What Women Want

A survey undertaken in the USA in 2010 by Ameriprise, a financial services company, found some interesting differences between men and women when it comes to getting financial advice. To begin with, women are much more likely to seek financial advice than men (46% vs 38%). When asked about the importance of specific attributes of advice, there were clear differences between men and women. Women place a much higher importance on having an adviser who takes time to educate them, with 63% rating this attribute as extremely or very important compared with 52% of men. They also seek an adviser who provides a knowledgeable point of view (69% for women vs 52% for men) and who coaches them on what they need to do to achieve their retirement goals (58% vs 43%).

During their pre-retirement years, more women than men put high importance on planning to be able to volunteer (31% vs 22%) and spend time with family (77% vs 68%) in retirement. These differences continue through to how they spend their time in retirement. Men, on the other hand, place more importance while in their pre-retirement years on planning how to spend more time resting and relaxing (38% vs 32%) and deciding on hobbies to pursue (33%vs 21%), yet in retirement they are much more likely to continue to work (17% vs 6%).

One of the most surprising findings of the survey is that both women and men give almost equal importance to an adviser’s ability to understand what is important to them as to the adviser’s ability to produce competitive returns on their money.

In summary, while women tend to have more concerns about their financial future, they are also more likely to use a financial adviser and to make plans for an active lifestyle in retirement.