Most women dissatisfied with investment industry

Read: Stop talking down to women

Stories on this topic tend to counsel advisors to speak to the entire family, not just breadwinners. Yet a majority of women are breadwinners, and more than a quarter out-earn their husbands, finds a U.S.-based survey conducted by Prudential Financial.

So perhaps the lesson is that advisors need to shake outdated assumptions.

And there are a lot of them.

We’re often told female investors tend to be more risk averse. Indeed, BMO’s Women and Wealth study finds 16% of Canadian women consider themselves aggressive investors, compared to 30% of men. Further, 13% of women think they’re impulsive investors, versus 21% of men.

Read: Are you at risk?

But here’s the problem. A conservative approach is often equated with lack of investment knowledge and confidence. Yet few people openly slag Warren Buffett’s conservative style.

Plus, you need to look at it another way. If a client wants to understand the risks she’s taking, and the reasoning behind why you’ve chosen a particular portfolio structure, that just makes her a smart investor. A client who listens, and learns.

Read: Advisors ignore clients’ true risk capacity

If the industry keeps perpetuating tired narratives about women investors — and advisors keep heeding them — then women who don’t fit those molds risk being presented with asset mixes that prevent them from reaching their goals.

That can harm male investors too. A 2005 Journal of Behavioral Science study found “advisors overestimated the risk tolerance of men and underestimated the tolerance of women. The correlation between advisors’ estimates and measured risk tolerance was 0.41. This distortion could not be attributed to income or wealth differences between the males and females.”

Read: Don’t misjudge risk tolerance

Each client is different, but gender stereotyping can inadvertently push investors into unsuitable portfolios.

And that’s the biggest disservice of all.