Women Place Greater Emphasis On Trust

By Cyril Tuohy

InsuranceNewsNet

Women are more likely than men to trust a financial advisor, and are also more open to changing their savings and spending habits after receiving advice than men are, according to the pension fund giant Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF).

In a recent survey, TIAA-CREF found that 30 percent of women trust a financial advisor or consultant for accurate and reliable financial information compared to 25 percent of men. Also, 25 percent of women are more likely to trust friends and family for accurate and reliable financial information compared to 23 percent of men.

Teresa Hassara, executive vice president and head of institutional business at TIAA-CREF, said that because women live longer and bear children, women have unique needs when it comes to financial advice.

Women, she said in a news release, “often interrupt their high-earning years to care for children or elderly parents, which is why it’s so important that women connect with financial advice they trust so that they feel empowered to act on it.”

In the U.S., according to Census Bureau data, the average life expectancy of a woman born in 2015 will be 81.4 years, and for a man born in 2015 it will be 76.4 years. In the U.S. there were 1.9 births per woman in 2010.

Of the total number of women who reach out to a financial advisor, 62 percent subsequently monitor their savings and 58 percent modify their spending habits, the TIAA-CREF survey found. In addition, nearly 40 percent of women who received financial advice change their asset allocations in their retirement plan, the survey found.

The survey found that 56 percent of women are confident of saving enough for retirement compared to 65 percent of men.

Results were collected from a random sampling of 1,000 adults Aug. 28 to Sept. 2 as part of TIAA-CREF’s second annual Financial Advice Survey. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

TIAA-CREF earlier this year announced it would increase the size of its Individual Advisory Services (IAS) by 45 percent through the hiring of 200 advisors by the end of 2014. TIAA-CREF projects it will employ more than 650 IAS advisors by the end of next year, the company said.

In an interview with InsuranceNewsNet earlier this year, Eric Jones, senior managing director of advisory solutions for TIAA-CREF, said many clients turn to advisors for more complex financial planning needs.

Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. Cyril may be reached at [email protected].

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Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. He can be reached at [email protected].