Finance
Women are likely to face financial curveballs in retirement — including one potentially life-destroying event
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Many women already feel they are behind when it comes to being financially prepared for retirement.
There’s another risk they have to watch for: disruptive curveballs life throws at them that may put them off track, according to recent research from financial services firm Edward Jones and aging research provider Age Wave. A majority of female retirees, 81%, have experienced at least one such unexpected financial event, versus 69% of men.
The most common curveball for both sexes is having a spouse or partner pass away, with 77%. Women are almost twice as likely to be widowed, according to the research.
Retired women are also more likely to face other shocks, including the death of another family member or close friend, suffering a financial setback or becoming a caregiver.
Caregiving tends to be a significant setback for women. A majority of women said becoming a caregiver was a life-destroying event both from a financial and life standpoint, according to Lena Haas, head of wealth management advice and solutions at Edward Jones.
“Women are less prepared to begin with for retirement,” Haas said, adding they “are hit with curveballs more frequently and they’re less equipped to make adjustments.”
Women are more likely to be caregivers for family
Moreover, a majority of unpaid family caregivers are women. Family caregivers provided an estimated 36 billion hours in unpaid care in 2021, according to AARP, amounting to work worth $600 billion.
The caregiving dilemma does not only affect retired women.
“It’s hitting us during working years, too,” said Heather Ettinger, chairwoman of Fairport Wealth in Cleveland, Ohio.
As baby boomers age, with about 10,000 turning 65 every day, that often puts pressure on their children to take on caretaking roles, Ettinger noted. Women are more likely to take on those responsibilities when they may not have enough saved for their own retirement, she said.
Half of women said they are behind on retirement savings, versus just 35% of men, according to a 2022 Goldman Sachs report.
Caregiving can affect women’s ability to save if it takes them out of the workforce. Less work hours may also reduce the amount of Social Security benefits they qualify for in retirement.
How to mitigate the effect of financial curveballs
Women also contend with unique challenges when it comes to retirement planning, such as lower pay, longer life expectancies and more time out of the workforce compared to men.
Professional financial help can mitigate the effects of the potential surprises women face.
Sitting down with a financial advisor can help identify important questions that should be asked, Haas said.
Examples of such questions include: Do you and your family members have life insurance or long-term care insurance? If you become a caregiver, will you still be able to work? Do you have an emergency fund?
Moreover, women may be able to find information on what is available to them from their employer’s benefits department, Ettinger suggested.
“So many families don’t want to talk about money,” Ettinger said.
Addressing that will require both women and their families and the financial professionals with whom they work to address tough questions, including who will provide care and how when a loved one gets sick.
“A big retirement curveball is we’re not getting there early enough to help people prepare,” Ettinger said.
Finance
Arra Finance To Acquire Crescent Auto Finance, Rapidly Scaling Its Subprime Auto Finance Platform
Deal to quadruple auto finance origination capacity and reduce credit application response time to a matter of seconds
IRVING, Texas, June 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Arra Finance, LLC (“Arra” or the “Company”), a subprime indirect auto finance company, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the auto financing division of Crescent Bank (“Crescent”), a New Orleans-based FDIC insured bank with approximately $1 billion in assets that has provided nationwide indirect auto lending since 1991. The deal accelerates the rapid expansion of Arra’s platform, enhancing its technology stack and analytics capacity well ahead of growth expectations. Crescent will retain its branch and online retail banking platforms, as well as its commercial lending program, and Arra will become the servicer for Crescent’s $815 million originated auto loan portfolio. The transaction is expected to close in 3Q 2025. Financial terms were not disclosed.
As a well-established operator in the subprime auto financing space, Crescent has originated upwards of $5.3 billion in auto loans nationwide over its 30-year history and $652 million in the last two years. This acquisition brings Crescent’s e-contracting, internal loan servicing and accelerated auto-decision capabilities to the Arra platform, alongside advanced analytics and additional fraud protection tools in underwriting and funding.
With financial backing from Obra Capital (“Obra”), Arra now has the operational bandwidth and capital structure necessary to provide a comprehensive suite of financing solutions to auto dealers across the country. Arra expects to rapidly scale delivery of customer financing solutions to dealers by leveraging Crescent’s existing operations, with a significantly increased auto finance origination capacity, larger dealer base and the ability to respond to credit applications within seconds of submission.
As part of the acquisition, Arra will welcome approximately 180 new employees from Crescent, expanding Arra’s best-in-class team by a factor of six. This includes 24 new sales team members, who will support the deployment of Arra’s capital base and provide a consistent touchpoint for new and existing dealer customers alike. The new additions will continue to be primarily based in Carrollton, Texas, supporting a seamless operational integration while opening new pathways for opportunity, as enabled by Arra’s access to asset-backed financing solutions.
“With today’s announcement, we have rapidly advanced Arra’s growth trajectory, substantially improving our ability to be the premier financing partner for franchise and select independent dealers,” said Kenn Wardle, Chief Executive Officer of Arra Finance. “After only six months in market, we are on track to outpace our growth targets by a number of years, and we have developed the platform capabilities necessary to deliver responses to credit applications in a matter of seconds. I look forward to welcoming our new team members as we bring our combined offerings to market and continue to streamline the car buying experience for dealers and consumers across the country.”
00:00:06 Speaker A
All right. Time now for to watch Wednesday, June 11th. We’ll start off on the earnings front here. We’re going to be getting some big names tomorrow. That will include Oracle, Chewy, and Victoria’s Secret. Oracle, by the way, announced some results for the fourth quarter after the market close. And it was expecting Oracle’s cloud unit to grow faster than expected, possibly more than 54% this quarter based on results from other names in the space, such as Microsoft and Google.
00:00:38 Speaker B
And taking a look at the economy, we’ll get fresh inflation data coming out in the morning with the Consumer Price Index, that’s CPI. Economists forecast total CPI will hold steady at 0.2%, while core CPI could tick up to 0.3% on a month over month basis. On a year over year basis, total and core CPI expected to rise to 2.5 and 2.8%, respectively.
00:01:08 Speaker A
And moving over to housing, weekly mortgage rate application data, that’s coming out in the morning. Last week’s number, decreasing 3.9% from the week prior, marking the third consecutive week of declines.
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