Women may not be from an entirely different planet when it comesto retirement planning, but their needs are certainly differentfrom a man’s.

In fact, the 2011 Retirement Confidence Study from the EmployeeBenefits Research Institute found that women are overall less confident and less prepared forretirement than their male counterparts.

So what can you do to better communicate with your femaleclients and turn their retirement readiness around?

Unique challenges, historical roles

Christine Nigro, president of AXA Advisors, said that women tendto view relationships as the primary focus of their lives — and asa result, they don’t often leave time for themselves.

"Women are so busy taking care of everything else in their lifethat they're not setting time aside for retirement planning," shesaid.

Another issue is the historical role of women in society, whichcan be an issue when working with women in the oldergenerations.

"A lot of women have relied upon their husbands for retirementand they haven't provided for themselves," said Diana Scheel, afinancial advisor with Sapient Financial Group. "But they have toremember that it's not just one person retiring, it's two."

Nigro added that, because women's career paths tend not to go inas straight a line as men's, the question of when to retire and howmuch to save becomes even more complex. Women may take time off tocare for aging family members or for motherhood, Nigro said, andall that affects the retirement planning equation.

Then, once women enter retirement, there's the question of howlong their income will need to last. Women typically have a longerlife expectancy than men — an average of about five yearslonger.

"About 75 percent of women who are married will be widowed,"said Sean Tesoro, president of Salem Five Investment Services."Then you have not only an unexpected death, but also the addedresponsibility of having to deal with all these financialdecidsions that come crashing down. It really becomes devastatingin a lot of cases."

A helping hand

The first thing advisors can do to help their female clientsprepare for retirement is educate them about the challenges thatthey may be up against. This includes not only potentiallyoutliving their spouses, but also needing long term care and otherconsiderations.

Tesoro believes that all financial decisions should be made withboth spouses present whenever possible. Even if the husband is thedecision maker, it's important for the female to understand theplan, as well.

Scheel agrees, and takes that one step further by urging herfemale clients to establish a retirement plan of their own, ratherthan just sharing their husband's plan.

"Women seem to be more open than men," Scheel said. "So we justgo over their financial situation and say, 'OK, this is what you'llhave at age 65,' and they say, 'My gosh, I can't live on that!' Andthen you add in inflation and taxes, and they start to see whatit's going to be like in retirement and they realize they need toact.

"So many women are DIYers but we're not very good at doing itourselves."

Nigro acknowledged that having coversations about the end oflife, including products like disability insurance, long term careinsurance, and life insurance, can be difficult for a woman, butit's necessary.

"I don't think a producer should be afraid of moving into thatmore high-touch, personal relationship," she said. "When you talkabout retirement and end of life finances, that's already a verypersonal topic."

Communication and product needs

Generally, women have the same product interests as men.However, Nigro, Scheel, and Tesoro all agreed that women tend to bemore conservative than men in their investment choices, especiallyas they're first starting to build a plan and get to know theiradvisor.

"Women tend to be more skeptical, so sometimes it takes a littlelonger," Tesoro said. "You've got to make sure you're dealing withthem on a more emotional level."

Nigro believes tapping into a woman's emotions is one of thestrongest ways to connect with her and show her the power of asolid retirement plan.

"Don't just run a spreadsheet and say, 'Look how much you cansave for retirement if you put away x dollars a year,'" she said."What we find with a lot of female clients is that spreadsheetsfeel very aggressive. But if the producer says, 'I know you'reworried about how you're going to care for your mother,' orsomething of that nature, and puts it on a more emotional level,the female connects to the idea."

At the end of the day though, successfully helping a woman withher retirement planning all comes down to education.

"Women like knowledge, we like to be informed," Scheel said."Once we are, we feel good about our decisions. Before that, wedon't really see the problem because we don't know it's there."