Women who build businesses deserve wealth in their own name 

Women are starting and running businesses in record numbers. Around 1.8 million women now run their own venture in the United Kingdom, the highest figure ever recorded. Women lead close to one in five active companies, and roughly one in three entrepreneurs is now a woman, a share that has grown by more than a third in a decade. This is one of the most encouraging shifts in the economy, and it deserves to be matched by something that too often lags behind it: personal financial security built in a woman’s own name. 

A gap that persists even for successful women 

For all that progress, a stubborn gap remains in the wealth women retire with. By the time they reach later life, women hold far less private pension wealth on average than men. 

Source: Scottish Widows Women and Retirement research, 2025. 

The difference is not small. Average pension wealth at retirement is around £173,000 for women against £286,000 for men, a gap of roughly £113,000. The causes are well understood and largely structural rather than a matter of choice: career breaks, more part time work, lower average pay along the way, and longer lives to fund at the end. A woman can build a thriving business and still arrive at later life with markedly less put aside for herself, because the business absorbed everything while her own provision waited. 

The pattern I see most often 

Across this series I have kept returning to the same quiet risk, and it is worth stating plainly here. In couples who build a business together, it is very often the woman whose long term security is left to chance. The company is funded, the tax is paid, the reinvestment is made, and her own pension and protection are the things that never quite get done. If the couple later separate, or one of them dies, or the business does not sell for what they hoped, it is frequently the woman who is most exposed, precisely because so little was ever held in her name. 

None of this is inevitable. It is simply what happens when planning is organised around the business rather than around the people who own it. 

What changes it 

The remedies are not complicated, and they are the same tools I have written about throughout this series, pointed deliberately at the woman’s own position. Pension contributions made in her name, which are highly efficient for company owners. Investments and savings built up outside the business and held individually as well as jointly. Protection arranged so that she is looked after, and shareholder arrangements that guarantee her fair value rather than leaving her to negotiate for it. The aim is simple: that her security does not depend on the business, on a sale, or on anyone else’s goodwill. 

It is worth saying that women are just as likely as men to seek financial advice, and increasingly take charge of their own planning directly. The appetite is there. What is often missing is someone taking the time to build the plan around her specifically, rather than treating her provision as an afterthought to the company or to a partner’s arrangements. 

Where to start 

If you are a woman who owns or co-owns a business, the useful question is straightforward: what is held in my name, and would I be secure if the business or my circumstances changed? If the honest answer is uncertain, that is worth addressing while there is time to act on it. Our independent financial advisers at Bower Wealth help women business owners build exactly that kind of security, and we are always glad to work alongside your accountant. 

You have built something valuable. It is worth making sure that some of that value is unmistakably, and permanently, yours. 

Bower Wealth is an independent financial adviser (IFA), whole of market and not tied to any provider. We work with business owners and families throughout the United Kingdom, including many close to home in Essex, Hertfordshire and London. Your first conversation is free and without obligation. 

SOURCES 

Figures are correct at the time of publication. 

1. Around 1.8 million women run their own venture in the UK, the highest share on record; women lead close to one in five active companies: money.co.uk; Funding Circle.
2. Roughly one in three UK entrepreneurs is a woman, a rise of about 36 percent since 2015, with over 500,000 female-founded companies created between 2019 and 2025: The Rise Report, 2026.
3. Average private pension wealth at retirement is around £173,000 for women against £286,000 for men, a gap of about £113,000: Scottish Widows Women and Retirement research, 2025.
4. 4.  Closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship could add around £310 billion to the UK economy: money.co.uk.