Financial literacy gap for women is "notable and worrisome"

While women are taking increasing responsibility for their financial wellbeing and retirement preparedness, their financial literacy continues to lag behind men, according to the latest Women’s Retirement Literacy Report by The American College for Financial Services. The good news is women tend to be more humble in their evaluations of their financial knowledge and are more open to receiving financial advice than men, the study found.

Quiz results

The study evaluated financial literacy by asking respondents to take a 38-question quiz that tested knowledge on retirement planning, medical and long-term care, life insurance, investing and retirement income planning and strategies, and compared the results to the respondents’ perceptions of their own financial knowledge. Although neither men nor women scored well on the financial literacy quiz, 89 percent of women received a failing grade, compared with 72 percent of men.

Women under age 65, African-American women and those with assets between $100,000 and $500,000 had lower retirement literacy scores than women overall, according to the study.

However, African-American women with assets more than $500,000 fared especially well on the quiz, scoring on par with men with 47 percent of questions answered correctly.

Especially weak in these areas

Women tended to score better than men on questions about health and long-term care, but scored notably lower on topics related to life insurance, investing and strategies for generating retirement income. Based on their responses about retirement planning, women are less likely to understand the tax implications of retirement savings plans, the reasons for considering annuitization, or Social Security claiming strategies, said the study.

The study also found that while a healthy majority of women (two-thirds of those surveyed) have tried to figure out how much they will need to save in retirement, they lag behind the three-quarters of men who have made this calculation, a gap which the study calls “notable and worrisome.”

In addition, there is a large disparity in self-reported investment knowledge between women and men, with only 16 percent of women feeling very knowledgeable about investment considerations for retirement planning compared with 31 percent of men who report being very knowledgeable about investing. Nearly half of women who took the study’s financial literacy quiz indicated they didn’t know what percentage of their  portfolio should be held in equities to maximize a safe withdrawal rate in retirement.

More than 80 percent of women say they have a plan for where their income will come from in retirement, although only one in three have a formal written plan. The study said this suggests income plans are less formal or not well understood. Only about 25 percent of women felt very knowledgeable about planning for retirement income compared with about half of men.

Realize the risk of running out of money

Women are more concerned than men about the possibility of running out of money during retirement, as well as the impact of inflation and potential cuts to Social Security. About seven in 10 women feel guaranteed income in retirement is important, even more so among African American women, 80 percent of which emphasize the value of guaranteed income. Despite the perceived value of guaranteed income, however, only 20 percent of women felt confident in their knowledge of Social Security and only 10 percent felt knowledgeable about annuity products, again lagging men’s self-reported knowledge in these areas.

Women were less likely than men to feel knowledgeable about average life expectancy and Medicare, but both men and women reported low levels of knowledge about paying for long-term care expenses. Only 12 percent of women and 16 percent of men reported feeling highly knowledgeable about long-term care. Half of both men and women expect to require long-term care in the future, but fewer than three in ten women have a plan to fund a long-term need, and only 25 percent of women said they own insurance that would cover long-term care, according to the study.

Open to advice and education

About 60 percent of women think good advice from a financial professional is very important to portfolio performance, and the same percentage indicated they use a financial advisor to help them with financial decisions, including 30 percent who use online resources and 25 percent who use news and media. Men were more likely, according to the study, to rely on online and media sources for financial advice.

More than half of women want their advisor to educate them on ways to prevent investment risk and how to prudently spend each year to ensure they don’t outlive their savings. Very few women were concerned with finding a financial advisor who is female or the same racial or ethnical background as they are. However, half of women surveyed felt it was important for their financial advisor to specialize in serving the financial needs of women.

“Unlike men who claim to have higher levels of knowledge and then test poorly, women’s self-reported knowledge is more aligned to their actual literacy scores,” said the study. “Combined with their decision-making power and openness to advice, women represent a critical audience for financial advisors and financial services providers.”

The study recommends four areas which advisors can focus on with women to help close literacy gaps, including:

1. Understanding retirement savings vehicles and calculating an accumulation goal;
2. Addressing misunderstanding of diversification and the need for equity allocation into retirement;
3. Discussing strategies for income, particularly guaranteed life income;
4. Sharing facts about the likelihood of needing long-term care, what it costs and how it is paid for.

Kristen Beckman is a freelance writer based in Colorado. She previously was a writer and editor for ALM’s Retirement Advisor magazine and LifeHealthPro online channel. She also was a reporter for Business Insurance magazine covering workers compensation topics. Kristen graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism.