Women seek financial advice to feel ‘in control’

Appearing on The ifa Show ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March, Yulania Financial founder and principal adviser Katherine Spitzkowsky said that, while a clients’ gender doesn’t dictate her approach to providing service, in her experience, men and women are often looking for different things from financial advice.

“When it comes to younger women, of which most of my clients make up that demographic, it’s really more about feeling like they’re in control and feeling like they’re in the driver’s seat,” Spitzkowsky said.

“When I meet with a woman in their 30s or 40s, the number one goal that they seem to have is that they want to increase their financial literacy. Whereas often in the past when I’ve met with single men, it’s been the returns that are driving what they’re looking for in financial advice.

“The women seem more to want to be able to control things and increase their financial literacy. So they have more of the questions around, ‘Well, how does that strategy work? What exactly makes up that tax deduction?’ Like those types of questions.”

Additionally, Spitzkowsky said that age is often an important factor, particularly in regards to female clients, as older women may have only had tenuous control over the household finances in the past, making them more cautious when it comes to making financial decisions.

“When speaking to women who are in their 50s, 60s, 70s, which I’ve got a handful of clients that fall into that demographic, particularly ones who are divorced or widowed, they’re unlikely to have ever really been in control of the money.

“So, a lot more hand-holding goes into it. The pace of the advice process can be a bit slower because they want to be a little more risk-averse in making sure that they’re making the right decision with their money.”

Although this is by no means a blanket rule, she said that confidence or a lack thereof is likely a contributing factor, regardless of the actual level of financial literacy a client possesses.

“It’s interesting because when you ask women, ‘What financial literacy have you read or listened to or absorbed before?’ They will usually say, ‘I’ve read this book. I’ve listened to this podcast. I follow these Instagram accounts.’ Whatever that is. But men are often like, ‘I don’t know. I just picked it up along the way’,” Spitzkowsky said.

“I feel like women are often more actively engaged in seeking out financial literacy.”

Furthermore, she suggested that, while there could be a number of reasons this occurs, environmental factors could play a significant role in the level of financial confidence.

“Whether it’s just that in their families growing up, boys got to have those conversations more than the girls did, or if it’s the nature of people’s jobs that they’re just around that kind of talk a bit more, or if it’s what they’re talking about at the pub with their mates. Men do seem to have the confidence,” Spitzkowsky said.

“And that is often most stark when you have a couple sitting in front of you and then the woman – in a heteronormative situation – the woman is often a bit more subdued in the conversation.

“Takes it all in, and might be picking up the phone to ask the questions, maybe not in front of their husband and that’s unfortunate because both of them have the opportunity to learn but there is this, I don’t know, sense of embarrassment sometimes with women around what they do and don’t know.”

To hear more from Katherine Spitzkowsky, tune in here.