Helping women secure their own financial futures

Even though women have many of the same financial goals as men, including saving for retirement and planning for specific short-term goals, they may face different hurdles. Statistically, women make less money in their careers, and that wage gap widens if they take leave to care for children, according to Payscale’s The State of the Gender Pay Gap 2020. Plus, you can add a longer life to the list.

Here are a few key issues and suggestions to consider when talking with your female clients.

Understand the wage gap
Knowing some of the issues women face will help you guide your conversation and find suitable solutions. Here are a few essential statistics that could help frame your approach.

• Women may earn less. There has been some progress to close the wage gap over the years, however Payscale reports that on the whole, women earned 81 cents for every dollar men made in 2020.
• Women tend to live longer. Women, statistically, live to about age 81 while men live to about age 77.
• Women may or may not risk less. When compared to men, women have been cast as conservative investors. In reality, research indicates that female investors tend to outperform men when it comes to generating a return on their investments. Why? Inherently female characteristics like planning, patience to handle market volatility and taking on less risk may be a few factors leading to their success.
• Women may plan to retire later. Fifty-three percent say they’ll retire after age 65 and 13 percent say they don’t plan to retire.

Pair solutions with facts
The financial services industry has struggled to understand and accommodate the unique financial concerns and challenges this group of the population faces. By knowing the issues that many women encounter, you’ll be in a good position to discuss the products that can help provide specific solutions that meet their individual goals and aspirations for the future.  

Take longevity, for example. Women generally live longer than males on average. Plus, they not only could surpass their spouse in years, but outlive their retirement savings as well. To help empower them, explain that individual annuities are a product designed specifically to take on longevity by providing the option to guarantee a consistent income for their entire retired life.

Build financial confidence
As baby boomers pass their wealth down to their next generations, as much as $68 trillion is expected to change hands over the next 25 years. While much of this amount will go to millennials or other generations, a large chunk will likely be given to female spouses — especially those who don’t already serve as the financial head of the household or have taken a back seat in family financial decision-making.

When discussing retirement and short-term goal planning, help both spouses be equal partners in the conversation. In addition, you can be a valuable resource to those women who are looking for financial guidance and solutions for achieving their long-term objectives. By working with women to show them their own capabilities, you can help enhance their financial confidence and literacy, while also maintaining and building your book of business.

Two things you can do today

• Learn more about the women’s pay gap and the issues women face in saving for retirement.
• Talk to both partners in a relationship about their individual financial goals, because they could be different.

This information is brought to you by Athene — where innovative annuity solutions are powered by unconventional thinking.