While 56 percent of married women leave investments and financial planning decisions to the guys, one generation, oddly, is even more likely to do so. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Amazing as it may seem in a time when women pursue all sorts of opportunities and take charge of much, if not most, of their own lives, married women are still deferring to husbands when it comes to financial decisions, believing the menfolk know better about such things as investing.
So says research from UBS Wealth Management USA, which also finds that, even more amazingly, while 56 percent of married women leave the finances—investments and financial planning decisions—to the guys, millennial women are even more likely to do so, at 61 percent, than older generations, at 54 percent.
Recommended For You
What's really scary is that 85 percent of married women who stay out of long-term financial decisions do so because they think their husbands know more about financial matters, and 80 percent are perfectly happy with the way the financial responsibilities in their marriages are divvied up.
Yet 98 percent of divorcees and widows would advise other women to take an active role in finances now, advice they should heed sooner rather than later—particularly since 80 percent of women will end up alone (and thus stuck with all those decisions anyway, without the benefit of practice and confidence in their choices).
Leaving it all up to their husbands is a bad idea for so many reasons that just a couple of examples suffice to clearly illustrate its dangers: more than half of divorcees and widows discover financial surprises, such as outdated wills and debts, the report points out, adding that previous UBS research shows that 85 percent of couples will need long-term care during their lifetimes. That translates to a lot of women needing long-term care, since most will outlive their husbands, and that in turn "can lead to women's greatest fear of becoming a burden to their children."
The majority—59 percent—of widows and divorcees regret not being involved in long-term financial planning while married, and nearly all (97 percent) say women need to educate themselves about their finances now, with 98 percent saying they need to take an active role in their finances. The good thing is that 80 percent take their own advice if they remarry, becoming more active in financial decisions.
It's an old rut women are in, with younger generations pretty much following the way their parents handled finances; 60 percent of women whose mothers didn't get involved in the family's finances follow suit when they marry. And even now, most mothers with kids under 21 say they're fine with daughters' future husbands steering the couples' finances.
A lot of that stems from a lack of confidence. Since so many women—85 percent—just hand over control of financial planning to their husbands because they think their husbands know more, it's no surprise that just 55 percent of women feel confident about making long-term financial decisions. After all, 79 percent of men are confident about making financial decisions. According to the report, women underestimate their own capabilities, even though 69 percent agree that women overestimate what is required to be financially prepared.
BenefitsPRO related reading:
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Marlene Satter
Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.
