Shattering Glass Ceilings: Augmenting wealth management for women

financialexpress.com:

By Nita Shivdasani and Mathew Vaidyan

Globally, on average, women outlive men. One of the significant implications of this statistic is the critical need for women to be prepared to make informed financial decisions. Further, in an ever-evolving world where women’s wealth is growing faster than men, there is an increasing urgency to shatter the glass ceilings between women and wealth.

For women who have managed to break through this glass ceiling, wealth management is the order of the day, as they are increasingly looking to take charge of their finances. The problem, however, is that age-old biases result in women not receiving the sort of financial advice that their male peers might. Low financial literacy among women has stymied access to superior financial products because women are resultantly categorised as conservative and risk-averse. This has led to women being recommended simplistic, low-risk (and consequently low-return) products. Unconscious biases connected to the financial literacy of women have a role to play in the investment decision-making process.

Unsurprisingly, a UBS Global study reported that women are not satisfied with the quality of financial advice they receive. Another survey by DSP Mutual Fund showed that two out of three women in India consult their spouses prior to making investment decisions. With women now controlling a third of the world’s wealth, the knock-on effects of this issue are massive.

Also Read: Why is it important to educate your children about money?

For women to truly be financially empowered, and to advance and develop their wealth creation aspirations, there needs to be a transformation in the way women investors engage with their wealth managers. This transformation