It found:
The gender pensions gap means that women have pension pots almost 11% lower than men
Women are less likely to invest their money, and so miss out on higher returns
Laura Suter, personal finance analyst at AJ Bell, comments:
“Women face a double whammy. First, they are not saving enough and second, they are not investing that money and so are missing out on higher returns over the long term. This leads to considerably smaller pension pots for women when they come to retire.
“The third element to this is that women typically live longer than men. The average life expectancy for a woman born today is 94 years, compared to 91 for a man*. This means that women’s pension pots need to last for longer, and pay out more income overall.
“What’s more, the previous assumption that women can just rely on their husband’s pension income doesn’t always work in practice, as 76% of women over the age of 60 are either single, widowed or divorced when they die**.
“It will be dispiriting for many woman to know that the gender pay gap that exists during their working life, which means they earn on average 18% less than men, will also clobber them in retirement.
“Government figures show that men in the 55-64 age bracket have more than double the pension pot of women of the same age***, drastically changing their income levels in retirement.
“More than half of the women in the research don’t know where their pension is invested, and many feel safer leaving their money in cash rather than taking more risk and moving into investments.
“The onus is on the financial industry to make investing more approachable for everyone, particularly women, and to cut through the waffle and baffling jargon to make it easier for everyone to invest their money.”
*Figures from the Cridland Review: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/611460/independent-review-of-the-state-pension-age-smoothing-the-transition.pdf
** Based on figures from the Pensions Policy Institute
*** Based on ONS figures, men aged 55-64 between July 2014 and June 2016 have £237,100 in their pension pot, compared to £141,600 for a woman of the same age. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/datasets/pensionwealthwealthingreatbritain