UBS research has found more than half of married women defer long-term financial planning to their husbands as many admit they are being discouraged from managing family finances.
According to UBS Investor Watch, a recurring global study of high net worth individuals, women tend to focus more on short-term finances, with 85 per cent of married women taking the lead on managing day-to-day expenses.
In the UK 62 per cent of women leave long-term financial decisions up to their husbands, as 73 per cent said they thought a higher level of knowledge was needed to make good investment decisions.
Just 48 per cent of those questioned felt they had the required level of knowledge needed to invest, while 85 per cent felt their partners knew more about it than they did.
Worryingly, 55 per cent admitted that their spouses discouraged them from being more involved in family finances.
Eva Lindholm, head of UBS Wealth Management UK and Jersey, said: "When the majority of British women defer to men on important financial decisions, we need to ask why.
"This dynamic could go on for generations to come, unless both men and women make a commitment to engage in financial decisions together."
Two thirds of married women in the UK said they were confident in their ability to take on all finances should something happen to their spouse, but of those that have been widowed or divorced, 49 per cent said they were not prepared financially.
Rebecca Robertson, director and independent financial adviser at Evolution Financial Planner, said: "Interesting research which isn’t that shocking but highly disappointing that so many women are not engaging with long-term financial decisions.
"We will continue to see women in their later life without pensions and reliant on their partner's income.
"Thankfully I am seeing a shift with single women and those realising that they have to pull their head out the sand and not put these things off.
"The money mindset and financial education needs to be in place before to encourage them to take action. Thus why I spend a lot of time speaking and running free challenges to support women with this rather large issue."
From September 2017 to January 2019 UBS surveyed 3,652 women. Of these women, 2,251 were married with at least $1m (£762,100) in investable assets.
Others were either divorced or widowed. These women had at least $250,000 (£190,483) in investable assets.
