Webinar Replay

Click Here to Download Summary Below

The Childfree Economy: How 25% of Americans Are Reshaping Financial Planning, Markets, and Retirement

For decades, much of financial planning has been built around a familiar life path: build a career, get married, buy a home, have children, save for retirement, and eventually pass wealth to the next generation.

But what happens when one of the biggest pieces of that traditional plan—children—is intentionally removed?

That was the question at the center of our recent Financial Experts Network webinar featuring Jay Zigmont, Ph.D., CFP®, founder of Childfree Wealth and Childfree Trust. Jay explored how the growing number of Americans without children is changing not only individual financial plans, but also housing, retirement, estate planning, long-term care, and potentially the broader U.S. economy.

Jay began with a number that should get every financial professional's attention: approximately 21% of Americans are childfree by choice, with another roughly 4% considered childless. Together, that represents about one-quarter of the population. 

For advisors, the message is clear: this isn't a niche population. And serving these clients well may require questioning some of the most basic assumptions built into traditional financial planning.

Childfree Doesn't Simply Mean "No Kids"

One of Jay's first distinctions was between childfree and childless. He defines childfree individuals as people who don't have children and don't plan to have them, while childless generally refers to those without children for other reasons. 

That distinction matters because advisors shouldn't automatically assume that a client without children is eventually going to have them.

It also matters because family structures within this population can look very different. Childfree clients may be single, partnered but unmarried, married, divorced, widowed, or part of another family structure. Jay pointed to research suggesting childless adults are significantly more likely to have never married, creating planning considerations around taxes, beneficiary designations, estate planning, and retirement. 

For advisors, perhaps the simplest lesson is also one of the most important: don't build a client's financial plan around the life you assume they'll eventually live. Build it around the life they tell you they want.

A Different Definition of Financial Success

Traditional financial planning often focuses heavily on accumulation. Build wealth, preserve it through retirement, and ultimately transfer what's left to children or grandchildren.

Many childfree clients may have an entirely different objective.

Jay shared research from his organization in which 91% of respondents said they wanted to wind down their wealth rather than prioritize transferring it to the next generation. Charitable giving may play a larger role for some, while others simply want to use more of their resources during their lifetimes. 

That changes the planning conversation considerably.

Instead of asking, "How much can we leave behind?" the better question might be, "How can we use your money to support the life and impact you want while you're here?"

For some clients, that could mean more travel, earlier career changes, charitable giving during life, helping nieces and nephews when the money can make the greatest difference, or deliberately spending down assets.

Even the definition of retirement may change. Rather than completely stopping work at 65, some childfree clients may prefer to reduce their workload earlier, pursue work they enjoy, or continue working well beyond traditional retirement age because their career is part of their purpose.

In other words, advisors may need to rethink not only the numbers in the plan, but the goal of the plan itself.

Homeownership May Not Be the Automatic Goal

Buying a home has long been treated as an almost universal financial milestone. Jay challenged advisors to reconsider that assumption as well.

Childfree individuals can have greater geographic flexibility because their decisions aren't tied to school districts or children's schedules. They may be more willing to relocate for career opportunities or simply because they want a different lifestyle. For someone who expects to move frequently, renting may provide more flexibility than owning. 

That doesn't mean childfree clients shouldn't own homes. It means homeownership should be evaluated like any other financial decision rather than treated as a required step toward adulthood or financial security.

This could ultimately have broader economic implications. As the childfree population grows, changing preferences around housing, mobility, and homeownership could influence housing markets and investment assumptions.

Long-Term Care Becomes a Central Planning Issue

Perhaps no area demonstrates the importance of specialized planning more clearly than long-term care.

Traditional planning often contains an unspoken assumption that a spouse or adult child will eventually help coordinate care. A childfree client—particularly someone who is single—may not have that option.

Jay emphasized that a long-term care plan needs to answer two separate questions:

How will care be paid for?

And equally important:

Who will make decisions and coordinate that care if the client can no longer do so?

In research discussed during the webinar, only 13.3% of childfree respondents reported having long-term care insurance, while many had no clear plan for future care. Jay described long-term care as one of the largest potential gaps in a childfree financial plan, particularly for single clients. 

His approach is to address the issue well before retirement rather than waiting until a client is already experiencing health problems. Regardless of the specific funding strategy, the larger takeaway for advisors is important: a retirement plan isn't complete until the client knows both how care will be funded and who will be responsible for making decisions.

Estate Planning Can Be Even More Important Without Children

It might seem logical to assume that people without children have simpler estate-planning needs. In many cases, the opposite may be true.

Jay's research found that 70% of the childfree individuals surveyed had no estate-planning documents at all, and fewer than 20% had a will. One major obstacle wasn't simply procrastination—it was not knowing whom to appoint to important roles. 

Who serves as financial power of attorney?

Who makes medical decisions?

Who serves as executor or trustee?

Who steps in during an emergency?

For parents, an adult child often becomes the default answer. A childfree or solo-aging client may need to intentionally build a network of friends, relatives, professionals, or professional fiduciaries.

Without appropriate documents and representatives in place, an incapacitated individual could ultimately require a court-appointed guardian or conservator. That makes estate planning much more than a question of who receives assets at death. It's also about who is authorized to protect and advocate for the client during life.

Even pets can become part of the conversation. Jay noted that more than three-quarters of the childfree people in his research had pets, making provisions for their care an important estate-planning consideration for many clients. 

Insurance Needs May Look Different, Too

Childfree planning can also challenge traditional assumptions about insurance.

For a single person without dependents, the need for life insurance may be very different from that of a parent whose family depends on their income. At the same time, Jay emphasized that disability coverage can become especially important for single childfree individuals because there may be no second income or family safety net available if they can no longer work. 

Long-term care coverage may also take on greater importance because these clients can't automatically assume unpaid care will eventually be provided by children.

The broader lesson is not that childfree clients need less protection. Rather, they may need different protection.

The Childfree Economy Is Bigger Than Financial Planning

The webinar also moved beyond individual clients to examine what declining fertility rates could mean for the economy.

Fewer children today eventually means fewer students, fewer workers, fewer taxpayers, and a changing ratio between working-age Americans and retirees.

Jay cited research projecting that continued demographic trends could contribute to a 4% reduction in GDP over a 20-year period. He also discussed the potential implications for Social Security and other systems that depend heavily on a sufficiently large working population supporting an aging population. 

The effects may already be visible in areas such as college enrollment, where smaller cohorts of young adults are beginning to create challenges for institutions that were built for continued growth. 

These demographic changes raise much larger questions about labor markets, housing demand, economic growth, immigration, Social Security, and even investment assumptions.

Advisors don't need to predict exactly how these trends will unfold. But they do need to recognize that demographic assumptions underpinning decades of economic and retirement planning may be changing.

An Opportunity for Advisors to Ask Better Questions

One of the strongest themes throughout Jay's presentation was that childfree clients often don't feel understood by traditional financial planning.

Advisors can begin changing that without creating an entirely new planning process.

Ask whether clients have children and whether they plan to have them. If they say no, accept the answer rather than assuming they'll eventually change their minds. Jay specifically cautioned against asking clients why they don't have children, noting that the reasons can be deeply personal and aren't necessarily relevant to the financial plan. 

From there, the advisor can ask better financial questions:

What does a successful life look like to you?

Do you want to retire completely, or simply gain greater control over your time?

Do you want to spend down your wealth?

Who would make decisions for you if you couldn't?

Who will coordinate your care later in life?

Are there nieces, nephews, friends, charities, pets, or causes you want to support?

Those conversations can uncover planning priorities that a traditional retirement questionnaire might completely miss.

Five Questions Advisors May Be Asking

1. Do childfree clients generally need less financial planning?

No. Their planning may actually require more intentional decisions because many traditional defaults—children as beneficiaries, caregivers, executors, trustees, or powers of attorney—may not apply. Long-term care and estate planning can be especially important.

2. Should advisors assume younger childfree clients might eventually change their minds?

No. Jay encouraged advisors to respect how clients self-identify. If a client says they don't have children and don't plan to, build the plan around that information. If their circumstances change later, the plan can change with them. 

3. Is buying a home still an important goal for childfree clients?

It can be, but it shouldn't be automatic. Clients who value mobility or frequently relocate may find renting better aligned with their lifestyle. The right answer should come from the client's goals rather than the traditional assumption that everyone should eventually own a home.

4. What is one of the biggest planning risks for a single childfree client?

Long-term care and incapacity planning. Advisors need to address not only how future care will be funded but also who will make medical and financial decisions and coordinate that care if the client can't. 

5. What should advisors reconsider about legacy planning?

Legacy doesn't necessarily mean leaving an inheritance to children. A childfree client may want to support family members during life, give to charity, fund experiences, care for pets, mentor others, or deliberately spend down wealth. The advisor's role is to discover what legacy means to that particular client.

The Bottom Line

The rise of the childfree population isn't simply a demographic curiosity. It challenges many of the assumptions embedded in financial planning—from homeownership and retirement to insurance, estate planning, long-term care, and wealth transfer.

For financial advisors, that creates both a responsibility and an opportunity.

The clients of the future won't necessarily follow the traditional financial life script. The best planning will begin by understanding the life clients actually intend to live—and then designing their money around it.

As Jay's presentation demonstrated, serving childfree clients well isn't about creating a completely separate version of financial planning. It's about removing assumptions, asking better questions, and recognizing that a successful financial plan doesn't have to end with wealth being passed to the next generation.