Findings recently published in the Zurich Wealth Risk Report show that more than twice as many men choose the highest possible risk option to boost their savings compared to women (13% vs 6%)[1].<\/p>\n
The study, tracking investor attitudes and behaviour, questioned consumers about their willingness to take risk and capacity to accept a loss on their investments. It found that although people’s attitude to risk tends to shift very little throughout their lives, their overall appetite for risk will change. This is influenced by a wide range of factors, including age, location, use of advice and life stages such as marriage.<\/p>\n
Gender breakdown<\/strong> Stags, opting for the highest risk option \u2013 <\/strong>76% men vs 24% women<\/p>\n Bulls, willing to take high risk \u2013 <\/strong>65% men vs 35% women<\/p>\n Owls, sticking to a low-risk portfolio \u2013 <\/strong>55% men vs 45% women<\/p>\n Squirrels, playing it safe \u2013 <\/strong>54% women vs 46% men<\/p>\n Higher levels of risk <\/strong> In addition, age appears to impact on our appetite for risk. While the findings show that we’re more willing to take risk when we’re younger \u2013 with one in five Stags being under 35 \u2013 this falls over time to just 4% of 65\u201369 year-olds. However, the percentage of Stags leaps threefold to 12% when investors hit 70, suggesting a higher level of disposable wealth and higher capacity for risk.<\/p>\n Risk attitude shift<\/strong> The findings also highlight the fact that while attitude to risk is likely to remain static throughout our lives, our ability to take risk differs depending on life stage and our personal circumstances.<\/p>\n Source: Tax rules and legislation can change and the information given here is based on our understanding of law and current HM Revenue & Customs practice. The value of an investment can fall or rise, so you may not receive back the amount you invested.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More than twice as many men choose the highest possible risk option to boost their savings compared to women Findings recently published in the Zurich Wealth Risk Report show that more than twice as many men choose the highest possible risk option to boost their savings compared to women (13% vs 6%)[1].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vizionwealth.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFour different investment types have emerged from the study. Men make up the majority of the groups with a higher appetite for risk, but when it comes to the lower risk groups, the split is less defined, as shown below in the gender breakdown within each investment type:<\/p>\n
\nIt also seems that the wealthier a man is, the more likely he is to be a Stag \u2013 with 15% of those with investable assets worth over \u00a3100k or more opting for higher levels of risk compared to just 1% of women from the same group.<\/p>\n
\nIt is particularly interesting to see the shift in risk attitude for investors over the age of 70, although this may reflect the fact that they generally have fewer financial responsibilities with mortgages paid off and no dependents living at home \u2013 which in turn is likely to have an impact on their levels of disposable income and their view of higher-risk investments.<\/p>\n
\n[1]This is based on research commissioned by Zurich for NMG Consulting to conduct
\n1,000 online interviews with investors with savings and investments worth \u00a310k or more. 24 September\u2013
\n4 October 2013<\/em><\/p>\n