Time to help shape your finances

Seven out of ten women leave long-term financial decisions to their spouse. This is shown by the survey of 3,700 female investors who took part in the UBS Investor Watch study in 2018. And yet they face specific financial challenges and demands. In Switzerland, for example, women live four years longer than men on average, to the age of 85.2. Consequently, around 75 percent of the study participants mention retirement planning and pension provision as their most important long-term financial needs. Nevertheless, women are more often concerned with short-term financial decisions: eight out of ten participants report that they are intensely involved with everyday finances such as paying bills, for example.

The figures mentioned have consequences: 91 percent of divorced or widowed women report having experienced financial surprises following the death of their partner or a divorce. Looking back, seven out of ten women wished they had taken a more active role in financial planning.

Life as a woman brings new roles and responsibilities at each phase of life. When starting a career, for example, questions arise such as how much to save each year, when it is worth paying money into the third pillar or how to invest in shares or other financial investments with a risk appropriate to your personal situation. Even in a partnership, there are new issues to deal with – from joint account management to joint investments and legal succession.

New needs arise with a view to starting a family: how do I take care of the children along with my husband? When do children need a savings account? How will part-time work affect my financial and pension situation? How can we finance real estate as a family? In the event of any interruptions to work, women must consider at an early stage what effects these inactive periods will have on their wealth accumulation or their pension.

Women’s higher life expectancy and the key financial issues they face in different phases of life illustrate how important it is for women to deal with the topic of finance at an early stage. Why do they still often leave the subject to men? In the UBS Investor Watch study, 81 percent of women say that they believe their spouse is more familiar with long-term investment decisions. Seven out of ten women also believe that good investment decisions require a high level of knowledge.

On the other hand, joint financial decisions bring numerous advantages: 88 percent say they worry less about their financial future if they participate in long-term financial decisions. Nine out of ten women also believe that they make fewer mistakes if they play an equal part in decision-making.

This is precisely the issue we are addressing at the UBS Women’s Wealth Academy. Our goal: to provide women with content that meets their financial requirements and needs in every situation of life. Thanks to over 150 years of experience in financial consulting, we offer information and knowledge to help you shape your individual financial, succession and retirement planning. We explain basic terms from the world of finance such as shares, dividends or returns, point out common investment mistakes and provide tools for asset or pension planning.