Women Investors Unsure About Retirement

Fri, 15 March 2024  |  retirement women 

Women investors' retirement plans are being adversely affected by volatile markets and growing living expenses. According to Nationwide's ninth annual Advisor Authority survey,  seven out of ten (70%) female investors say that signs of a potential recession and inflation have caused them to reevaluate if and when they can retire as they deal with a cascade of economic headwinds.

Keeping up with monthly payments and costs has only gotten harder as living expenses keep going up. The rising cost of living is cited by over four out of ten single women (43%) and married women (40%) as one of the main long-term obstacles to their retirement savings.

According to the survey, many single women investors feel less financially secure than their married counterparts due to increased living expenses and market volatility; only 31% of single women feel hopeful about their financial outlook for the next 12 months, compared to 39% of married women.

To exacerbate this worry, 44% of unmarried women worry about their ability to pay their monthly expenses in retirement. One of the top financial worries for single women in the upcoming year is managing debt (21%), with nearly one in three (31%) of them who are retired or over 55 anticipating paying off credit card debt in their golden years.

Single women are looking to specialists for proactive methods to deal with these issues. Single women have started working with advisors at a somewhat higher rate than married women, despite the fact that more than one in three women (36%) presently work with them. Compared to 37% of married women, over four out of ten (41%) single women who work with an advisor began doing so during the last year.

"Single women are planning for retirement without the balance of a partner's income and assets, even though women in general face many obstacles in this regard. According to Ann Bair, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Nationwide Financial, "for many, there is no backup plan." "It's encouraging to see that more single women are working with an advisor – and that's helping them feel more confident and empowered in their retirement planning journey."

Women seek practical financial advice.

Married women are typically more reactive than single women when it comes to talking to their advisor about retirement planning. More single women (22%) than married women (11%), who work with an advisor, are naming beneficiaries and creating living wills or advance directives. Compared to married women (22%), single women (27%) are somewhat more likely to talk with their advisor about turning accumulated funds into retirement income.

The subjects that single women discuss with their financial advisor most frequently are tax planning methods (37%), saving enough money to reach or maintain retirement (34%), and turning savings into retirement income (27%).

Regarding their relationship with an advisor, one finding sticks out: women who are married or single (19% and 25%, respectively) state that feeling more confidence about their financial destiny is the primary reason they have an advisor.

Although advisors are stepping up to the plate, they can overestimate their capacity to engage with female customers.

Advisors are trying to work with more female clients as the market for solid advice becomes more and more competitive. Over the next 12 months, nine out of ten advisers (90%) aim to work with more women, an increase of 11 percentage points since August 2023. Surprisingly, 96% of advisors believe they are qualified to do so.

Nonetheless, only about half of married (51%) and single (47%) women who pay for the services of a financial advisor or expert believe they now understand their financial goals.
 

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