Even in 2019, women who are married aren’t managing money equally with their spouses.
That’s according to a new study from financial services company UBS, which surveyed 3,652 women between September 2017 and January 2019.
Of those women, 2,251 were married with at least $1 million in investable assets.
Another 1,401 were either divorced or widowed, and had at least $250,000 in investable assets.
UBS did not clarify if the women were married to men, or to another woman.
The women lived in Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico, Singapore, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S.
What UBS found: More than 80% of women surveyed, across all of those countries, say they are “highly involved” in day-to-day finances, budgeting and cash flow.
But almost 60% said they aren’t involved in managing longer-term decisions, such as investing, insurance and retirement planning. Instead, their spouse takes the lead, they said.
That was especially the case in Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, Switzerland and the U.K.
On the high end, 72% of women in Singapore say their spouse takes the lead in long-term financial decisions.
In the U.S., Italy, Mexico and Brazil, it was almost even, or women actually led those decisions.
Just 39% of Mexican women said their spouse takes the lead, and just 45% of those in Brazil said this, too.
In the U.S. it was 54%, and in Italy, 52%.
And the main reason for women who said their spouse leads: 82% said they think their spouse knows more about long-term financial planning than they do.
The second most popular reason: 79% said they take charge of other household responsibilities, while their spouses manage the finances.
But the women who were widows or divorcées cautioned against letting spouses take the lead. Some 77% of them overall said women should be more involved, partly because many of them experienced some negative financial “surprises” like accounts they didn’t know about.
This isn’t the first time women have said they are behind when it comes to managing money.
In a recent survey from Fidelity Investments, only 29% of women said they see themselves as investors.
But women have shown strong financial instincts, despite some of their reluctance to participate.
Previous studies have shown that women invest in less-risky assets than men do and they feel more burdened by debt when they have it.
And women change their fund allocations and monitor their accounts less frequently than men do, according to the investing service Betterment. Those are qualities that are usually better for retail investors because more frequent changes tend to diminish returns, as do the short-term capital-gains tax hits they can lead to.
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