What rich women want

They're not happy, at least with the way their finances are managed

By Thomas Kostigen, MarketWatch

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Rich women aren't happy -- with the way their finances are managed anyway. They want more personal time and attention. They don't want to attend seminars, visit a Web site or get a newsletter in the mail. They want their information face-to-face, in a one-on-one meeting. If that it isn't an option, they want simple account statements -- just the facts.

In other words, wealthy women don't want all the bull that goes along with financial management. They don't want to be seduced into an impersonal relationship through lots of hype and hoopla.

And these are important things to know. Mostly because women are the primary decision-makers in households with $500,000 or more in investment assets, according to the Spectrem Group, a research firm that surveyed affluent women recently to find out what they want out of a financial relationship.

"It might be nice if the seminars were geared for women and done by women," said one woman surveyed. "I would go if there was no charge and I could pick and choose which topics I wanted to learn about," said another.

Women clearly have a different set of values than men when dealing with money. Men, according to several recent surveys, take on a hunter-gatherer mentality with money. They want to get it as a form of winning. Sometimes even reckless courses are taken to achieve their goals, as has been pointed out by Terry Burnham in the book "Lizard Brains and Mean Markets."

Women, on the other hand, are highly focused on the course to achieving financial goals. They tend to take a more rational approach to investing and they score higher certain brain-function tests, meaning they should do better in terms of scoring bigger financial returns.

Maybe that's why more women are left in charge of wealthy households' finance and banking activities. But it may also be why they are so misunderstood by male financial professionals.
"Affluent women quite clearly do not care for some of the tools that financial advisers routinely use to communicate with clients. Seminars are perceived as sales events. Newsletters and Web site features also scored rather poorly in our survey. Rather than avoid these tools, however, financial advisers should seize upon these data as an opportunity to improve the quality of their outreach efforts. Affluent women represent an important potential client base, as they are more likely to rely on advisers than affluent men," said Catherine McBreen, managing director at the Spectrem Group.

To be sure, all of the findings on the differences between men and women are generalizations. But if men are from Mars and women from Venus then there is a point to the disconnect between the way male financial advisers relate to female clients. And that means opportunities abound for female financial advisers.

This hasn't been lost on the financial-planning community. The Financial Planning Association three weeks ago teamed with the National Association of Women Business Owners to launch a series of education and outreach programs to address financial issues facing women.

Sure, you could label any gender-specific effort that is exclusive and exclusionary as sexist. But wrong are financial plans and programs designed by males and forced upon women. Let's face it, we are different types of people. The types of products we choose should take that into account. And make no mistake, investments are products, financial products. They should be customized as much as possible, taking into consideration our various life factors. Risk is a factor. Time horizon is a factor. Why not sex?

According to NAWBO's recent membership survey, finance is an important issue to its members. But often these women feel alienated from the financial markets and the roads to them. They should be given better road maps by financial professionals.
Let's not get into the issue of men asking for directions. Instead, women's wants need to be better serviced by professionals. For that to occur, women, especially it seems wealthy women, need to be heard. And if they are to be seen, they say, it's one at a time.

They don't want to be treated the same as every one else. So women, it can be gathered, want to feel special.

Don't we all?

I think in today's society, this not only pertains to affluent women, but also to average women like myself. This is a market that is seriously overlooked, and ignored for ages...

And just for your information...more than half of women do manage household incomes, and how well the woman manage the money will increase the total family new worth in the long term...

That's good news for husbands...better money management on the wife's part, will reduce your working years and that would = early retirement for you... ;)