While women investors are slightly more likely than men investors to have an optimistic financial outlook for 2019 (56% vs, 53%), women are clearly less optimistic than men about the stock market in 2019 (36% vs 50%).
They’re also far less optimistic about the economy as a whole, according to new research from Nationwide Advisory Solutions.
Women investors are also less financially prepared, and these gaps in optimism and preparation persist, regardless of a woman’s decision to work with an advisor or her net worth.
“There is a disconnect between a woman’s degree of concern and her level of preparation—regardless of her access to an advisor—and the tension is clearly highlighted in Nationwide Advisory Solutions’ Advisor Authority study,” Kristi Rodriguez, leader of the Nationwide Retirement Institute, said in a statement. “It’s clear that women are highly attuned to the uncertainty in the market and the economy, and that they need more help to protect against these potential risks.”
Less optimistic, less prepared, more concerned
Given their less optimistic outlook for the markets and the economy, it follows that women investors are somewhat more concerned than men investors about a bear market and an economic recession over the next 12 months.
Two-thirds of women and men investors anticipate that market volatility will increase over the next 12 months. Likewise, women are nearly as likely as men to say that protecting assets is among their top financial concerns.
Yet despite an obvious need, they are far less likely than men to have a strategy in place to protect their assets against market risk.
Women investors are also somewhat more likely than men investors to say that outliving retirement savings is a top financial concern, but are far less likely than men to have a strategy in place to help protect against outliving their savings.
Women and men both say that Social Security is their top solution, but women are far more reliant than men on Social Security to help protect themselves against outliving savings.
They are also far less likely than men to use other guaranteed income solutions to protect against outliving savings, such as deferred income annuities and qualified longevity annuity contracts (QLACs) and somewhat less likely to use single premium immediate annuities.
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.
