Affluent women who handle the investment decisions for their households use financial advisors to a greater extent than men, and are more satisfied with the advice they receive, according to a report from Chicago-based Spectrem Group.

The report says that this group is more demanding of their advisors, but that they also tend to be more loyal to them. The Spectrem Perspectives report, Affluent Women and Financial Decisions, also finds that affluent women tend to be significantly more cautious than men in terms of the investments they make.

Spectrem Group, a Chicago-based consulting firm, found that 70% of affluent women said they use professional advisors as their primary financial advisors, compared with 62% of men. More than half (55%) of affluent men like to be actively involved in the day-to-day management of their investments, compared with 40% of women. Of those who do not use any advisor, affluent men (28%) far outpaced women (18%).

Affluent women (67%) were more satisfied with their primary advisor than men (63%). Those women were significantly more satisfied with the quality of service (75%) and the advisor’s knowledge of their overall financial situations and needs (69%) than men (66% and 58%, respectively).

In terms of selecting an advisor, affluent women were more concerned with knowledge about multiple elements of the wealth management process (86%) than men (77%) and the advisor’s ability to resolve problems (81% vs. 72%).

More than half (54%) of affluent women would follow their primary advisors if they switched firms, compared with 47% of men.

Three-quarters (75%) of affluent men say they will take calculated risks while investing, compared with 60% of women. More than half of the men (52%) say they set aside a portion of their assets for more speculative or high-risk investments, compared with just 43% of women.

“At a time when the financial services industry is struggling to move past the scandals that have badly tainted its reputation, affluent women represent something of a bright, shining light. As a group, they continue to rely upon financial advisors more than men and are substantially less interested in investing on their own. As financial services firms look for friends in this challenging environment, women may well be the answer,” said Catherine McBreen, managing director of Spectrem Group.

The survey was conducted in the summer of 2003. About 3,300 affluent households were surveyed; the margin of error is plus or minus 1.7%. It defined affluent women as those making the investment decisions for households with investable assets of at least US$500,000.