Zurich, 06 March 2019 – The majority of women worldwide (58%) defer long-term financial decisions to their spouses, putting their future financial security at risk, according to a UBS survey of nearly 3,700 high-net-worth married women, widows, and divorcees in nine countries.

The latest UBS Investor Watch, a recurring global study of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) and their behavior, found that wealthy women overwhelmingly (85%) take care of day-to-day expenses while men handle long-term planning. This divided approach leaves many women ill-prepared to manage financial needs after critical moments in their lives, such as divorce or the death of their partner. Investor Watch found that women’s deferral of important financial decisions to spouses extended to all generations, from Millennials to Baby Boomers.

Among the key findings:

"When 58% of women around the world – including Millennials – defer to men on important financial decisions, we need to ask why," said Paula Polito, Global Client Strategy Officer and Group Managing Director, UBS Wealth Management. "This dynamic could go on for generations to come, unless both men and women make a commitment to engage in financial decisions together."

Millennials most likely to defer

Millennial women are more likely than older generations to defer to their spouses when it comes to financial decision making. 59% of women between the ages of 20 to 34 let their spouse take the lead, compared to 55% of women aged over 50. This reached a high of 73% in Singapore, closely followed by 69% of millennial women in the UK. Latin America was the only region to buck the trend, with just 41% of millennial women in Mexico and 40% in Brazil deferring to their spouses. In fact, women across all age groups in Latin America were the least likely to defer to their spouses.

Most younger women say they have more urgent responsibilities than investing and financial planning. They are also most likely to believe their spouses know more about long-term finances than they do.

Working as a couple works

There is a simple fix, according to the report, and it involves working together. Women who share equal responsibility for long-term investing with their spouses said there were clear benefits. More than nine out of 10 women (91%) said they felt less stressed and were more confident about their financial future (94%), believing they and their partners made fewer mistakes when they were both involved (93%).

Lessons from widows and divorcees

Advice from women who have experienced the death of a loved one or a divorce is clear. Three quarters (76%) of widows and divorcees wish they had been more involved in long-term financial decisions while they were married, rather than trying to navigate them while coping with such significant life changes. Higher levels of engagement may also protect women from unpleasant discoveries later in life, with 74% of women discovering negative financial surprises after a divorce or death of their spouse.