging, leading the longevity revolution
The emotions, desires, and concerns that motivate their purchasing decisions
The ageist messaging that turns them off—and how to avoid these communications pitfalls
How technology and social media can be both a barrier and a benefit
How today’s different generations of women influence each other and their purchasing decisions
The five-step action plan you need to capture this powerful market segment

Deeply researched, customized for each unique audience, and packed with actionable takeaways, Maddy’s illuminating approach brings new focus to this emerging market segment and leaves audiences with food for thought and concrete ideas for implementing and adapting to change.

With the convergence of rising longevity, the aging of the massive Boomer generation, and widespread financial insecurity stemming from the COVID pandemic, there is a greater need than ever for trusted, holistic financial guidance. Americans want financial professionals who seek to understand what matters most to them and their families and can help them achieve their goals.

This new presentation draws on cutting-edge new research that spans five generations. Maddy will outline the most important questions in retirement planning today and explain how financial professionals can demonstrate greater empathy to safeguard a well-lived retirement by providing targeted solutions for these uncertain times.

Topics to be covered include:
Why has financial peace of mind become far more important than wealth?
What are the greatest worries in achieving a financially secure retirement?
How could “generational generosity” jeopardize retirement?
In what ways is women’s rising financial power transforming the field of retirement planning?
How will the demands of eldercare, sibling care, grandparenthood, singlehood, and “rehirement” impact retirement planning?
Leaving a legacy: managing the greatest generational hand-off in history

Men and women over 50 now make up 33% of the total U.S. population and 44% of the adult population but control more than 70% of total wealth. Due to the combination of rising longevity, declining fertility, and the aging of the Baby Boom generation, this group is now bigger than the entire market of most countries. As active and curious consumers, they are responsible for 53% of all food and grocery purchasing; 55% of all travel and leisure consumption; 56% of new car and truck purchasing; 68% of OTC drugs and 77% of all Rx drug consumption; and 78% of all retirement accounts. However, people 50+ only appear in 15% of advertisements and are disproportionately portrayed as old, sick, and homogenous.

Maddy will explain how to best target this massive, misunderstood, misrepresented, and wildly untapped new market. She’ll illustrate why 20th century notions of “lifetime brand loyalty,” “retirement,” and “seniors” have become obsolete and how with impending breakthroughs in precision medicine, living to 100+ will soon become commonplace. And she’ll provide a mind-stretching preview of the products, services, marketing, and advertising that will succeed at meeting the needs and aspirations of this new “Third Age” while eliminating the ageism that has impeded shareholder value for too long.