Women Trust Advisers Over Cyberspace

The latest Women, Money and Power study released by Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz), found that despite the popularity of the Internet, it’s still not the most trusted source. The study also found that single women are the most interested group in learning about retirement.

When asked where women first turn as a financial resource, the Internet was most frequently cited (46%), ahead of family members (34%), advisers (30%), banks (26%), and friends (22%), according to a press release of the results.

As far as effectiveness, the Internet ranks behind human sources, such as advisers, family members, friends, seminars, magazines, and television, the release says.

More than half of the women surveyed want to learn more about retirement planning and entry-level saving and investing, particularly single women, Allianz said.

According to the results, the majority of single women with children were interested in planning for retirement, with 68% saying it was a topic of interest. Of this group, 49% wanted to learn the definitions of basic financial terms.

Forty-five percent of single women with children and 55% of single women without children expressed interest in learning about financial planning. Divorced women were also above the group average, at 42%.

As far as what is discouraging women, the most frequently cited concern was information overload of some sort. Forty-four percent of respondents said financial information is overwhelming, too plentiful, or too hard to sort through. Women also said financial information is too complicated (36%), too boring (32%), or not understandable enough (26%).

The study, conducted by Larson Research, was based on a sample of 1,443 women between the ages of 25 to 75 with an annual household income above $30,000.