‘The elder daughter phenomenon’: Edward Jones head Penny Pennington said the economy is propped up by eldest daughters

Penny Pennington, chief executive officer of Edward Jones, at the Semafor World Economy Summit during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring meetings in Washington, DC. (Credit: Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

One of the biggest forces reshaping the financial services industry may not be AI, innovation or markets. It may actually be related to who is responsible for keeping families financially organized: eldest daughters.

“The elder daughter phenomenon has to do with caregiving, and often has to do with becoming the executor on an estate,” Penny Pennington, the managing partner of financial services giant Edward Jones, told Fortune. “Making decisions that extend across this family for more members of the family.”