The client and proposition director at Quilter Private Client advisers has said the advice industry needs to change its approach towards women so they can feel accepted.
Sarah Waring pointed to the reams of data that show there is a gender pensions gap, “while auto-enrolment has gone some way to start to ease that burden the issue remains”.
“The advice industry has a crucial role to play to ensure that women are financially secure now and in the future. Financial advice is the best way to get that piece of mind,” Waring told International Adviser.
“However, some woman are still put off getting financial advice, as figures from WealthiHer Network show 36% of women have felt patronised when dealing with our industry.
“We need to eradicate any preconceptions that financial advice is an old man’s club.
“One of the best things the industry can do to is encourage more women to enter the industry so women feel like they have an adviser that can empathise with their needs.”
Survey
These comments come after Fidelity International found 27% of UK women don’t have enough saved in their pension to support themselves during retirement.
This is despite many expecting to need their pension to financially support them for at least 21 years.
Fidelity surveyed 2,000 UK adults and found 21% of women have not considered their life expectancy at all when calculating the amount they need to save for retirement.
And a further 25% are yet to even calculate how much they will need to retire comfortably.
“The level of risk to which women are exposed is striking,” Sian Fisher, chief executive of the Chartered Insurance Institute, said to IA. “Urgent action is needed to engage women on their terms, to equip and empower them to manage their own risks in life.”
Emma-Lou Montgomery, associate director for Fidelity International, said: “The hard truth is that most women just aren’t saving enough for the length of their retirement years.”
Breakdown
Fidelity’s research found that women between the ages of 35 and 65 were more likely to be unprepared for retirement.
Some 32% of those aged between 55-64 said they didn’t think they’d be able to finance a comfortable retirement by themselves.
Worryingly, 15% of women aged 55-64 years old said they would need to rely on their partner’s pension in retirement.
Fidelity’s survey identified taking time off to have children or to look after elderly relatives as key drivers behind the gender pension gap.
Andrew Tully, technical director at Canada Life, told IA: “Women can pay a high price in retirement for a society that vastly undervalues their contributions, for example, through taking career breaks to raise children.
“That’s particularly true given the children they take time out to raise are the ones who will be paying our state pension when we retire.
“The solutions in front of women – work longer, depend on others, or somehow live on less – are both unfair and often unrealistic.”
