Fidelity^® Finds, in Financial Planning, Millionaire Men Focused on Return, While Millionaire Women Focused on Risk

New Program Helps Financial Advisors Refine Engagement Strategies with Female Clients

BOSTON -- Fidelity Investments^® today unveiled new insights from its 2012 Fidelity Millionaire Outlook Study¹ on the investing attitudes and behaviors of married male and female millionaires who serve as the sole financial decision-makers in their households². According to the study, key differences between married male and female sole decision-makers include:

• Gender impacts approach to financial planning, with married millionaire women focused on holistic planning, while men are focused on investment return.
• Married millionaire women typically are more risk averse than their male counterparts.
• Married millionaire women may be better candidates for financial advice due to their willingness to receive advice.

To help financial advisors understand ways that might help them maintain and grow critical client relationships, Fidelity is launching a new effort to help address gender differences and their impact on financial advice, kicking off this week with an event for financial advisors and the release of the first in a series of whitepapers, “Engaging Wives: How to Drive Greater Growth with Married Clients.”

“With married clients, it’s imperative that financial advisors involve both spouses in all planning,” said Meg Kelleher, executive vice president, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services^®. “With approximately $2 trillion in motion each year due to divorce and death³, the reality is that your married clients could become single clients. Involving both spouses in planning gives both partners the skills to manage financially through a transition and can help protect your client relationships.”

Women More Interested in Holistic Financial Planning
The study found that one of the largest disconnects between genders was approach to financial planning. Key findings include:

• Women are more interested in holistic planning. Among those who work with financial advisors, women were nearly twice as likely to be interested in holistic financial guidance and planning to meet a specific lifestyle or goal.
• Men are focused on investment return. Similarly, men were nearly twice as likely to indicate that they were interested in achieving the greatest return on investment.

Women Typically More Risk Averse Than Men
According to the study, when it comes to investment approach, female sole decision-makers were typically more risk averse than their male counterparts. Key findings include:

• Women were more conservative than men, with certificates of deposit/money market accounts/cash equivalents, individual domestic bonds and domestic bond mutual funds among their top five investments added in the last year, while men favored riskier investment strategies like individual domestic stocks, which nearly twice as many men as women added to their portfolio.
• Women were more likely to shy away from risky investments. Women were 8 percent more likely to disagree with the statement “I am willing to set aside a large portion of my portfolio for risky investments.”
• Women were more comfortable pulling out of the market, with women 61 percent more likely to agree that given the current market conditions, they are more comfortable putting their assets on the sidelines until things settle down.

Women May Be Better Candidates for Financial Advice
Several differences on how male and female millionaires use financial advice reveal that women may be a more attractive target for financial advisors. Key findings include:

• Women were open to working with advisors. Forty-four percent of women agree that they need professional financial advice more now than in the past, and nearly half (49 percent) of women with no current financial advisor would like to find a financial advisor they trust to manage their assets.
• Women report greater loyalty to their advisors. Among women using a financial advisor, 45 percent say they would be very likely to move their assets and relationship along with their primary advisor should he/she leave their current firm. Just 23 percent of men say the same.

“Based on these findings, it is important for financial advisors to recognize that women may be looking for different investment strategies or have a different set of financial concerns that deserve consideration,” said Alexandra Taussig, senior vice president, National Financial®, a Fidelity Investments company. “The reality is that nine out of 10 women will be solely responsible for their finances at some point in their lives , so it’s critical to not only engage women early, but regularly to retain the relationships.”

New Fidelity Effort Can Help Advisors Adapt to Better Engage Women
As part of its ongoing commitment to helping advisors evolve their engagement strategies to help adapt to key client segments, Fidelity is unveiling a program designed to help financial advisors consider ways they might engage female investors. The program kicks off this week in Boston, Massachusetts with an event, “Engaging Female Clients,” where advisors will learn ideas that might help them better serve the unique needs of the female investor. The Fidelity program will also provide action-oriented tools and resources, like the whitepaper series and an advisor guidebook, to help financial advisors gain insight into ways that they might be able to acquire, grow and retain female investors in order to drive growth of their businesses.

For more information on the 2012 Millionaire Outlook gender data or to access insights and resources from the study, visit Go.Fidelity.com/InsightsOnAdvice. 

About Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments is one of the world’s largest providers of financial services, with assets under administration of $3.8 trillion, including managed assets of $1.6 trillion, as of October 31, 2012. Founded in 1946, the firm is a leading provider of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing and many other financial products and services to more than 20 million individuals and institutions, as well as through 5,000 financial intermediary firms. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit www.fidelity.com.

1) An in-depth survey analyzing the investing attitudes and behaviors of more than 1,000 millionaire households; investable assets of $1 million, excluding workplace retirement accounts and any real estate holdings.
2) All data included is that of male and female married millionaires who serve as the sole financial decision-makers in their households.
3) Boston Consulting Group, Women Want More: How to Capture Your Share of the World’s Largest, Fastest-Growing Market, Michael J. Silverstein and Kate Sayre, 2009
4) National Center for Women and Retirement, 2011

The Fidelity Millionaire Outlook is a primary research study among U.S. mass affluent and millionaire investors conducted via online survey during the period of March 15-29, 2012. The mass affluent group had investable assets of at least $250,000 or $100,000 if they had an annual household income of $150,000 or more, while the millionaire group had investable assets of at least $1 million; both groups’ investable assets were excluding workplace retirement accounts and any real estate holdings. The results reflect responses from 1,520 financial decision makers with 1,020 of those being millionaire investors. The data reflects a margin of error of +/-3 percent. Using a scale where +100 represents the most favorable outlook, zero is neutral and -100 is the most negative outlook, the survey measures millionaires’ confidence levels across five key areas -- the stock market, consumer spending, the economy, business spending and the value of real estate. Combined, the five variables make up a cumulative current and future confidence level, or “outlook.” The experience of the mass affluent and millionaire investors who responded to the survey may not be representative of the experiences of all investors and is not indicative of future success. Fidelity worked with Bellomy Research, an independent third-party research firm, to conduct the study.

The content provided herein is general in nature and is for informational purposes only. This information is not individualized and is not intended to serve as the primary or sole basis for your decisions as there may be other factors you should consider. Fidelity Investments does not provide advice of any kind. You should conduct your own due diligence and analysis based on your specific needs.

The registered trademarks and service marks appearing herein are the property of FMR LLC.

Fidelity Capital Markets is a division of National Financial Services LLC, member NYSE, SIPC. Fidelity Family Office Services is a division of Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, member NYSE, SIPC.

Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services provides brokerage products and services and is a division of Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC. National Financial is a division of National Financial Services LLC through which clearing, custody and other brokerage services may be provided. Both members NYSE, SIPC.

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