“Unmarried women workers and retirees have lower retirement confidence than their married counterparts and are more likely to have lower incomes and assets,” according to new research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).
“The survey results are a real wake-up call when it comes to the situation of unmarried women workers and their retirement prospects.”
Unmarried retirees are also more likely to say that their expenses were higher than they expected and are more likely to have retired earlier than planned.
Key survey findings of the issue brief, titled “The Perfect Storm—Factors Contributing to Lower Retirement Confidence Among Women Who Are Not Married,” include:
- Divorced and single, never-married women workers are more likely to have lower levels of financial assets than married women workers. Just 27% of married women workers have assets of less than $25,000 compared with just over half for divorced women workers (58%) and single, never-married women workers (56%).
- Married women workers are more likely to say that they are confident they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement years than both divorced and single, never-married women workers. Among retirees, married women are also more likely to be confident that they will have enough money in retirement than divorced or widowed women.
- Married women workers are more likely to agree that they feel knowledgeable about managing their day-to-day finances than single, never-married women workers. The share of divorced women workers who feel knowledgeable about managing finances is not significantly different from the share of married or single, never-married women workers.
- Both divorced and single, never-married women workers are more likely to agree that retirement savings are not a priority relative to the current needs of their family than married women workers.
- When asked if individuals even know where to go to find good financial or retirement planning advice, one-third of women either strongly or somewhat agree with the statement that they do not know where to go for good financial or retirement planning advice.
- Married women workers are the most likely to feel they have enough money to cover an emergency expense, while divorced women workers are the least likely to feel they can cover an emergency expense.
- Women of each marital status who are offered a workplace retirement plan cite better explanations for how much income their savings will produce in retirement in their top four most valuable improvements to their workplace plan. However, divorced women are most likely to say that none of the possible improvements are the most valuable, whereas married and single, never-married women have three of the same four in their top improvements.
“The survey results are a real wake-up call when it comes to the situation of unmarried women workers and their retirement prospects,” Craig Copeland, director, Wealth Benefits Research, EBRI, said in a statement. “The evidence shows that the current slate of ‘help’ solutions aren’t resonating well enough. In particular, a focus on retirement savings is not paramount for them, as opposed to meeting their current financial needs.”
THE COMPLETE ISSUE BRIEF IS FOUND HERE
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
