The benefits of high-quality, professional advice are not confined to a particular demographic, be it age, income bracket, race or others. Same goes for gender. Men and women can and do benefit from working with registered investment advisors.
However, a case can be made that’s women can derive more benefit from working with advisors. After all, scores of data points, research, studies and surveys confirm the following: Women are better savers and more prudent investors than men. Plus, they’re eager to attain more financial education and high-level advice.
There are reasons why advisors should consider bolstering relationships with female clients while making efforts to turn those in the prospect camp into full-fledged clients. Those include issues such as the still present income gap and financial matters being a primary source of stress among women.
Many women simply want to feel secure about money and shed related anxiety. Those are among the reasons why advisors should consider the findings in the survey detailed below.
Important Points for Advisors to Consider
A new survey by Varo Bank indicates that women are stressed about finances and could use some help with budgeting because many are living paycheck-to-paycheck.
“The gap is still there. And we need to do more to close it. Among survey respondents, a full two-thirds (67%) of those considered ‘financially fragile’ were women,” according to the bank. “For over 48% of respondents, basic needs like doctor's visits, necessary medications, mental health care, healthy food, and safe housing have been skipped in the last 6 months due to cost.”
It’s important for advisors to have an open mind when working with any client, but that’s particularly true when it comes to working with women facing financial difficulties and stress. The reasoning is simple. The aforementioned ominous scenarios are not specific to a specific race or voting pattern.
“Financial struggles cross party lines in a major way. Our survey responses did not show a meaningful difference in financial fragility between political parties - people in all parties were inclined to cite the daily cost of living as their greatest financial concern,” adds Varo.
Another issue to be mindful of: As Varo Bank points out, many women have poor views of the traditional financial system with some expressing outright distrust and disdain of old guard banks.
Why Advisors Matter More than Ever
In recent years, the importance of mental health has gotten more attention and rightfully so. I often say advisors aren’t psychologists or therapists nor should they pretend to be.
Still, the issues of mental health and personal finances intersect with each other. There’s no denying that and there’s no denying advisors need to be aware of that. Consider the following as it highlights just how important an advisor can be in a client’s life.
“Forty percent (40%) of respondents reported that financial stress has negatively impacted their mental health. Fifteen percent (15%) have sacrificed mental health care due to the cost, and 1 in 5 people (21.5%) reported self-medicating due to financial stress,” concludes Varo. “Fifteen percent (15.6%) said that financial stress has caused them to consider self-harm. Men were significantly more likely than women to report self-medicating and considering self-harm.”