THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Women stand to inherit a record share of America's wealth, but the caregiving responsibilities and protection gaps that shadow that transfer are reshaping what financial planning looks like for millions.

There's a story I encounter in this work that never gets easier to hear. A woman spends years as the steady center of her family's care, adjusting her career, absorbing the logistics, carrying the emotional weight. And then, when it's her turn to need care, she faces a system she hasn't planned for. Her savings are depleted. Her options are limited. This is not a rare story. It is, in many ways, the story of women and long-term care in America, and it's why this issue deserves more direct attention than it typically gets.

The data is clear: long-term care is a women's issue

Women live longer than men, by an average of nearly five years, and that longevity comes with greater likelihood of needing care. According to a 2024 analysis by the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, women spend roughly twice as many years in a disabled state at end of life as men, more than 70% of nursing home residents are women, and nearly half of women over 75 live alone with no household partner to share the burden of informal care. For many women, a long-term care event doesn't just create a health challenge — it creates a financial crisis.

The impact of a long-term care event in later years is compounded by the caregiving women are already providing. The typical family caregiver is a woman in her mid-40s spending roughly 20 hours a week caring for a parent, and women spend 50% more time in caregiving roles than men. New Pew Research Center findings in 2026 show that female caregivers are significantly more likely than male caregivers to report negative effects on their physical health and emotional wellbeing, a gap that holds even when men and women are performing the same tasks. New York Life has tracked these dynamics for years; I'd encourage you to explore our earlier research on caregiving's financial toll and the particular pressures facing the sandwich generation.

A historic shift and a goals-based planning imperative

Here is where the story shifts. We are living through the largest wealth transfer in American history — an estimated $124 trillion moving between generations by 2048, with a significant share transferring first to women. McKinsey projects women will control roughly $34 trillion or about 38% of total U.S. wealth by 2030. The World Economic Forum notes in a 2024 report that women gaining financial control tend to prioritize security, family wellbeing and legacy values that align naturally with long-term care protection.

The challenge is that this wealth accumulation arrives alongside a persistent confidence gap: Most women feel comfortable with short-term financial management, but our Wealth Watch research finds that far fewer feel confident about long-term decisions like insurance. That is a gap the financial services industry has a responsibility to close.

What long-term care planning delivers

Here’s what long-term care planning does for women:

• Protects assets from being consumed by care costs that can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars
• Preserves choice to determine care when and where you want it, with the level of family involvement you decide
• Reduces the burden on the next generation, often her own daughters, who would otherwise absorb that caregiving role
• Creates financial clarity for the whole family when it's needed most

Women with the most options are the ones who start the conversation early and benefit from the freedom that comes with having decided before circumstances could dictate the outcome.

The most important move is the first one

The most important step is simply starting the conversation with your family, with a financial professional, and with yourself. The earlier it happens, the more it shapes the outcome.