Advisers Differ on Role of Gender in Financial Planning

Nationwide, some members of the financial planning industry say men and women have different investing styles and retirement needs.

FinancialPlanning.com recently published an educational video that supported this argument with assertions that women’s retirement needs differ because they typically live five years longer, have higher health care expenses and may have saved less because of unequal pay or time taken off for raising a family.

Locally, some advisers believe these factors play a major role in their work with clients, while others say there is no sweeping difference between the ways they advise the separate genders.

Guardian Financial CEO Tony Hansmann and David Welborn, president and CEO of Family Legacy Planning, both say they never make assumptions about clients based on gender, but that they have seen some patterns in male and female investors throughout their respective years in the business.

“We make sure we treat everybody the same, regardless of how much money they have, whether they are single or whether they are a man or a woman,” Hansmann said.

And Welborn agreed on this point. “I have to get to know the individual to understand what their specific advisement needs are,” he said.

However, Welborn, who works primarily in annuities, also believes there are some fundamental differences between the two genders when it comes to investing for the future. 

Citing facts like the difference in life expectancies and amounts saved, Welborn said the biggest change he’s seen in his industry in recent years is a shift to gender-based pay for annuities.

In addition, he believes investment styles are different for men and women.

“Seventy percent of my clients are female,” he said. “Traditionally, women are more conservative in their investing. They want to make sure they have a guaranteed income base.”

It is a widely held belief that women make safer investments, while men tend to be more aggressive and take more risk.

However, Hansmann believes it is a false stereotype, that there is no difference in risk adversity between men and women, but that the dissimilarity comes from women being more “coachable” than men, who are more “do-it-yourselfers.”

“Women are more interested in being educated than men, which will lead them to have a more efficient portfolio,” he said. “It does not mean they don’t take risks. In any case, the risk tolerance has to make sense.”

To Hansmann, while the interpretation and application of advice might differ widely between the genders, the advice he gives men and women is not all that different.

And, in that way, his opinion aligns with that of James Bell, partner at Garrison Financial.

“I would like to point out that our company was founded by a woman, our president is a woman, and we have had a significant number of female clients since we started, so we have long been a champion of women taking more control of their financial future,” Bell said.

Bell added that the investment and planning advice he gives is not tailored to different genders. 

“In general, I think good investment advice is timeless: Develop a plan, save early and often, live within your means, and choose investments wisely,” Bell said. “My advice to women regarding financial planning would be to get involved and stay involved in the process, develop financial knowledge, and do not buy or invest in anything unless you fully understand it.”