Women Investors

We have developed financial strategies specifically designed to address the unique circumstances that many women face.

Since they typically live longer but earn less than men, most women need their money to last longer. Our approach of forming strategic partnerships with female clients incorporates managing risk with optimizing return on investment.

Women & Investing

A 2005 survey conducted by Oppenheimer Funds found that women are much more informed about financial matters than they were 10 years ago. However, only 14% of women have $100,000 or more saved for retirement, and only 47% who invest know that stocks have been the best performing asset class over the last 30 years. This becomes a matter of some concern considering the following:

- Women still make an average of $.76 for every $1 earned by men.

- The average woman spends 15% of her working years outside the workforce caring for children and elderly parents. (Source: Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement)

- Women retirees receive only half the average pension benefits that men receive.

- 50% of marriages end in divorce. (Source: Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement)

- Women outlive men by an average of seven years, and are often widowed by age 56. (Source: United States Department of Labor)

- 80-90% of women will be solely responsible for their finances at some point in their lives. (Source: Oppenheimer Funds Women & Investing Make it Happen brochure. They site National Center for Women and Retirement Research 1996.)

Thus, women need to save more, and invest more wisely in order to provide themselves a secure financial base over the course of their lifetime.

Financial Advisor

A financial advisor can be of great help. The Oppenheimer survey found that 66% of women in high-net-worth households use a financial advisor. A 2005 update of the study found that of the women who use a financial advisor, 73% said they are more knowledgeable about investing as a result, 75% feel more comfortable with investing, and 66% are more confident about having enough money for the future. The conclusion of the survey: women who work with financial advisors not only feel like more successful investors, they generally are.

Married women and single women face different choices in deciding when to claim Social Security benefits, as described in this recent article.
Linked with permission by the Financial Planning Association, Journal of Financial Planning, June 2007, Alicia H. Munnell and Mauricio Soto, "When Should Women Claim Social Security Benefits?"

The Millstone Evans Group of Raymond James & Associates
Washington, DC | Boulder, Colorado
800-201-4554 | 303-402-6907