Women face more challenges than men when it comes to finance. The last census shows that they earn 77% of what their male counterparts do. So, they aren’t able to save as much money as a man in their same situation. Worse, if they have children and take a leave, they won’t be able to contribute to their 401k during that time since maternity leave is unpaid, and thus there are no pre-tax dollars to contribute.
Despite all of these hurdles: they’ve earned, they’ve saved and now perhaps they’re looking for professional financial advice so that they can retire comfortably — they face hurdles there too.
A March 2012 audit study from The National Bureau of Economic Research[1] showed financial advisors were 40% more likely to recommend women transfer all of their funds to the advisors control before receiving advice. Imagine if you went to the mechanic to fix your car and they would only tell you how much the repair cost after they completed it. The study took into account over 284 visits to various financial advisors across a multitude of fiscal scenarios. Yet, time after time, women didn’t get the consideration men did, despite the same potential benefit to the advisor.
Have you been discriminated against by a financial advisor? We’d like to hear about it in the comments.
[1] Mullainathan, Sendhil, Markus Nöth, and Antoinette Schoar. The market for financial advice: An audit study. No. w17929. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2012.
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