Older women may inherit most of $54 trillion

For many married women, one of the biggest financial transitions of their lives will come when it’s least welcome: after the death of their spouse.

Women, on average, live longer than men — a longevity gap that means many wives will outlive their husbands. At birth, the average life span for males in the U.S. is 76.5 years as of 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For women, that average is 81.4 years.

The gap shrinks once you reach age 65. At that point, life expectancy for men is another 18.4 years, or to age 83.4, according to the CDC data. For women, that average is 20.8 years, or age 85.8.

That difference in life span means women are expected to receive most of the spouse-to-spouse wealth that gets passed on during the so-called great wealth transfer. That’s a period between 2024 and 2048 when an estimated $124 trillion will be passed on largely by baby boomers — those born 1946 to 1964 — and older generations, according to research from Cerulli Associates.

Of that amount, an estimated $54 trillion will get passed on to widowed spouses — 95% of which will go to women, according to Cerulli Associates. And, $40 trillion of it will go to widowed women who are baby boomers or older, the research shows.

When it comes to women in these older generations, financial advisors say it is common for couples to have embraced the traditional role of the husband managing the investments and long-term planning.

“In many older households, the husband historically has handled most of the financial decisions,” said certified financial planner Ryan Marshall, a partner and financial advisor at ELA Financial Group in Wyckoff, New Jersey.

“It’s just more common that [older women] hadn’t been part of it,” Marshall said. “They’ve been taking care of everything else in the family.”

However, that lack of knowledge “can leave the surviving spouse feeling overwhelmed at an already difficult time,” Marshall said.

In other words, before you reach that point, it’s worth at least knowing where assets are held, how income is generated and who to call with questions.

“The goal is not to make everyone a financial expert, but to ensure the surviving spouse has the familiarity and confidence to navigate the transition,” he said.

While many married couples have an estate plan in place for when a spouse dies, others do not. 

“If you didn’t plan for it in advance, you kind of have to start all over again,” said CFP Crystal Cox, a senior vice president for Wealthspire Advisors in Madison, Wisconsin.

“What is your new budget, for instance,” Cox said. “Or, before, your portfolio [was based] on a couple’s risk tolerance. Now you have to look at it as a single person.”

However, in the immediate aftermath of a spouse’s death, priorities should be limited to the essentials, Cox said — such as ensuring access to cash, notifying institutions, paying ongoing bills and claiming benefits (from, say, life insurance).

“Once initial grief begins to stabilize — and that timeline is different for everyone — widows can start to revisit the broader financial picture,” Cox said.

While the particulars of what any widow faces financially depend on the specifics of their situation, there are a couple of things most widows will face, whether or not there are significant assets.

Your cash flow may be impacted almost immediately. Assuming both spouses were receiving Social Security, the surviving spouse generally keeps the larger of the two benefits, and the smaller one goes away. Depending on the amount of the smaller one, that could result in a notable decrease in income.

“That’s a huge impact a lot of people don’t think about,” Cox said.

The average survivor benefit for Social Security is $1,622.32 monthly, according to January data from the Social Security Administration.

Additionally, if the deceased spouse had a pension, income from it may change, depending on the specifics of the pension plan, Cox said. If it includes survivor’s benefits, the amount could be lower than what your spouse was receiving. Or, it could involve a lump-sum payout.

In general, advisors say surviving spouses end up spending less than they did as a couple, but that it doesn’t drop by half when one spouse dies.

“In retirement projections, we try to do 60% to 70% income replacement when a spouse passes away,” Marshall said. “You still have a lot of those expenses left.”

Widowed spouses should be prepared for their tax situation to change. While you can still file a joint tax return for the year in which your spouse died, you will typically end up being taxed as a single filer after that (unless you have a dependent child).

Single filers generally face less favorable tax brackets, a smaller standard deduction and lower income thresholds for certain other tax breaks. 

“If your income doesn’t change that much, you could find yourself in a higher tax bracket,” Cox said.

For 2026, the standard deduction for married couples filing jointly is $32,200. For a single filer, it is $16,100.

Of course, that lower amount could mean it’s more beneficial to itemize your deductions, Cox said. That is, allowed deductions such as mortgage interest, state and local taxes, charitable donations and certain medical costs could total more than the standard deduction.