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A recent study done by DSP MF and YouGov titled ‘DSP Winvestor Pulse 2022 - How women and men invest’ shows that the gender of MFDs/RIAs does not matter to majority of Indians.
Eight of 10 Indian investors say that they don’t mind engaging with either men or women for investment decision.
While 78% women feel that they do not consider gender of MFDs/RIAs for investments, 79% men feel this way. Only handful of women investors i.e. 8% prefer seeking financial information from women MFDs/RIAs. Interestingly, 13% women feel more comfortable with men MFDs/RIAs.
The online survey covered 4,625 women and men. The target group was equally divided amongst both genders and comprised respondents in the age group 25-60 across 4 metros (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore) and 6 mini-metros (Indore, Kochi, Patna, Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Amritsar).
Here are the key findings of the survey:
|
Investment behaviour |
Women respondents exhibiting this behaviour |
Men respondents exhibiting this behaviour |
|
Introduced to Investing by |
||
|
Self-taught |
13% |
21% |
|
Spouse |
21% |
7% |
|
Father |
12% |
15% |
|
Friends/social circle |
11% |
18% |
|
|
||
|
Attitude towards investments |
||
|
Safety is the most important consideration |
85% |
82% |
|
Investing & earning good returns gives a sense of pride |
80% |
80% |
|
Prefer worry-free, stable options like bank FDs, postal deposits, bonds |
67% |
61% |
|
Liking low-cost, no-bias nature of index funds |
57% |
54% |
|
Investing most money in stock market via shares or equity MFs |
50% |
55% |
|
|
||
|
Reasons to invest |
||
|
Financial independence/security |
43% |
45% |
|
Future goals |
43% |
42% |
|
Good returns on investment |
38% |
43% |
|
Retirement corpus |
36% |
39% |
|
Kid’s future |
36% |
35% |
|
Growth and beating inflation |
34% |
36% |
|
|
||
|
Preference of financial advisors |
||
|
Gender neutral |
78% |
79% |
|
Male financial advisors |
13% |
15% |
|
Women financial advisors |
8% |
6% |
|
|
||
|
Investment decision making |
||
|
Independently without consulting a professional advisor |
27% |
40% |
|
Along with someone |
52% |
33% |
|
In consultation with a financial advisor (% of respondents deciding along with someone) |
26% |
31% |
|
Jointly decision with spouse |
67% |
48% |
|
Jointly decision with father |
10% |
26% |
In a press release, Aditi Kothari Desai, Vice Chairperson, DSP MF said, “A telling aspect of the survey for me was that women are introduced by, as well as guided on investments more by their husbands, not by their fathers. I would appeal to parents in general & fathers specifically so, to open conversations on money & investing with their daughters at an early age.”
“In addition, I believe that the right professional investment advice will make a big difference in enabling women to take control of their destiny. This is where our MFDs and advisor-partners will continue to play a key role going forward.”
Kalpen Parekh, MD & CEO, DSP MF added, “We believe that women as investors and women as advisors should be a natural focus for our industry due to the long-term orientation and discipline they bring. DSP is focused to build this segment using Winvestor and our initiatives around it.”
