Male investors are much more likely to have a higher risk appetite than their female counterparts, new research from Dynamic Planner has shown.
To mark International Women’s Day, Dynamic Planner’s research into advised investor behaviour found 26% of men are in risk levels 7-10 versus 14% of women.
More men than women (31% versus 16%) also claim to be fully confident with investing with a reasonable understanding of the potential risks and rewards. Only 14% of men said they were not comfortable with investing, significantly below the 25% of women who said the same.
The research also found that men were more hands on in their approach to investing, with 34% of men reviewing their investments at least every three months versus 19% of women. Similarly, only 17% of men are likely to leave reviewing pensions/investments to their financial advisers, compared to 24% of women who are happy to do so.
Women are also less likely to bear a loss than their male counterparts, with three quarters (75%) stating that they cannot afford any loss / a small amount of loss compared to 66% of men.
However, women were more likely to consider sustainability a key factor in their investments. One in 10 (10% women) see sustainability as either high or very high importance, double the 5% of men who take the same stance.
Louis Williams, head of psychology and behavioural insights at Dynamic Planner, said: “There are interesting but also unsurprising differences regarding male and female attitudes to risk, importance placed on sustainability and investing experience.
“We find that women are more risk averse than men, men tend to be more confident and comfortable with investing but also review their investments more frequently.
“In periods of volatility, more men than women took no action and stayed invested, feeling nothing needed to be done. Women on the other hand took no action and stayed invested as they were unsure about what to do.”
Arrow images: nick-fewings-zF_pTLx_Dkg-unsplash
