Women Academics Lack Confidence in Financial Planning

About a third (32 percent) of women professors, administrators and other staff say they lack confidence when it comes to financial planning for retirement, compared to 19 percent of men working in higher education, says a new report from Fidelity Investments. According to a survey of some 700 professionals, about half of whom were professors, more women than men attribute that confidence gap to lack of time for financial planning (45 vs. 33 percent, respectively). Thirty-nine percent of women say they haven’t done research about their retirement options, and 34 percent say they don’t have enough experience in planning for retirement to feel confident. One-third say they don’t know who to talk to in order to get the best advice.

At the same time, women overwhelmingly (94 percent) want to learn more about financial planning. Sixty-three percent prefer to do so by meeting with a financial professional and 44 percent prefer to research planning options online. More than half of women surveyed — 56 percent — don’t take advantage of employer-provided guidance, but 86 percent of those women who haven’t taken advantage of campus resources said they would do so if: their institutions offered classes during work hours or on-site experts to walk through retirement plan options (31 percent); they were entering a “new life stage” (29 percent); or there was more “awareness” of the type of guidance that was being offered (27 percent).

Alexandra Taussig, a senior vice president at Fidelity, said in a statement that she was encouraged that a majority of women academics are eager to learn more about their retirement options. To build on that momentum, she said, “Women should make sure they are fully involved in their finances and take advantage of their workplace guidance, which most higher education employers provide.”