Data & Research March 10, 2022

Advisers Can Help Women Add to Growing Retirement Confidence

Women are adjusting their approach to finances and value advisers who will listen to them.

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Women are showing more confidence about their retirement readiness and in managing their finances, amidst the ongoing pandemic, according to research from two financial institutions.

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For many women, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic changed how they view finances. Many are feeling more confident managing their money, the Nationwide Retirement Institute’s Advisor Authority study found. The Women and Wealth Insights Research from U.S. Bank also finds that women have gained confidence when it comes to managing their finances.   

The Nationwide survey shows that women with investable assets of $100,000 or more who are primary or shared decision-makers regarding financial planning are pivoting to approach finances more proactively and want help with strategies to reach financial goals.  

Many women investors have learned lessons from living though COVID-19, states Ann Bair, senior vice president for marketing, Nationwide Financial. “After experiencing the upheaval of these events, from market volatility to juggling childcare during remote learning, women are being more proactive in thinking about and planning for their futures,” she says.

About half of women investors indicated the Crash of 2008 (50%) and COVID-19 recession (48%) were two major financial crises that impacted how they approach finances and investments. Profound events such as these have led many women investors to start thinking further ahead about their financial futures, adjusting their approach to managing their personal finances by taking actions such as proactively starting a “rainy day” or emergency fund (23%) or establishing and following a budget (21%).

Women have already demonstrated a stronger likelihood than men to make better long-term decisions when facing financial crises, according to Nationwide’s study. For example, fewer women investors (8%) than male investors (15%) liquidated assets from qualified retirement savings plans to cover financial obligations in response to crises that had a profound impact on them.

Many women have made great strides towards retirement readiness. Accumulating sufficient savings for retirement has specific challenges for women because of the gender pay gap disparity, lower career earnings and time spent out of the workforce for childbirth and caregiving.

The survey found that 72% of women investors have a strategy to protect themselves from outliving savings, 83% have a strategy to generate guaranteed income in retirement and 59% have a strategy to help protect assets against market risk. Additionally, due to experiencing firsthand how market volatility can significantly impact their portfolio, 68% of women investors will more conservatively revise their investing strategy, and 73% will revise their investing strategy to be more actively managed.

The 2022 U.S. Bank study was completed almost two years into the COVID-19 pandemic and shows some large differences from 2020. The survey found that women and men are experiencing greater confidence in their ability to fund future financial needs. U.S. Bank found that 36% of women and 37% of men said this in 2022, compared to 23% of women and 34% of men in 2020.

Seeking Help

The Nationwide survey also shows that two-thirds of women investors work with an adviser (64%), and the main reason they do so is to feel more confident in their financial future (40%).

Advisers have an opportunity to help women look deeply into their finances and to plan, states Lori Hall, director of strategic accounts for Nationwide Financial. “Advisers and financial professionals can help women understand what they can expect from strategies they currently have in place and think about other factors that may impact retirement income, including when they collect Social Security, health care costs, inflation, market volatility and taxes,” she says. “This can help identify gaps in their plan that may be addressed through new solutions.”

When women investors were asked what would make them more likely to work with, or influenced them to work with, an adviser or financial professional, an adviser’s experience (41%) was the most common factor. Ninety-two percent of those that currently work with an adviser or financial professional say that it helps them feel more confident they can make the right investment decisions, even during an extreme financial crisis.

In the U.S. Bank survey, the majority of Generation Z and Millennial women prioritize working with a financial provider who has a strong workplace equality/diversity rating, supports gender equality in the workplace, and supports international human rights. Meanwhile, Baby Boomer women highly value (88%) a financial adviser who takes the time to listen to them.

Compliance March 10, 2022

SEC Proposes Broad Cybersecurity Disclosure Regulations

The securities market regulator has proposed rule amendments meant to enhance and standardize disclosures regarding cybersecurity risk management and incident reporting by public companies.

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One month after it issued proposed regulations related to the cybersecurity policies of registered investment advisers and fund companies, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a second proposal related to the cybersecurity standards and disclosures of publicly traded companies.

Specifically, the SEC is proposing amendments to its rules to enhance and standardize disclosures regarding cybersecurity risk management, strategy, governance and incident reporting by public companies.

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“Over the years, our disclosure regime has evolved to reflect evolving risks and investor needs,” says SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a press release announcing the proposal. “Today, cybersecurity is an emerging risk with which public issuers increasingly must contend. Investors want to know more about how issuers are managing those growing risks. A lot of issuers already provide cybersecurity disclosure to investors. I think companies and investors alike would benefit if this information were required in a consistent, comparable and decision-useful manner. I am pleased to support this proposal because, if adopted, it would strengthen investors’ ability to evaluate public companies’ cybersecurity practices and incident reporting.”

According to Gensler, the proposed amendments would require, among other things, current reporting about material cybersecurity incidents and periodic reporting to provide updates about previously reported cybersecurity incidents. The proposal also would require periodic reporting about a registrant’s policies and procedures to identify and manage cybersecurity risks; the registrant’s board of directors’ degree of oversight of cybersecurity risk; and management’s role and expertise in assessing and managing cybersecurity risk and implementing cybersecurity policies and procedures.

The proposal would further require annual reporting and certain proxy disclosures about a public company’s board of directors’ cybersecurity expertise. The SEC’s leadership says the proposed amendments are intended to better inform investors about a registrant’s risk management, strategy and governance and to provide timely notification to investors of material cybersecurity incidents.

The full text of the proposed rule amendments stretches to nearly 130 pages, and the SEC has published a short fact sheet to complement its press release explaining the basics of the proposal.

Among the changes highlighted are planned amendments to the Form 8-K that would require registrants to disclose information about a material cybersecurity incident within four business days after it is determined one occurred. The proposal would also add a new Item 106(d) of Regulation S-K and a new Item 16J(d) of Form 20-F, requiring that registrants provide updated disclosure relating to previously disclosed cybersecurity incidents and requiring disclosure, to the extent known to management, when a series of previously undisclosed individually immaterial cybersecurity incidents has become material in the aggregate.

In addition to incident reporting, the SEC is proposing to require enhanced and standardized disclosures on registrants’ cybersecurity risk management, strategy and governance. Specifically, the proposal would require registrants to describe their policies and procedures, if any, for the identification and management of risks from cybersecurity threats, including whether the registrant considers cybersecurity as part of its business strategy, financial planning and capital allocation.

Par for the course, the comment period will remain open for 60 days following publication of the proposal on the SEC’s website or 30 days following publication of the proposing release in the Federal Register, whichever period is longer.

These regulatory actions come as the SEC—like many other regulators—ramps up its focus on cybersecurity issues. In fact, for several years, the SEC has specifically identified on its annual priorities list such a focus on cybersecurity.

The list warns that the SEC’s enforcement division will “continue to evaluate whether regulated entities have established, maintained and enforced written cybersecurity policies and procedures as required.” The priorities list indicates areas of focus will include information technology governance, IT asset management, cyber threat management/incident response, business continuity planning and third-party vendor management, including utilization of cloud services.

Demonstrating its resolve, last year, the SEC announced a series of sanctions against eight registered advisory firms for failures in their cybersecurity policies and procedures that resulted in what the agency describes as “email account takeovers” which exposed the personal information of thousands of customers and clients at each firm.

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