Women keen to invest but worry about losing money - research
Only 31% go to IFAs
Half of women (49%) believe they are just as interested in investing as men, but just as many are concerned about choosing the wrong investment and losing money, research by YouGov and Like Minds has found.
The study, which surveyed 1,094 women, found half (51%) of respondents were worried about losing money as a result of picking the wrong investment.
A similar proportion (47%), however, thought women were "at least as confident as men" when it came to investing their money. Elsewhere, the research found that, while a third of women said advisers would be their first port of call for financial advice, 37% felt advisers were too expensive.
The participants said consumer finance websites would be their second choice (24%) to help them with their investment decisions, while a close relative (14%) was the third most popular option.
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Some two-fifths (39%) of women did not believe communications about financial products reflected the way they thought and felt about money, while a similar proportion (40%) thought financial services companies should be more inclusive in the way they communicated with female customers.
According to the research, around a third (29%) of the participants suggested financial services firms would do well to address broader financial issues women face, such as career breaks, the gender pay gap and the financial impact of being a primary carer.
'Call to action'
Like Minds consultant Nikki Thompson (pictured) said: "Traditionally, men have been portrayed as more interested than women when it comes to investing. However, we know women's salaries are slowly increasing in relation to men's and it is likely this increasing earning power is contributing to the shift in attitude.
"Last year, research by the Chartered Insurance Institute showed women have an average pension pot of just one-fifth the size of men's at age 65," she continued. "That's a shocking statistic, and it's a call to action for all of us who take people's lifetime savings seriously."
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