Helping women gain financial independence also requires understanding their unique investing style. For instance, women tend to place a higher value on establishing a personal connection with financial professionals and, if they don’t sense one, are more likely than men to look elsewhere (Source: InvestmentNews, The future of wealth management is female, June 29, 2020). Additionally, their perspective about investing is almost 180 degrees different than their male counterparts — not outliving their savings tends to be more important to women than outperforming the stock market (Source: InvestmentNews, The future of wealth management is female, June 29, 2020).
Perhaps not surprisingly, women also prioritize capital protection and are more likely to manage their money through passive as opposed to active investment strategies (Source: InvestmentNews, The future of wealth management is female, June 29, 2020). Recent research by Greenwald Associates and CANNEX also found that women place even greater value than men on having additional guaranteed lifetime income in retirement beyond Social Security (Source: Greenwald & Assoc. and Cannex, Guaranteed Lifetime Income Study 2020, June 2020).
Let’s Help Women Secure Their Financial Freedom
We must evolve now as an industry to better connect with women by more widely acknowledging their unique retirement challenges and investing approach, not only to support better financial outcomes, but a broader vision to close the gender gap in our lifetimes.
Women have already waited far too long to achieve financial freedom, and we have all the expertise and tools at our disposal to help ensure women can look to retirement with confidence instead of the fear of running out of money.
Aimee DeCamillo is chief commercial officer and president of Jackson National Life Distributors LLC.