Women are taking ownership of money matters, asking tough questions, and making the choices that are best for their financial situations. To best support them, the insurance and financial services industry should recognize women as the financial powerhouses, decision-makers, business owners, executives and empowered consumers they are.
It's in that context that we created Empowered – our findings after talking to hundreds of women (and men as a benchmark) – to learn more about how they handle money matters, their thoughts on retirement, and if/how they like to work with financial professionals.
We asked women about their retirement concerns, and heard they're most concerned about sustaining their savings and being able to afford and enjoy retirement. When asked about preparing for retirement, the majority already had plans in place.
The Empowered survey highlighted differences in confidence levels between men and women and shined light on what could make women more confident.
Survey respondents were asked to rate how important saving for a variety of needs in retirement was. Females were more concerned across the board, and significantly more concerned about saving for emergencies and mortgage/rent expenses than males.
Women told us their top concerns were:
- Peace of mind
- Personal expenses
- Vacations or trips
- Health care
- Home or auto expenses
- Giving or charity
We asked survey respondents where they go or have gone to learn about retirement savings. We found significant differences between men and women in many categories, with men noting they turned to their financial professional, online resources, and previous experiences for information.
Possible choices included:
- Online resources
- My financial professional
- My partner
- Friend or family
- Friends or family who work in financial services
- Previous experience
- News or media sources
- Employer
- Books
- Other
The three resources women used most to learn about retirement savings are below.
Interestingly, 56 percent of women cited their employer as a place to learn about retirement.
Roughly 50 percent of respondents said they turned to a financial professional for retirement guidance.
Friends or family came in as a third resource for women at 34 percent.
We asked survey participants to evaluate how confident they felt with their current retirement plan, on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being extremely confident.
For those with low confidence who did not have the help of a financial professional, they were asked what, in general, would help them feel more confident.
Respondents said they'd be more confident if they:
- Had more money to work with
- Saw more secure market/economic conditions
- Received advice from a financial professional
- Actually had a plan in place
Consumers with low confidence who had a financial professional were asked what that agent or advisor could do to help them feel more confident.
Responses included:
- Wanting more information in general
- Seeing stronger investment growth
- And while it's out of an agent's control, having higher confidence in the market