UBS Wealth Management's findings are from its recent white paper called Women and Investing.

UBS Wealth Management has launched a new white paper called Women and Investing that shows that on average, women are predicted to have significantly less wealth in their lifetime, while already facing disruption to their wealth creation caused by career discontinuity and the need for greater flexibility.

The world’s largest wealth manager found that an illustrative pay gap of 10 per cent will result in a woman having 38 per cent less wealth than a man at age 85.

The report also said if current trends persist, many women will need to invest more for the long term and take more long-term risk in their portfolios to meet their needs. The research shows how investment decisions and behaviours widen the gender gap in addition to income disparity, pay discontinuity, work flexibility and longevity.

Such findings come at a time when it is often noted that women, making up more than half of the world's population, and becoming significant holders of wealth in parts of the world, require and deserve more attention from private banks and other institutions.

According to the white paper, on average, women’s investment decisions and behaviours are found to be different from men’s. Research shows that women have historically been more reluctant to take risks and tend to be less confident when making investment decisions. This is despite studies demonstrating that women have considerable financial knowledge and discipline relative to male peers.

UBS WM states that by increasing women's financial confidence can help them achieve their goals and maintain their lifestyle in later life: an appropriate investment approach can make a lifelong impact on a person's financial situation.

The Swiss wealth manager found the impact of the gender pay gap and longer lifespans on women's wealth can be reduced by steps such as accounting for individual circumstances in their lives, including their financial goals; defining and recommending portfolios that maximize the likelihood of them achieving their goals, and helping women feel more confident about investing and,understanding the relationship between risk and return.

"Issues like pay disparity, career discontinuity, work flexibility, life expectancy, and risk tolerance can conspire to create meaningful disparities in the financial outcomes of men and women. Awareness is the first step in closing this gender gap," said Mark Haefele, global chief investment officer of UBS Wealth Management.

Gaps within the financial services are a key reason why UBS Wealth Management has launched UBS Unique, a five-year plan to improve its expertise in serving female clients. This includes a commitment to help increase the financial confidence of one million women by 2021 to reduce the existing gender wealth gap.

UBS Unique will also be launching a bespoke financial confidence programme in the coming months to address this challenge.