The largest wealth transfer in history is coming – and women are set to inherit 65 percent of the nearly US$3.29 trillion set to pass from one generation to the next in Australia, according to a report from JBWere.

The shift is seismic, but the financial system as it stands is not built to capture its potential, says F5 Collective CEO and Founding Partner Tracey Warren.

“Traditional finance doesn’t understand this new client,” says Warren, a finalist in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance category in the The CEO Magazine’s 2025 Executive of the Year Awards.

Women and next generation leaders, she says, prioritize service, community and a sense of belonging over extraction and short-term gain. They are also driven by values.

“They build brands that are culturally relevant, grounded in purpose and sustained by loyal customers not by collateral or legacy assets,” she explains.

By contrast, banks remain anchored in collateral-heavy, backward-looking models. Yet venture capital continues to overemphasize technology, while overlooking consumer and service-based businesses.

“These are the very sectors where women are excelling,” Warren points out. For her, the problem is clear. “Finance hasn’t kept up.”

It’s this gap that Warren spotted in founding F5 Collective with Co-Founder and COO Bree Kirkman.

“We have built a financial architecture designed for this moment, one that is aligned with how women actually build and scale businesses,” she says.

“It provides investment options that treat women as more than capital and funding; founder-friendly funding that flexes with performance rather than penalizes it; and commerce integration through the F5 marketplace and wholesale partnerships, ensuring funding translates directly into sales.”

A new model

For too long, women have been locked out of systems that weren’t built for them, Warren says. Warren and Kirkman spoke with hundreds of female founders to understand what wasn’t working – and what was needed – as they redesigned the financial system from the ground up so that women and the next generation can lead, build and thrive in the economy of the future.

“Instead of forcing women into outdated structures built around industrial-era credit models and pitch decks, we created a new model where capital, commerce and community are integrated into one growth engine,” Warren says.

After all, finance should be a growth engine, not a barrier. It’s a system that measures traction not just in balance sheets, but in cultural relevance, brand heat and customer love.

“These are the real markers of growth for modern consumer businesses,” she notes.

Change the game

Warren’s mission with the F5 Collective is driven by the best piece of leadership advice that she’s ever been given: “Don’t compete, change the game.”

“It resonates so deeply, because for generations women have been told to play by rules written without us in mind,” she explains. “In finance, in business, in leadership we are expected to succeed within systems that were never built for us. But competing inside broken structures only legitimizes them.”

Real impact, she continues, comes when you have the courage to stop playing the old game and build a new one.

“That is exactly what we have done with F5 Collective. We refused to patch a failing system or pink-wash outdated models,” Warren says. “Instead, we reimagined finance from the ground up creating an architecture built around women founders, their realities and their potential.

“We didn’t just adapt to the rules; we rewrote them.”

Future vision

Looking ahead, Warren hopes that the F5 Collective plays a key part in shaping a new industry, one where finance becomes an enabler rather than a barrier.

“The industry has the opportunity to unlock the largest transfer of wealth in history to women and to the next generation but only if it evolves beyond outdated models and begins to value the way modern businesses are really built,” she says.

Her vision is a future where capital flows to not only those who fit a narrow mold, but also founders who are building with purpose, cultural relevance and customer love.

F5 Collective’s role, she says, is to lead that transformation by proving there is a new financial architecture that works. This is one that integrates capital, commerce and community and measures success in both returns and impact.

“If we succeed, it won’t just open doors for the women we fund today,” she says. “It will pave the way for countless others to step up, scale boldly, and be backed with confidence by investors and institutions who finally see their value.”

After all, F5 Collective isn’t just about funding women-owned businesses, Warren says. It’s also about reshaping the rules of capital so that when women succeed, entire economies thrive.

“Our vision is simple: When women have access to the right tools at the right time, they don’t just build businesses, they build movements, legacies and generational change,” she stresses.

Building the extraordinary

It took courage, collaboration and creativity to build F5 Collective, and Warren uses the same trio of words to describe the company’s culture, too.

“We challenge one another, celebrate diversity of thought and hold ourselves accountable to building systems that truly work for women founders,” she explains.

It’s a mindset that has been critical to its success.

“To redesign finance, you need people who can see beyond borders, connect dots across markets and build something entirely new,” she says.

At the F5 Collective, the people matter as much as the work.

“We believe nurturing the whole person is what enables excellence. When our team is supported in their personal pursuits, they show up stronger, happier, and more inspired in their professional lives,” she says. “We are here to empower women, not cage them.”

This care extends to how the team shows up for one another.

“We lead with empathy, encouraging space for both personal and professional growth,” she continues. “That honesty and balance are what make our culture real and what give us the strength to build something extraordinary together.”

At the core is Warren’s personal leadership philosophy and leading from her zone of strength: vision.

“My role is to set a bold north star and hold that clarity with conviction, even when the path forward is complex or when others can’t yet see what I see,” she says. “I am in the trenches every day, but I never lose sight of the bigger picture.”

Leadership, she says, is about more than direction – it is about creating the conditions for others to thrive.

“It means giving people the space, trust and support to step into their own brilliance and deliver their best work,” she says.

“At its core, my philosophy is simple: Build movements that endure. Movements that are bigger than any one individual and that shift what people believe is possible.”