Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, once famously admitted that the question that stumped him was: “What do women want?”

The odds are good that many male financial advisors are stumped, too. Research by some of the nation’s largest money managers finds that as many as eight in 10 widows change advisors after their husband dies. That’s a sure sign that women clients aren’t getting what they want, even if they never complain or say anything. It seems that the big difference between Freud and many advisors is that he recognized the limits of his understanding of women. 

So what do women want from their advisor, and what are they especially concerned about as they approach or are in retirement? To find out, I decided to ask a long-time friend, Angela Dailey, who is board chair of the Orange County, Calif.-based non-profit WISE—Women Investing in Security and Education. If you’ve ever watched WealthTrack, the terrific, long-running PBS series about money and investing hosted by Consuelo Mack, you probably noticed that WISE is one of the program’s sponsors. WISE’s support of the program aligns with its mission of advancing the financial empowerment of women of all ages. 

I worked with Angela when she headed corporate communications for Drexel Burnham Lambert. For many years afterward, she led her own Southern California-based communications consultancy firm serving financial clients. She now devotes most of her time to WISE, which was founded in 1997 and runs many programs to educate, inform and empower women. Since her efforts allow her to learn what a wide cross-section of women thinks and feels about retirement, I thought I’d catch up. 

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What follows is our conversation edited for space and clarity.  

Evan Cooper: Survey after survey over what seems like decades confirm that men and women approach investing differently and that women aren’t as confident as men about investing and preparing for retirement. But what still surprises you when you speak with women at WISE events? 

Angela Dailey: Generally, it’s the broad lack of knowledge about investing among women. Take IRA accounts, for instance. People in finance think everyone knows what those are. But most people don’t, and there’s a lot of confusion, especially about the different types of IRAs. Other things, like the difference between a mutual fund and an ETF, or between a stock and a bond, are not common knowledge either, so I think we constantly have to remind ourselves about starting with the basics. Even the very well educated and wealthy don’t know about these things, which creates other issues—like being more susceptible to fraud, especially among older people.

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EC: Do the many advisors who come to your events start changing what they do and emphasize education because of what they observe? 

AD: Maybe, but we also know that women still say they feel patronized by the men advisors, and I think that’s probably true. In preparing for retirement and for investing generally, women want to feel knowledgeable about what they’re doing. Whether or not it’s deliberate, male advisors often fail to educate, which can make things confusing. Maybe they don’t have the time, or they don’t want to spend the time. One solution would be to attract more women advisors, which a lot of firms, of course, are doing because they recognize that many women clients prefer working with women. But the percentage of women advisors continues to be relatively low, and there is still a lot of confusion to overcome. Too many women don’t understand basic concepts such as asset allocation, diversification or risk. They don’t understand why their portfolio doesn’t perform like the S&P. Too often, though, they are too intimidated to ask questions—which is why we also offer programs aimed at educating girls and younger women about financial security. We want women of all ages to become more confident and to understand the importance of becoming educated about finance and investing as early as possible because it’s so important for themselves and their families. 

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EC: The job of education sounds both simple and complex, all at the same time. 

AD: The basics aren’t all that complicated: Live a little bit below your means and invest sensibly. Men and women need to educate themselves, at least about the basics, so they can ask intelligent questions. Of course, you have to be motivated to want to learn about investing. But the good news is that there have never been more resources to turn to. WISE is one of them. Education is why WISE exists, and it’s what WISE does. What distinguishes us is the quality of our speakers and our focus on women.

For more on women and retirement, watch a recent webcast from WISE’s “Tearing Down the Pink Wall” series, which featured Consuelo Mack interviewing Anna Paglia, chief business officer at State Street Investment Management, and Kristi Mitchem, cofounder of &Partners, a hybrid broker-dealer platform for independent RIAs. During the conversation, Anna and Kristi made some points about women, retirement and investing based on research done by their firms and others: