Home > Resources > Video Library > Delving into the Disconnect Between Women and Retirement
Viewpoints

Delving into the Disconnect Between Women and Retirement

PIMCO’s Christine Long leads a discussion with Suzanne Shu, UCLA's Anderson School of Management, and George Fraser, Retirement Benefits Group, on why women tend to prioritize other financial goals ahead of retirement and how the industry can better help them prepare.

More from this section

Read Transcript

Christine Long, Senior Vice President, Head of DC Marketing: Hi. I'm Christine Long with PIMCO. With me today is Suzanne Shu, a professor from UCLA's Anderson School of Management, and George Fraser, an advisor with Retirement Benefits Group.

PIMCO's research has found that when it comes to women's top money goals, women rank stability, lifestyle, and financial independence ahead of their own retirement.

Cover of PIMCO Research Report: Women, Investing and the Pursuit of Wealth-Life Balance

In fact, only 17 percent of women rank retirement as a top goal.

Text-on-screen: Roughly 1/2 of women surveyed described themselves as more time-poor than financially poor

The research also tells us that women are taking a short-term focus in saying that planning for tomorrow is so difficult because they already have so much on their plates today. They wanna know more about how to optimize their money today, rather than talk about retirement, which seems further off.

I would love to get your perspectives on how we as an industry can be addressing this and are there behavioral elements here that we should understand.

Suzanne Shu, Associate Professor, UCLA Anderson School of Management: So, I think there's a few issues going on there, particularly with women in thinking about retirement.

One is we know from the research and asking people about life expectations, how long do you think you're going to live.

Women tend to be more pessimistic than men relative to the actual mortality tables that social security for example puts out. So, women tend to think that they are not going to live as long as the data actually tells us they will.

And so, if you think about that, it can have two big impacts on their planning.

One is that they expect there's less years that they're going to have to support themselves during retirement. The other is they might have a belief that if they're married, that that spouse is going to be there for all of those years, when the reality is when we look at the mortality tables, women do tend to live a lot longer than the men do.

So, there's certainly a bias in the thinking there that could get in the way with retirement planning.

Shot of people walking on a crowded sidewalk

I think the other thing that's really interesting is based on the research you've done and the findings that you have, about the fact that women are very sort of short run focused, right, you know, I have children, I have a spouse, I have a house, a job, all of those sorts of things.

And because of sort of that outward focus, it becomes hard to focus on your own needs, and to really take the time to think forward far enough to realize there might be a point where that financial independence that you're worried about today is actually going to matter even more in retirement, and should be the motivation for saving and making sure you're protected when you get to that stage.

Christine Long: Interesting. Sounds like an opportunity for more education and communication. George, I have a question more specifically for you in the 401(k) space.

PIMCO's research found that only about 14 percent of women are maxing out their retirement income, versus 26 percent of men. And 57 percent of women report that they rarely think about the funds in their plan and their retirement portfolio in general.

How might you think about approaching that issue and using some of the approaches that perhaps have worked for you with this particular segment?

George Fraser, Managing Director, Retirement Benefits Group: Well I think you hit the nail on the head, Christine. It's about education.

So I think there's a lack of education. There can be more focus on women exclusively in the plans. And advisors have to do their job with this. We need to be in front of folks, plans, men, women, etc. And we need to be spending that time providing the appropriate education and making them aware. There are lots of folks who decide to stay single, etc. And they need to be made aware that these are things that need to take place. So, I think just generally better education across the board is the direction we need to be going in more and more.

Christine Long: Excellent. Well thank you both for your time today.

For more insights and information, visit pimco.com

Disclosure



Methodology:

Expert Salon: In September 2018, we conducted expert salons in Newport Beach and New York City to capture ideas from thought leaders in women’s perspectives on investing, lifestyle and goals across media, finance and communications.

Financial Decision Maker Survey: This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of PIMCO from May 3-May 16, 2018, among 1,500 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, including 748 women. All respondents had over $10,000 in investable household assets and at least some financial decision-making responsibility within the household. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. In March 2018, we also hosted 2 salon sessions to explore issues around women and investing with thought leaders, influencers and experts.

All investments contain risk and may lose value.

The survey results contain the opinions of the respondents and not necessarily those of PIMCO. The data contained within the report may not be related to any PIMCO product or strategy and should not be relied upon for any investment decision.

This material contains the opinions of the manager and such opinions are subject to change without notice. This material has been distributed for informational purposes only and should not be considered as investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy or investment product. Information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but not guaranteed.

CMR2019-0123-377150

Filters: Reset All

Filters

Close Filters Dropdown

  • Tags

    Reset

    Close

  • Category

    Reset

    Bond by Bond
    Careers
    Economic and Market Commentary
    Investment Strategies
    PIMCO Foundation
    PIMCO Education
    View from the Investment Committee
    View From the Trade Floor
    Viewpoints
    Education
    Close

  • Order By

    Reset

    Alphabetical
    Most Recent
    Close
() filters applied

Multimedia Finder

Filter By:
  • Bond by Bond
  • Careers
  • Economic and Market Commentary
  • Investment Strategies
  • PIMCO Foundation
  • PIMCO Education
  • View from the Investment Committee
  • View From the Trade Floor
  • Viewpoints
  • Understanding Investing
  • A
  • B
  • C
  • D
  • E
  • F
  • G
  • H
  • I
  • K
  • M
  • N
  • P
  • R
  • S
  • T
  • V
  • W
  • Z
Clear
Berdibek Ahmedov
Product Strategist
Robert Arnott
Founder and Chairman, Research Affiliates
Andrew Balls
CIO Global Fixed Income
Rachel Betton
Justin Blesy
Asset Allocation Strategist
Meredith Block
ESG Research Analyst
Allison Boxer
Economist
David L. Braun
Portfolio Manager
Jelle Brons
Portfolio Manager, Global and U.S. Investment Grade Credit
Nathaniel Brown
Director of the PIMCO Foundation
Erin Browne
Portfolio Manager, Asset Allocation
Grover Burthey
Portfolio Manager, ESG
Libby Cantrill
U.S. Public Policy
Kenneth Chambers
Fixed Income Strategist
Stephen Chang
Portfolio Manager, Asia
Devin Chen
Portfolio Manager, Commercial Real Estate
Richard Clarida
Global Economic Advisor
Mathieu Clavel
Portfolio Manager, Alternative Credit
Tony Crescenzi
Portfolio Manager, Market Strategist
Harin de Silva
Portfolio Manager, Special Situations
Pramol Dhawan
Portfolio Manager
Matt Dorsten
Portfolio Manager, Quantitative Strategy
Jason Duko
Portfolio Manager
Devin Ekberg
Senior Consultant, Advisor Education
David Forgash
Portfolio Manager
Preeyam Gandhi
Strategist
Max Gelb
Product Strategist
Nick Granger
Portfolio Manager, Quantitative Analytics
Adam Gubner
Portfolio Manager, Distressed Debt
Bill Gurtin
Gregory Hall
Head of U.S. Global Wealth Management
David Hammer
Portfolio Manager
Daniel H. Hyman
Portfolio Manager
Daniel J. Ivascyn
Group Chief Investment Officer
Henry Kao
Account Manager, Stable Value
Mark R. Kiesel
CIO Global Credit
Erica Kinsella
Product Strategist, ESG Strategies
Sean Klein
Head of Client Business Strategy – Client Solutions and Analytics
Kristofer Kraus
Portfolio Manager
Brian Kyle
Global Wealth Management
Jason Mandinach
Head of Alternative Credit and Private Strategies
Kyle McCarthy
Alternative Credit Strategist
Lalantika Medema
Alternative Credit Strategist
Vidur Mehra
Product Strategist
Mohit Mittal
CIO Core Strategies
John Murray
Portfolio Manager, Global Private Real Estate
John Nersesian
Head of Advisor Education
Roger Nieves
Sonali Pier
Portfolio Manager, Multi-Sector Credit
Christina Pihos
Defined Contribution Marketing
Gavin Power
Chief of Sustainable Development and International Affairs
Chitrang K. Purani
Lupin Rahman
Portfolio Manager
Graham A. Rennison
Quantitative Portfolio Manager
Antonese Robertson
Global Wealth Management
Steve A. Rodosky
Portfolio Manager
Emmanuel Roman
Chief Executive Officer
Jerome M. Schneider
Portfolio Manager
Marc P. Seidner
CIO Non-traditional Strategies
Emmanuel S. Sharef
Portfolio Manager, Asset Allocation and Multi Real Asset
Greg E. Sharenow
Portfolio Manager, Commodities and Real Assets
Kimberley Stafford
Global Head of Product Strategy; Responsible for Sustainability Oversight
Jason R. Steiner
Portfolio Manager, Private Lending and Opportunistic Strategies
Christian Stracke
President, Global Head of Credit Research
Richard Thaler
Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business
François Trausch
CEO and CIO of PIMCO Prime Real Estate
D. Alan Trice
Matt Tuten
Portfolio Manager
Chad Van Dyk
Global Wealth Management
Megan Walters
PIMCO Prime Real Estate
Qi Wang
CIO Portfolio Implementation
Jamie Weinstein
Portfolio Manager, Corporate Special Situations
Paul-James White
Portfolio Manager
Tiffany Wilding
Economist
Jerry Woytash
Portfolio Manager, Short-Term Desk
Kirill Zavodov
Portfolio Manager, Real Estate
Mike Cudzil
Portfolio Manager
Chris Brightman
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, Research Affiliates
PIMCO
Ryan Mulvey
Strategist
Ben Bernanke
Chair, Global Advisory Board
Seray Incoglu
Portfolio Manager, Commercial Real Estate
  • Alphabetical
  • Most Recent
Section : Date : Experts :
Reset All
What to Expect When You’re Expecting Rate Cuts
Opportune Time for High-Quality Global Bonds
Today’s Historic Opportunity in Actively Managed Bonds (video)
Celebrating International Women’s Day
Risks and Opportunities: Moving from Cash to Bonds
Macro and Markets Q1 2024
Economic and Market Commentary

Macro & Markets – Q1 2024 (video)

Macro & Markets – Q1 2024

Join us for PIMCO’s “Macro and Markets” webinar, a quarterly conversation where we help contextualize the fixed income market and share insights from PIMCO’s Cyclical and Secular outlooks. In this edition –inflation, employment are rate cuts; how a soft landing is possible but risks remain; how markets may have already priced in a cutting cycle; and monetary policy across the globe.
Watch and earn 1-hour of complimentary Continuing Education (CE) for CFP, CIMA, CPWA, and CPA.

Earn CE

Load more results Load {{cCtrl.fetchResults}} more results