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Who’s More Likely to Value an Advisor’s Services?

Men and women are about equally likely to rely on a professional advisor for investment support – but the nature, frequency and willingness to pay for those services differ substantially by gender, according to a new survey.

While the genders are nearly identical in their inclination to hire a professional advisor (65% of men and 66% of women), women have a great proportion of their portfolio (63%) handled through their broker or advisor (compared with men who handle about half of their portfolio through an advisor). According to the Scottrade Financial Behavior Study, this may be due to the fact that women report feeling more overwhelmed by the available investment choices (64% of women versus 46% of men), and express less confidence in their own ability to navigate any impact from the economy (60% of women compared to 43% of men).

The survey also found that women are more likely than men to initially turn to a financial advisor because they want general help monitoring or managing their investments (58% of women compared to 40% of men), while more men than women have a tangible rationale for reaching out – i.e., they have crossed a certain money threshold (21% of men versus 11% of women) or have made a bad decision previously (13% of men versus 4% of women).

In addition, women are more likely to feel that the support of an advisor is worth paying for while men are more likely to criticize the fees (43% of men state fees are not worth the service versus 29% of women).

Women investors count on their advisors to handle a much larger proportion of their portfolio and are more likely to cite their adviser as the motivation for making various investment choices. That said, regardless of whether they take their guidance, men seem to consult their advisors more frequently than women do (29% of men consult advisers monthly compared to 12% of women).

While reported financial performance is relatively similar for men and women, men are nearly twice as likely as women to believe they are beating the current market (44% of men versus 24% of women).

Men also exude more confidence than women that their investments will do well in the current economy (74% of men compared to 59% of women), and most men (67%) envision further growth in 2016. Women, on the other hand, tend to be more reserved about their future returns, with about half expecting further growth in 2016.

In general, men appear to take a more active approach to investing while women tend to take a steady and stable approach. According to the survey, men make decisions and changes far more frequently (often in either six-month or even one-month intervals). Forty-one percent of men change their strategy every six months compared to only 27% of women, while 21% of men change their strategy as frequently as every month versus only 11% of women.

The survey, undertaken by Harris Poll, was conducted among a nationally representative sample of 1,015 adults in the U.S. aged 18 and older who are involved in investment decisions for their household and have $2,500 or more in investments with a full-service brokerage company, online brokerage company or independent financial advisor.

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