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March 04, 2011 at 08:59 AM
A survey released Thursday by MassMutual provides more evidence that many women need guidance when it comes to investing. While the survey found low levels of confidence in investing and more conservative investing styles in general, women were more likely to indicate low confidence.
Overall, more than 37% of investors say they are confident making their own investment decisions, though that's down from 42.5% in 2010. However, just 26% of women say they are confident making investment decisions, compared with 44% of men. While there's clearly a need for education, men are more likely to enjoy learning about investments (72%) than women are (54%).
Elaine Sarsynski, executive vice president of MassMutual's Retirement Services Division and chairman and CEO of MassMutual International LLC, noted in a statement that 57.1% of participants are "likely to seek help from a financial planning advisor in the next 12 months, with many preferring the assistance of the retirement plan advisor representing the plan."
The level of anxiety over having enough to retire is increasing overall, climbing from 64% last year to 66%. Women's anxiety is especially high, rising over 4 percentage points to 74.7%. Men, on the other hand, are actually less anxious. Less than 62% of men said they are worried about having enough to retire, down 1.3 percentage points.
