According to M&G's Anderson, women want their financial needs and objectives to be listened to and they expect advisers to educate them where necessary on their options throughout their lifetime and not just in the situation where their husband dies.
She says: “While the gender pay gap continues to exist, the gender pension gap will never close. It means that we’re in a situation where women have less saved in their pension pot but are living longer. So a smaller pot needs to last a longer period of time.
“Having said that, research shows that 60 per cent of wealth in the UK is expected to be in the hands of women by 2025, partly because more of us are working full time and are being paid more – albeit still less than our male peers – and partly because we’re the generation of inheritors.”
One key way of trying to help clients achieve better outcomes in retirement is by managing sequencing risk.
As Anderson points out, it is not necessarily possible to eradicate sequencing risk, but an adviser can work with a client to alleviate that risk.
She adds: “There are various ways to approach this and we’d always suggest diversifying your portfolio wherever possible. By investing in a range of different assets the funds are less susceptible to market movements in any one asset class, which reduces the impact of large market movements.”
James Murray adds: “Diversification is the first line of defence. Regularly reviewing and rebalancing the portfolio, combined with ensuring sufficient liquidity for short-term needs, can help mitigate the effects of sequencing risk.”
At Evelyn Partners, Spencer says the best way to reduce the effect of sequencing risk is to have enough funds in cash to cover your income needs for at least two years, again this is very bespoke to the individual and their views on taking out funds from their pension when the markets are down.
Another option available is to purchase an annuity under advice so that clients know they have a set amount of income each year and are not needing to withdraw from their investments at a time which may not be right due to market movements.
Claire Altman, managing director – individual retirement at Standard Life, says: "A strong theme from our Retirement Voice research this year is that nine in 10 people want their pension savings to give them income certainty in retirement. But, at the same time, almost the same number still want to enjoy an element of financial flexibility.
"It’s therefore become increasingly important to help people understand that their retirement income doesn’t have to be a binary choice between drawdown and annuities.
