Women and Retirement Planning

Retirement planning is important for everyone, statistics show that too many Americans have not prepared for retirement.  Unfortunately, for women statistics also show that women tend to be poorer in retirement than men are which makes retirement planning that much more important.  Women tend to have less income than men for several reasons:

• Women as primary caregivers tend to have more breaks in employment which factors out to lower earnings and Social Security retirement and disability benefits
• Women on average live, longer than men which means their fund for retirement, must go further.
• Women are more likely than men to graduate from college these days, but college education has not translated to higher salaries across the board for women.
• Women have not achieved equal pay for equal work, which translates to lower earnings and less money for retirement planning.
• Women’s roles as caregivers have adversely affected their ability to advance in their chosen careers.
• Single women, who are generally head of household, have lower funds available for retirement than married women.
• Divorce and the division of marital benefits, especially pensions have meant lower income for women in retirement.  Women need to be more aware of their rights to pension benefits in divorce.

In order to avoid or lessen the poverty trap that women will find themselves in at retirement, they must be more aggressive in their retirement planning.  It is important that women retain and strengthen the safeguards in current Social Security law that helps keep women at retirement age from poverty.  Consult with an estate-planning attorney that is sensitive to the special retirement needs of women to help you reach your goals of a happy prosperous retirement.