What Women Can Do To Overcome Financial Insecurity Fears

“Many of the women struggle with determining how long they need their retirement savings to last. So, 60% of women said they really struggle with this issue…women typically live five years longer than men. And many women are concerned about health-care costs, Social Security not being available when they’re ready to retire, and managing expenses,” Marasco said.

According to the study, 52% of women are worried about outliving their retirement and even though they are participating in their employer-sponsored retirement plans, they might not know about new solutions such as protected retirement solutions as they are called at Nationwide. These protected retirement solutions provide a guaranteed lifetime income that they can’t outlive and also help protect against market volatility.

“When we did a survey, three out of four women say they wish that their 401(k) provided pension-like income. And this Nationwide survey also said women believe pension-like income would reduce their stress, improve their financial security and offer peace of mind,” Marasco said. A pension-like income stream is like a pension with a defined-benefit plan that provides guaranteed income. It offers guaranteed income for life and gives women control of their money and investments.

Retirement planning could look very different depending on a woman’s marital status or how much she has worked in her life. According to Marasco, working women could leverage their 401(k) plans, their 457 plans or 403(b) plans and take advantage of any matching contributions that their employer offers. Women who have not worked do have options such as rollovers and savings vehicles.

For women of divorce, the protected retirement solutions allow for divorce to happen but change options based on the divorce. “So, the divorce allows you to make changes to your options, to your guaranteed lifetime income options. And so you’d contact your record keeper to help with making those changes to your lifetime income stream,” Marasco said.

Unfortunately, women must also plan for the scenario that they might become widows but there are ways to make sure they are protected. “Some of these protected retirement solutions have joint options. So, if their husband is working and could partake in a protected retirement solution they could sign up for the joint option and make sure that their spouse, in this case, the woman, is protected as well with income that they can’t outlive,” said Marasco.

If this scenario does come to fruition Marasco recommends that “participants contact their financial advisor or retirement plan provider to understand the implications specific to their personal situation and plan options. Losing a spouse is also an example of why it’s important to ensure your beneficiary information is kept up to date on all financial accounts” Marasco explained in an email.