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June 17, 2011 at 05:26 AM
Merrill Lynch Wealth Management hosted the final webinar in a series of five retirement-themed programs late Thursday. The webinar was moderated by former ABC News anchor Charles Gibson and featured Sallie Krawcheck, head of Bank of America-Merrill’s global wealth and investment management unit.
According to BofA, more than 3 million unique viewers have tuned in for these live and on-demand webcasts since April. The discussions were taped in front of a live audience.
In addition to Gibson and Krawcheck, Thursday's event included comments from David Bach, a personal-finance expert and author; Kay Koplovitz, founder of USA Network and chairman of Liz Claiborne; and Hanna Rosin, founding editor of Slate.com’s women’s site DoubleX and a contributing editor to the Atlantic magazine.
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“Planning is hard – it’s no fun, and it’s painful, not relaxing,” explained Krawcheck (left). “Men force themselves to do it more than women do.” Given the strides women have had economically and other trends affecting them, though, women need to do more planning, she adds: “Women live longer, and living longer is expensive.”
“Women retire today … with about two-thirds of the assets that men do. They earn about 75% compared to men and lose [financially] when they go in and out of the job market,” she explained. “They also earn less from investing, because they are more conservative investors.”
While this style of investing hasn’t hurt women investors to date, it could — especially if they do not retire with enough savings, Krawcheck explained. “To have the tailwind from equities can be helpful,” she said. “There can be a benefit to taking on more risk.”
