Earlier this month (8 March) we celebrated International Women’s Day. The day has now been recognised for more than 100 years and aims to celebrate women’s achievements and raise awareness of gender inequalities around the world.
Although significant progress has been made in the UK to reduce inequalities, significant disparities still exist – not least in terms of women’s future financial security.
For example, women are still likely to save less than men over the course of their lifetimes. This is typically because they tend to work in lower paid jobs than men, have more career breaks (to bring up their families) and work fewer hours. Women graduates tend to go into less well-paid jobs than their male counterparts and hence take longer to pay back student loans. It’s also not uncommon for women in their 40s and 50s (often peak earnings years) to still be bringing up young children and / or having to care for elderly relatives. All of these factors affect women disproportionately and can affect their capacity to plan for the future.
By the age of 60-64, women have an average pension wealth of £35,700 – which is just one quarter of the average amount held by men. This situation is predicted to get worse for women in the years to come due to the continuing impact of some of the factors outlined above, at a time when they can expect to live longer and be faced with funding their own care needs.
So what can be done?
The Chartered Insurance Institute is at the forefront of a campaign to improve women’s lifelong financial resilience. It is working with policymakers to address some of the issues, initially hoping to raise women’s awareness of the future financial risks they may face – before it’s too late to do anything. It wants women to educate and inform themselves about their finances and hence become more confident in discussions with financial advisers and other experts.
In its report, the Institute identifies six ‘Moments that matter’ in relation to future financial security. One of these is the importance of later life, planning and entering retirement. A number of helpful hints are listed, including encouraging women to find out about their current working and pensions arrangements and how they fit with their retirement aspirations and future needs.
Whether you’re male or female, if you would like advice and help to plan your financial future, please do contact us. Our financial advisers will help you to understand the options available to you in language that you understand. Let’s Talk About You.
Source 1: https://www.insuringwomensfutures.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/COH_J012626-IWF-financial-wellbeing-FINAL.pdf
Source 2: https://citywire.co.uk/new-model-adviser/news/why-female-only-events-are-important-to-get-women-investing/a1331582?re=72310&ea=1474928&utm_source=BulkEmail_NMA_Daily_Summary&utm_medium=BulkEmail_NMA_Daily_Summary&utm_campaign=BulkEmail_NMA_Daily_Summary
Source 3: https://www.ft.com/content/a1b4d94c-feff-11e7-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5
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