More thoughts on Women and retirement

For women the burden is greater but the outlook does not have to be bleak.

Savings tied to earnings – savings that come directly from a paycheck – are savings that are put away before daily and immediate financial demands. The increasing popularity of automatic features in employer plans –including automatic enrollment and contribution escalation – will also help jump start retirement investment and regular contribution increases.

These may not result in adequate savings rates, particularly for women, when they are based on a percentage of a lower salary. In addition, women need to accumulate more in terms of real dollars to accommodate longer expected life spans.

Access to education, planning and guidance services via the workplace can be especially powerful for women. These products and tools need to focus on the empowering steps women can take to achieve retirement independence. They must accommodate the many generational and cultural differences that make women more than a single niche market, as they have been historically considered by many marketing efforts.

We must also give special consideration to women on their own, divorced, widowed and single, who are at increased risk of underfunded retirement and have greater need for relevant, practical advice and tools to help them overcome the substantial obstacles they may face.

Many of the solutions and messages women need to better prepare for retirement exist today including: Lifecycle funds and managed accounts; varied and multi-media educational platforms, websites, tools and advocacy groups; automatic features in plans; financial advisors and planners; and proposed parameters for advice within Defined Contribution plans.

There’s not a single one of these developments that's intrinsically “feminine” or solely benefitting women as opposed to men. Retirement saving and preparation, for women, is not so much a question of what or how, but an issue of more, longer and better.

As consumers, women wield increasing and in many cases overwhelming economic power. All interested parties – employers, advisors, financial product manufacturers – need to help women begin to exercise the same power and control over their own financial futures.