Embracing Childfree People: A Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Perspective

By Jay Zigmont

One in five adults in Michigan self-identified as childfree, according to a Michigan State University study. Childfree,¹ in this case, means people who don’t have kids and aren’t planning on having kids. If this 20% figure holds across the U.S., why does most of the standard financial advice assume you do have kids (or will)?

What can we, as financial planners, do to embrace childfree people in our daily practices, both as clients and as employees?

What Not to Do …

I recently watched a financial conference where the speaker said something along the lines of: “working with people without kids is the worst.” What I hope he meant to say was that childfree people have unique challenges with estate planning—not that this minority group is “the worst.” We all should know that singling out any group of people and labeling them is not acceptable.

The problem is that there is considerable pronatalist bias in our world. People who choose to be childfree are often judged negatively. This happens so often that, as childfree people, we have a “bingo card” of common questions/judgments, such as:

• What if you change your mind?
• What is the purpose of life without children?
• Do you hate children?
• Why get married if you aren’t going to have kids?
• Who is going to care for you when you are older?

All of these questions are inappropriate to ask anyone. A staff member once stopped me in the hall to say: “I’ve been thinking about you and your wife. You are both smart and should have kids as they would be smart.” While I gave her the benefit of the doubt, what she really did was go to her boss and judge his life choices. She doesn’t know that my wife has a 50-50 chance of dying if she gets pregnant, yet still, people judge.

The challenge in the workplace is that while some states have laws against discrimination based on family status, these laws specifically protect only people who have children, not childfree people. Additionally, childfree workers are expected to work more hours, cover vacations, and suffer from other disadvantages, according to a ResumeLab survey.

From a business standpoint, any time I advertise my company, Childfree Wealth, I’m almost guaranteed to get internet trolls making judgments. I have a collection of mean tweets ranging from “prayers for your childless soul” to flagging my ads as hate speech.

What to Do

Start by checking your own bias, personally and in your systems.

Your personal bias should not affect working with people without children. Watch out for personal questions and assumptions about having children. If someone volunteers that they are childfree or childless, respect what they share and don’t pry. While childfree often reflects a choice not to have children and childless is often not by choice, how they got to that point does not matter to you. The key is to respect them as people.

In your systems, do you have a way for clients to indicate that they are childfree? If they state that they are childfree (or childless), can you delete all questions and structures around having children? In my system, I have an intake question about kids, and then childfree clients are flagged as such and only given surveys, checklists, and software without questions about kids.

While looking at your systems, check your employee benefits. Is your benefits package for childfree people equal to that for parents? Is there an opportunity to opt out of adoption, daycare, parental leave, and more to get an equal benefit? What is your paid time off policy, and is it blind to reason (i.e., is it first come, first served, or do parents get priority for holidays?)?

Financial Planning Tips for Childfree People

Being childfree changes financial planning at its core. Here are some key things to keep in mind:

• Many childfree people do not care about passing on their wealth. Dying with a large estate may be a plan failure, and they may embrace more of a “die with zero” approach.
• Long-term care is a priority. Try to have a long-term care plan in place by your clients’ mid-40s, either out of retirement funds or by buying insurance.
• Life insurance is of limited use. Childfree people are more likely to need disability insurance than life insurance.
• Plan for flexibility. Living a life of childfree wealth means they will have more time, money, and freedom than most. Don’t be surprised by rapidly changing goals.
• Watch out for alternative family structures. According to the U.S. Census, 32.1% of childless adults over 55 in the U.S. have never married. Make sure your software can handle couples who are not married (especially for tax purposes). Also, you may need to make adjustments when doing financial planning for groups—either groups of friends planning together or romantic groups.

The percentage of childfree and childless adults in the U.S. is substantial and growing. Learn about this segment of your clients and employees. Talk to your employees and see what their lived experience is. Start working now on a more inclusive workspace and a financial planning process that embraces childfree people.

1. The childfree movement spells “childfree” without a hyphen because to its members “child-free” implies something is lacking.

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Jay Zigmont, Ph.D., MBA, CFP^®, is the founder of Childfree Wealth, a life and financial planning firm helping childfree and permanently childless people. Dr. Jay is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^™, childfree wealth specialist, and author of Portraits of Childfree Wealth.

image credit: istock.com/Drazen_