Women in Asia Are More Financially Savvy than Women in the U.S.

[Anonymous]

Around the world, the face of wealth isn't what it was a generation ago. Today, it's increasingly young, worldly, self-created — and female.



Our new book, Harness the Power of the Purse: Winning Women Investors, based on recent research from the Center for Talent Innovation, indicates that there is a rising tide of female wealth worldwide. Yet within that tide, we also found that there are different and distinct streams. While it's easy to think of the female market as homogenous, our research shows that cultural, geographical, and generational differences, as well as disparate sources of wealth, all affect how women view and allocate their wealth.



When examining women and their relationship to wealth, what's happening right now in Asia offers a window into where the West should be headed in the future. We surveyed women in the United States, United Kingdom, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and India with personal income of at least $100,000 or investable assets of $500,000 or more. Our findings indicate that women investors in Asia are in many ways ahead of their counterparts in the U.S. We see this especially in women's levels of confidence and engagement, their degree of risk tolerance, and the level of diversity in the financial services industry across the region.



Much of this trend is due to Asia's economic boom over the past decade, which has accelerated the exponential growth of the female market, resulting in a cadre of business- and tech-savvy women who are accustomed to making financial decisions that affect billions in corporate assets, as well as controlling and deploying significant personal assets. These include such superstars on Fortune's 2014 list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in global business as Chandra Kochbar of India's ICICI Bank, Chua Sock Koong of Singapore Telecommunications, and Zhang Xin of SOHO China. Though the burgeoning opportunities for the industry are still dominated by men, more women are starting businesses. China, especially, stands out: No country has more self-made female billionaires. Zhou Qunfei, the world's richest self-made woman and founder of Lens Technology, is emblematic of a new class of female entrepreneurs in China who have built their wealth from scratch. Asian women are also inheriting first-generation wealth and family businesses, something that was rare a generation ago.



In India, 59% of women in our sample report they're generating their wealth; only 20% derive it from their spouse and 21% inherit it. In China, 68% have self-generated wealth, while only 16% derive it from their spouse and 16% inherit it. And their wealth is not just substantial. It is growing: 58% of women surveyed across the four Asian countries expect their assets to increase.



As more women generate their own wealth, women are increasingly controlling the deployment of their assets. The vast majority of women we surveyed across the four economies in Asia are financial decision-makers in their households: 87% in China, 80% in India, 71% in Hong Kong, and 59% in Singapore. Compare these numbers to those in the U.S., where 44% of women describe themselves as decision-makers.



We also found a divergence in financial confidence between the East and the West. Across the countries we surveyed, women were as financially literate as men. In the U.S., for example, 35% of women and 39% of men passed our literacy assessment. But their confidence isn't always commensurate with their acumen — particularly among Western women. Men in the U.S. are 79% more likely than women to express confidence in their financial know-how. In contrast, Chinese women are virtually as confident in their acumen as Chinese men (64% versus 71%).



Our research, in fact, finds that women in Asia are remarkably confident about their financial savvy, with women wealth-creators — as compared to spouse creators and inheritors — the most confident. Subha Barry, an adjunct professor at Columbia University and former Merrill Lynch managing director, attributes this to deeply engrained cultural mores across the region. "Even in rural India, women manage the households and pay the bills," she says. "Women's confidence comes from having handled money from an early age."



While women in the U.S. often struggle with a cultural overhang of the Mad Men era that dictates men take charge of major financial decisions, Asian women within the countries we studied do not seem as constrained by traditional gender roles. As Dominique Boer, head of relationship management for Asia and Greater China at Standard Chartered, points out, "It's not uncommon to see women, particularly in Shanghai, control all financial decisions, as women there have a long history as 'money makers' controlling gold and spice trades." One of the biggest cultural differences between the West and Asia is the respect attendant on women. "Women are absolutely seen as equal partners," affirms a senior wealth advisor in Asia.

[Anonymous]

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There are also major differences in women's appetites for risk. It's widely assumed women are more risk-averse than men, yet, in Hong Kong and Singapore, women are as likely as men to be comfortable with a more aggressive portfolio allocation. In the U.S., a gender gap exists with 36% of women choosing a more risk-averse portfolio compared to 28% of men. The gender gap disappears though when you look at the sub-segments of the market in the U.S. Thirty-two percent of female wealth creators are risk-averse in the U.S., while 26% of women who inherited their wealth are risk-averse, compared to 28% of men overall.



This strengthening undertone of equality coupled with Asian women's confidence and comfort with risk seem to also be influencing diversity dynamics in financial services across the region. For example, wealth management teams in Asia tend to feature higher proportions of female advisors than their counterparts in the U.S. and U.K. Based on interviews and focus groups we conducted across the region, cultural dynamics are playing a key role. In China, for example, the gender-equality legacy of Communism opened opportunities for more women like Qunfei to succeed. The rise of more successful women in leadership coupled with cultural influences have also helped shift the wealth management industry's readiness to better serve a more diverse client base. In China, women outnumber men on advisory teams by three to two. In Southeast Asia, about three-quarters of wealth advisors in Singapore are women, our interviewees tell us — a function of Singapore's two-child policy, which ensures women enjoy the same opportunities as men. The percentage of women in similar roles in the U.S. lag dramatically with women accounting for a third of financial advisors and only 23% of Certified Financial Planners.



Over and over, our focus groups in Asia proclaimed the message: "Women are leading and sustaining the economic boom and driving growth opportunities for the wealth management industry." Asian women investors are shaping the future of the industry, and the West (as well as the world) should take note.

[Frood]

Eastern women are more gullible or savvy?

[asal]

(laughing at/with di not the question)  savvy, the article says.  Savvy with money.

[Anonymous]

Oriental women like to spend money, but they do seem more investment savvy than North American and European women.

[Lance Leftardashian]

It is wonderful that women from Asia are more financially savvy and smarter than western women.

[Anonymous]

It is wonderful that women from Asia are more financially savvy and smarter than western women.

Finally, you say something that makes sense.  ac_toofunny

[Bricktop]

It is wonderful that women from Asia are more financially obsessed and greedy than western women.

Fixed.

[Anonymous]

It is wonderful that women from Asia are more financially savvy and smarter than western women.

I wish this Asian woman in Canada was more financially savvy..



This is why we have a money sense thread.

[Anonymous]

It is wonderful that women from Asia are more financially obsessed and greedy than western women.

Fixed.

They know what they want.