Women investors are more cautious in their investing but more likely to think strategically about retirement than their male counterparts, according to a study conducted by BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited.

“Men ‘live in the present’ when it comes to general investing whereas women make plans for the future,” says Mary Anne Wiley, managing director, head of iShares distribution, BlackRock.

iShares Canada’s recent Individual Investors survey found:

> Female investors tended to be more cautious. The study found that 21% of male investors said they were very aggressive in their approach to investing but only 9% of females stated as such.

> Female investors were more likely than men to say that supplementing their pension plans (59% versus 44%) and maintaining their lifestyle in retirement (65% versus 49%) were important reasons to generate income from their investments.

> Men were more likely than women to believe that government and public pension plans will remain viable for future generations (34% versus 24%).

> Female investors expect more from their investments. Overall, 70% of women versus 57% of men said it was very important to them to preserve their initial investment, 47% of women versus 38% of men said it was very important to maximize the value of their portfolio, and 44% of women versus 36% of men said it was very important that their investments generate regular income.

> Women prefer the “human touch” — 75% of the women surveyed relied on a financial advisor or broker versus only 58% of men, who turned to a range of other media and information sources for investing advice.

“In contrast to men, women rely on other sources of income to reach their retirement goals — it’s no longer enough to depend on public and private pension plans for retirement income,” says Wiley.

Women: more conservative than men

Overall, the survey found that females made up a minority of the population of individual investors: only 37% of individual investors were women.

For retirement portfolios, women were more likely than men to hold onto conservative investments (e.g., mutual funds, GICs and corporate bonds) and less likely to hold equities. Men, on the other hand, were more likely to keep gold, foreign currency and dividend paying stocks in their portfolio.

Both males and females were unlikely to see ETFs as income generation investments relative to other vehicles. Only 6% of respondents held ETFs in their RRSP portfolio.

“We were surprised that only a small number of investors included ETFs in their retirement plans. ETFs offer a host of benefits for the long-term investor: they generate regular income, preserve capital and cost less in management fees than mutual funds,” says Wiley.

“To ensure that investors get the most from their retirement plans, they should seek additional sources of information or talk with their financial advisor to develop a retirement strategy that includes ETFs.”

The iShares study was based on an online survey conducted by The Gandalf Group, of Canadian investors across the country with at least $50,000 invested in the stock market, in bonds or in mutual funds.

IE