Family Office
Allianz Life examines women's financial attitudes
Survey: Most women feel only "somewhat" or "not at all"
financially secure. A new survey by Allianz Life points to a
puzzling sense of financial insecurity among women, even though
women have better access to education and careers than ever
before.
"Women tend to live about eight years more than men, and they
realize that their husbands may use up their savings for medical
care and support before leaving them alone and without money in
their retirement years," says Lisa Resnick, president of life and
long-term care insurance at Allianz. She cites this as the cause
behind the survey's findings.
The Harris Interactive polled 1,925 women and 1,258 men for the
survey. In responses, about 90% of women admitted to feeling
"somewhat" or "not at all" financially secure. Almost half said
that they were afraid of becoming destitute.
Well maybe
But Allianz' view that this insecurity stems from women's
changing role in society is a bit hard to swallow. "Women's roles
in society, the economy and at home" -- two thirds of U.S. women
are now active in the workforce, compared with one third in the
1950s -- "have now evolved to the extent that an increasing
amount of decision-making and control falls to women," according
to an Allianz statement.
Absent any comparative measure of how financially secure women
felt when more of them were homemakers, Allianz' summary is
purely speculative. It's also unhelpful that Allianz fails to
tell us how men regard their financial security.
It's just as likely that women's anxiety about personal finance
boils down to a growing sense -- right or wrong -- that you have
to be a millionaire to contemplate a comfortable retirement.
The survey says that men are three times more likely to take
risks in financial planning, and assume -- contentiously -- that
they should be in control of the family finances. "Money is 20
times more likely to trigger arguments in a marriage than sex,"
says Allianz.
Resnick also points out the lopsided ratio of male financial
advisors -- in the U.S. 80% of them are men -- and says that
since women are more likely to work well with female advisors,
there is a need for more. Allianz Life is part of the
Frankfurt-based Allianz Group of financial-service companies.
-FWR
.
