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In bygone eras of the advisory business, it was reasonable for an advisor to expect that a female client fit into the following groups over the course of her life: not the primary breadwinner in a household, potentially a homemaker and then a widow largely dependent on assets left to her by her husband.
Thanks in large part to Gen X, those situations started changing and while there are clear gender pay gaps that need to be closed, women are making more money and are increasingly the top earners in their respective households.
Another point for advisors to consider, and they really should, is that younger women – millennials and Gen Z – are, for a variety of reasons, delaying traditional moves such as getting married and having children. Said another way, more women (men as well) are remaining single for longer periods of time than were seen in past generations.
The moral of that story is that single women, as is the case with their committed counterparts, want professional financial advice and it’s on advisor to not only recognize the growing financial credibility of single women, but develop the bespoke advice and strategies relevant to these women.
Why it Matters
The recent Advisor Authority survey, courtesy of Nationwide Retirement Institute, examines some of the retirement planning issues single women deal with. Advisors should take note.
Single women are less “optimistic than married women about their financial outlook for the next 12 months (31% of single women said they’re optimistic vs. 39% of married women),” notes Nationwide’s Ann Bair. “(Single women are) more worried about their ability to afford their monthly bills in retirement, due to the rising costs of living (44% of single women are worried vs 34% of married women).”
In other words, inflation and the specter of a recession are primary concerns of single women. They view those issues as headwinds to retirement planning and they’re right. After all, those same issues confound married couples.
As Nationwide points out, seven out of 10 single women polled view inflation and the possibility of a recession as factors that could delay their retirements. Advisors know that specific to women, those concerns are amplified because women typically live longer than men.
Good News for Advisors: Single Women Are Proactive
To the credit of single women, they aren’t taking retirement hurdles lightly. Rather, the Nationwide survey indicates this cohort of females is proactive and that includes many already taking the initiative to work with an advisor.
Of those polled, 71% are seeking advice on tax planning and retirement savings while another 27% want to know how they can transition the savings they’ve built to date into a steady stream of retirement income.
“From the financial professional perspective, this represents a business-building opportunity to help women investors achieve their long-term goals,” concludes Bair. “Nearly all financial professionals who responded to our survey feel well-equipped to serve the needs of their women clients (96%). Moreover, nine in ten financial professionals plan to grow the number of women clients in their practices over the next 12 months, an 11-percentage point increase since August 2023.”
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