The average Hungarian female billionaire is middle-aged, inherited her wealth and actively manages her money

How do women acquire wealth in general?

Internationally, the majority of wealthy women, 68 percent, make their own fortune, 18.2 percent inherit their wealth and also make it bigger themselves, and 13.9 percent inherit it all.

Although a higher proportion of women inherit their riches or build an even bigger fortune from their inheritance than men, businesswomen are becoming more and more successful.

In 2018, for example, the number of women billionaires was already 233 globally, and this was a 46 percent increase compared to 5 years before. Over the same period, the number of male billionaires increased by only 39 percent.

According to statistics, women who do not have a strong financial background already secured by their husbands have a distinctly higher chance of building a fortune on their own and becoming successful in business.

What are the main reasons that make the number of female dollar millionaires rise? Where is this trend the most typical?

The world is changing rapidly; today women occupy a much larger number of positions in every sector of the economy, and they also have more opportunities than 10-15 years ago.

The number of wealthy women is growing, and they are playing an increasingly important role in the world economy, therefore they have even more opportunities to grow further.

At the same time, they aren’t more courageous regarding investments; in fact, 71 percent of female clients say they think men are bolder and take financial risks more easily.

The growth in the number of wealthy women has been mostly due to the trend in Asia for the past few years. North America has the biggest part of the total global wealth owned by women, but now it is already Asia, and traditionally Western Europe, where wealthy women typically come from.

It should be noted that in Asia, specifically, many independent female millionaires emerge every year, and their number will grow even higher with the generation change when

even greater fortunes will be passed on from first-generation Asian billionaire gentlemen to their widows and descendants.

What do we know about rich Hungarian women?

There are no official statistics about them. In our recent study, we tried to look into the situation regarding female affluence: female asset managers, women’s financial habits, client needs and the psychology behind women’s investments were all examined based on interviews with domestic private bankers.

From the many interviews we got a really interesting, though unofficial profile of the typical wealthy Hungarian woman.

The richest women in Hungary typically acquire their wealth by inheritance or division of property, and unfortunately there are fewer self-made female billionaires in Hungary compared to the international average.

Almost exclusively middle-aged or elderly women own considerable amount of capital in Hungary.

The gender ratio is only similar to that in Western Europe in the upper part of the wealth pyramid, while in all of the 50-300 million segments the proportion of women lags behind the international average.

It tells a lot about the Hungarian situation that in 2020 only one woman made the list of the wealthiest. It may not be the best example, but in Russia, for example, the number of female dollar billionaires is growing rapidly, and the richest woman there would rank as the wealthiest on the list of the richest Hungarian women.

The wealthiest Hungarians are still predominantly men, and we don't see any sign yet that this is changing; although I think it would have a particularly constructive effect on the economy and society if there were many more well-to-do women and many more CEOs in decision-making positions.

Is it true that widows who inherit their husband’s fortune are typically much younger than their deceased partners?

Our survey explicitly refutes the cliché that wealthy men tend to choose younger wives.

The fact that the proportion of women in the wealthiest segment is higher than in the lower segments is simply due to the higher life expectancy of women.

Typically, most wealthy women are middle-aged or elderly.

Are women more active in making financial decisions than before?

Absolutely. There is still a popular belief that financial decisions are made by men in the family. People believe so, even if a husband and his wife jointly manage their company. People take it for granted that the husband, who runs the business, must be the main decision-maker in matters of investments as well. It may surprise you, but this is not necessarily the case,

private bankers say that, especially in the countryside, the wife often has the decisive say in private asset management decisions.

To what extent do women require different treatment from an asset manager than men? What are the main characteristics of female investors?

Women prefer to be given real counselling, and not just information about products and performance.

Female investors are more sober, but they are just as risk-taking as men; this, however, is only true if they receive all the information they need in order to make a confident decision from their asset manager.

Female clients are less interested in overperformance and meeting financial targets than male clients, and the positive environmental impact of investments is also more important to them.

Interestingly, they tend to prefer traditional office meetings less; they’d rather meet with the asset manager in their own home.

They expect their counsellor to use less professional jargon, and they want empathy, understanding, equal treatment, effective communication, responsibility, and transparency.

They are more sensitive to the opportunity to use their money to exercise social responsibility with an ESG and SI approach, making them more open to investments that not only benefit them but also “make the world a better place”.

Is it harder for private bankers to meet the expectations of wealthy female clients?

Not at all. Women clients expect solid knowledge of finance and banking , psychological skills, expertise in investment counselling and even familiarity with the arts. But female clients also require a different, more advanced social sensitivity and style. So, I can say that for female clients different criteria dominate regarding asset management services.

Do women usually turn to female private bankers?

No, they don’t. However, the relationship between the female client and the asset manager is greatly strengthened if the asset manager has the right soft skills and emotional intelligence to understand the client’s needs.

At the same time, international surveys show that when both the asset manager and the client are women, quality and trust are more important than returns.

Trust is one of the most important factors for female clients when looking for a counsellor, so, in summary, it is not the gender that matters to female clients, but finding a counsellor with the right personality who understands them.

How many of the 398 private bankers in Hungary are women?

In Hungary, the presence of women bankers is stronger in the premium segment;

while there is no equality in the private banking segment yet, about 40 percent of the 400 Hungarian private bankers are women.

It is interesting or even surprising, though, that there are only two private banking divisions in Hungary that are run by a woman.

Perhaps, if there were more women in asset management, more women would choose a female counsellor, but according to international surveys it is very important for women to have the right to choose, i.e. to be able to choose their own counsellor rather than have a specialist appointed to them by the service provider.

Only 29 percent of wealthy women would like to have a female counsellor, however, a survey found that a very large proportion of them, more than 36 percent, feel that their counsellor is patronizing them, which they basically don’t like.

Women are now more confident in accomplishing their financial goals, and they have a much better understanding of their finances than 20 years ago.

For them, money is important not primarily for the yield, but for maintaining their financial security, with, of course, proper risk management.

An important aspect is that in most cases women will be the heirs to the generation change (approximately 30 thousand billion dollars), so the asset management sector needs to ensure that their services are fit for the female segment as well.

It is obvious that asset managers who are unable to meet the needs of female clients satisfactorily may miss out on the opportunity to take advantage of the business of a huge and profitable segment. Somehow, to this day, wealthy women are surrounded by scepticism, although in general this preconception is totally untrue.

What’s more, typically those women are working more actively together with their asset manager who have either recently become single or have always been single breadwinners.