It seems that investment advisers' days of targeting the male market are all but over.
Women are but one of a number of new groups that offer much potential.
Women today have much more economic power and autonomy, both as financial decision-makers and wealth accumulators, than their counterparts of days gone by. Even where marriages do stay together, gone are the days when one salary was enough to survive on, and so many more women are also actively involved in the world of commerce and are, indeed, at least equal partners with their husbands when it comes to financial decision-making. The majority of retirement-aged people living alone in Australia are also women. It stands to reason, therefore, that women now have considerable investment power too. This is not lost on enterprising companies, like First State Fund Managers, which goes as far as offering seminars for financial planners on how to attract women's business.