Archaic investing models on a large scale are still being used to provide investment advice for women, when in fact the type of advice that women need to prepare sufficiently for retirement is vastly different.  YES, there is an inherent gender bias in the construction and delivery investment advice for women and worse of all it’s a systemic practice going back over a hundred years; not an intentional directive.  The industry hasn’t caught up with demand and the changing needs of investors………especially women!

This article www.worldfinance.com/wealth-management/tackling-unconscious-gender-biases-in-wealth-management does an outstanding job of explaining the evolution or rather lack thereof, of delivering investment advice to clients.  Over the last 50 years the female client has evolved and the financial services industry as a whole, has not.

As women we are not encouraged to actively invest and the general bias that women are not “good investors” has no substantial data to prove this overarching opinion.  In fact, just the opposite is reported in an article below I came across in Forbes, and reflects measurable facts, that women often stick to an investment strategy once they have decided to actively invest and more often outperform our male counterparts when it comes to risk adjusted returns (which is better than average returns).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2017/11/15/women-investors-get-a-bad-rap/#1fbd2bf23828

For women, staying invested and having a pattern of systematic investing is important to achieving most financial long-term goals.  In today’s new market, using alternatives can provide passage to reduce overall market risk to a portfolio and still achieve long term gains that have an edge over inflation risk, which for women, planning for retirement is a much larger risk than short term market volatility.

https://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/14/ework-before-using-alternative-investments.html

As women we are hesitant in planning our investment strategy; yet once we do, we generally outperform our male counterparts…Get invested and stay invested to help close your retirement income gap:

https://www.kiplinger.com/article/investing/T031-C000-S002-the-secrets-of-women-investors.html

Over the course of the past few months, I have shared articles bringing to light financial head winds that are specific to women, the income gap, the investment gap and now the debt gap that exposes itself with higher health care costs for women; and yes it is true, cancer for women is cumulatively more expensive resulting in added financial stress.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-breastcancer-costs-idUSKBN1872WO