The deliberate female edge
It begins with a simple question
The deliberate edge
The deliberate female edge
What more might we understand about wealth, success and living deliberately if we listened specifically to women's experiences?
Achievement and excitement were the drivers. Wealth has come as a by-product.
About the report
This report brings together the experiences of 14 female founders, corporate leaders and senior professional-services partners whose achievements span different industries, cultures, family structures and routes to success.
The interviews explored how the women created success, what shaped their decisions and relationship with money, what security and enough meant to them, and what they now wanted their wealth to make possible.
What the report reveals
Money was almost never the plan
What does success buy you? Freedom and choice
Is enough ever enough? And how would you know?
Six findings
Finding 1:
Wealth was not the original ambition. It was the outcome.
Finding 2:
Enough is not a number; it is a set of outcomes.
Finding 3:
The women drove their own success, but not alone.
Finding 4:
The ultimate return on wealth is agency.
Finding 5:
The women did not avoid risk. They structured it.
Finding 6:
Financial success did not erase beliefs about money formed much earlier in life.
Get the report
Y TREE
A wealthtech advisory business bringing transparency and meaning to wealth management.
FFinc
Led by Founder and CEO, Tamara Gillen, bringing together thousands of women to reimagine the relationships between women and wealth.
Belinda Riley
Founder and CEO of Beyond the Barriers Academy, and researcher and author of The Deliberate Female Edge.
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In summer 2026, Y TREE published behavioural research into self-optimisation amongst high net worth individuals. This research, “The deliberate edge”, conducted in partnership with Paul Dolan, Professor of Behavioural Science, LSE surveyed 200 of the UK’s high net worth individuals. Findings covered in that research have informed the guide for these interviews.
Note: The deliberate female edge is a distinct, independent piece of work. It draws on some of the findings of “The deliberate edge”, conducted in partnership with Paul Dolan, Professor of Behavioural Science, LSE. However the interviews conducted for the deliberate female edge were not reviewed or endorsed by Paul Dolan and team. They are based on 14 qualitative interviews rather than a statistically representative sample.