But as advisers are we also guilty of this to a certain extent? If asked to describe our internationally mobile clients, my bet is the majority of us would paint a picture of a successful male client. But by doing so are we overlooking another growing client base and one which may not require different services, but certainly requires a different approach?
A recent report called Women 2020, by research think tank The Futures Company, points out that while women are the fastest growing group of consumers worldwide, analyses of their impact is pretty thin on the ground. What we do know from this report is that enrolment in tertiary education is falling for men, but increasing for women. At the same time, according to the report, earnings for women with college degrees are rising faster than their male counterparts.
More trusting of advisers
The upshot of the report is that while women are a growing economic force in their own right, society has not yet got the measure of what the overall impact of this is, or indeed how to deal with it. As advisers we may, however, have a head start. Recent research from CoreData shows that financial advisers enjoy a “high level of trust” among females. The report, which studied the investment attitudes of over 5,000 investors from 13 countries, analysed the results from a range of perspectives including age and gender.
The study reveals that high net worth individual females place far greater trust in an adviser’s ability to reach their financial goals and targets than their male counterparts. The real challenge for advisers going forward is therefore not to misplace this trust and assume we know what the principal drivers are when it comes to long term financial planning for women.
Determined
I meet an impressive number of professional women who have not only built their own businesses, but are just as determined to ensure the wealth that’s accrued from their hard work is not threatened by external factors. They require a high level of savings, tax planning and investment management services. They have their own financial goals that they want to fulfill, which they don’t necessarily want lumped in with their partners. And while they accept they may want to take a career break to bring up a family, they need financial plans in place that understand and take account of this.
At the end of the day, both men and women need sound long-term financial plans on an individual, as well as a family level. The question is are we bold enough to set aside our gender assumptions and provide a service that caters for both sexes?
David Howell is chief executive of Guardian Wealth Management
