Female financial advisors have always been in high demand.
Mainly because there are so few of them compared to their male counter parts. But now the demand for financial advice from women has outstripped demand for advice from men. At least according to research by Continuum. That found that 20% of women interviewed said that they were looking for financial advice, compared to 19% of men who said they were looking for advice.
The survey also found that women said that they didn’t feel secure financially, 57% and didn’t feel prepared for retirement, over 60%.
52% of women also said that trust and credibility were the most important things that they would look for in a female financial advisor. A personal service was also important.
But women still lag behind when it comes to the longer-term financial decisions. According to St James Place:
- Only 34% of women took the investment decisions in the family
- Only 28% dealt with Wills and
- 32% with wider estate planning decisions
- But 55% said they would be confident in managing a large inheritance
Women have different financial goals to men. I find that women tend to be more interested in financial security. They also like to fully understand what risks are associated with investments before making a decision. Men on the other hand tend to be more interested in returns.
Advisors are increasingly being asked to address a wider range of concerns than previously, including:
- Retirement planning
- Estate Planning
- Inheritance Tax Planning
- Wealth Transfer advice
- Capital Gains Tax advice
- Tax efficiency
Advice gap widens
Its not just female financial advisors who are in demand, its all advisors. Boring Money found that there were now 14.6 million people in the UK who had over £1 trillion invested but weren’t using an advisor. That is 2 million up on last year.
Worryingly 10 million of those investors said that they had low confidence in their investments. This might partly explain why the cash savings rate in the UK has spiralled to an average of 10% per household. This is one of the highest levels of savings for 40 years.
Boring Money estimates that up to 8 million of these investors would benefit from simplified advice.
Investment risks need to considered.
It’s not necessarily having an advisor which puts people off investments. It’s also the fear of losing money. According to Scottish Friendly over 50% of people said that were put off investing by the risk warnings required by the FCA. A further 30% said they feared losing money more than the attraction of making money.
In addition:
- 17% said they had no idea how to start investing.
- 14% said it was too complex for them to understand.
- 26% were worried that they would make mistakes which would cost them money.
- But only 10% didn’t invest because they didn’t trust the investment companies which is good news.
The FCA is currently looking at the format of risk warnings on investments to see if more appropriate wording can be found.
When it comes to crypto however, I think the warnings are spot on. The FCA advises that you should expect to lose all your money. If can afford to lose everything you put in then you’re not at risk of the investment going wrong.
Workplace pensions could be the place to start.
In terms of helping people better understand the risks of investing and the benefits of course.
Over a third of employees says that they can’t remember ever having had their pension explained to them. 20% said they had no idea how their pension worked. 10% had never checked the value of their pension, but 40% checked regularly.
By contrast 90% of employers thought that they had a good pension scheme which they’d explained well to all their employees.
Get more information.
To talk to one of our female financial advisors, why not contact Christina today. We offer a free initial meeting to discuss your requirements and explain how our service works. You are under no obligation to use us after that if you don’t want to and we won’t pester you.
So why not call us today on 01282 614444 or e mail us enquiries@ccfps.co.uk or use our contact form online.
Or if you’d prefer to think about it some more, why not have a look at our Facebook page, our Vouched For page, or our Testimonials page to see what our customers think about us.
