Financial Advice for Women
A primary mission at Northstar is to empower women around money so that they can prosper through life's many transitions. We believe that women are not being served well in this area (or men for that matter). Our hope is to provide thought leadership, education and stories that will connect with your concerns and issues.
Considering that about 80% of women will be soley responsible for household financial decisions at some point in their lives, let's take a look at how women are responding to the financial advice they are receiving today:
- More than 70% of married women fire their financial professionals within one year of their husbands’ deaths.
- Women who go through a divorce are also very likely to leave their husbands' advisors.
- Women as a group are less satisfied than men with the performance of their financial professionals.
- Women rated financial professionals and their firms lower in every category of performance. Many of the gaps were significant.
- Only 49% of women said their advisors focused on "making me a smarter investor," compared with 60% of men.
- Only 57% said their advisors "clearly articulate downside risks of investments," compared to 66% of men.
In addition, women are more focused on planning than investing, according to an October 2011 report by the Spectrem Group. The report indicated that women investors may trust advisors less readily than men do because advisors are not devoting adequate time to understand the issues that matter most. These key issues, according to the report, include the financial well-being of children and grandchildren and whether they will have adequate funds for retirement. The report concluded that women need better financial advice that is geared to their long term security and the overall well-being of their families. Our conversations with our women clients about their experiences with other advisors substantiates this report.
How do you feel? Do you agree that women need better or different financial advice? Other thoughts? Your feedback and thoughts on this topic are valuable to us and to the conversation.
