Female financial security linked to partner

CoreData/women's-wealth/financial-abuse/

14 July 2016
| By Malavika |
image
image
expand image

Almost two-thirds of all women in a relationship do not hold any assets separately from their partner in their own name, indicating the role financial advisers have in helping women educate themselves around their financial situation.

CoreData's ‘Female Financial Abuse' research revealed three in five Australian women in a relationship were vulnerable to financial abuse by not ensuring their own financial independence.

CoreData defined financial abuse as the financial risk women faced if their relationship broke down, if they were in a manipulative relationship, or if they had an irresponsible partner (e.g. gambling habits, credit card debts), leaving women financial vulnerable.

More than half of women said they had no financial plan while only 10.5 per cent said they had very strong financial knowledge.

The survey of 801 women showed 70.3 per cent of women in a relationship felt somewhat reliant on their partner for financial support, with women in NSW most likely to feel this way (75.8 per cent).

Head of WA at CoreData, Kristen Turnbull, said many women's financial stability were still dependent on their partner despite increasing independence of females.

"A lot of women are leaving themselves vulnerable — no matter how much they trust and love their partners — by not taking the steps to financially educate themselves and attain a level of financial independence from their partner. Importantly, it's often the most vulnerable that appear to be the least aware of their vulnerability," she said.

Only two in five women had assets that were completely in their name, and only 39 per cent had a savings account, 33.5 per cent had a transaction account, 36.3 per cent had a credit card, and 17.5 per cent had shares or other investments. Only 8.8 per cent had residential property and only 4.6 per cent had an investment property in their own name.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

2 months 1 week ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

2 months 1 week ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

4 months 1 week ago

The corporate regulator has issued infringement notices to three AFSLs whose financial advisers provided personal advice to a retail client while unregistered....

1 day 10 hours ago

A Sydney financial adviser has been permanently banned from providing any financial services, with the regulator deriding his “lack of integrity, trustworthiness and prof...

4 weeks ago

ASIC has released the results of its first adviser exam to be held in 2025, with 241 candidates attempting the test....

6 days 9 hours ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND