Wealthy couples are more comfortable talking to their advisors than one another about the financial implications of important issues such as death and inheritance, according to a new survey.

Wealthy couples are more comfortable talking to their advisors than one another about the financial implications of important issues such as death and inheritance, Fidelity found in its 2013 Couples Retirement Study.

Despite that men reported being afraid of leaving their partners financially unprepared should they need to manage the finances themselves, less than half (42 per cent) of couples work together with their advisor.

Crucially, men were 58 per cent more likely than women to be the primary contact with the advisor – a trend that was, interestingly, more prevalent among the younger female respondents. A total of 41 per cent of Gen Y women said their partner was the primary contact with their advisor compared to 33 per cent of Gen X women and 28 per cent of Baby Boomer women.

This may seem surprising at a time when, for example, the Luxury Institute predicted earlier this year that in only two decades women will achieve the same or more success as men in terms of being in management positions, running businesses, earning money and overall net worth.

Women want to be involved

“Women are not unwilling to step into the financial driver’s seat,” said Brian Nelson, vice president of practice management at National Financial, Fidelity’s clearing division.

“According to the study, women are interested in working with an advisor, but they say they hand over the reins because they trust their partner. This may not only create instability for the family, but also for the advisor-client relationship,” Nelson added.

While over half of the women (52 per cent) surveyed said they were confident in their partners’ ability to assume full financial responsibility of retirement finances and strategy, only 15 per cent said they have no interest in interacting with their financial advisor at all.

However, a considerable proportion (43 per cent) of the men surveyed didn’t express the same level of confidence in their partners’ ability to assume full financial responsibility of retirement finances.

This, Fidelity said, is a “valid concern” since - according to the study - fewer than half of the women surveyed (45 per cent) were confident in their own ability to take charge in this respect.

This was also one of the outcomes of a recent Merrill Lynch study, when over half (55 per cent) of women versus 27 per cent of men said that they know less than the average investor about financial markets and investing. But as that report highlighted, “how much people think they know and how much they actually know can be two very different matters.” Moreover, a near-equal amount (50 per cent of women and 55 per cent of men) said they want to be “personally engaged” in making investment decisions.

“We believe we need to change the dialogue with both men and women, to discuss what really matters to them and what they want their investments to achieve,” Michael Liersch, head of behavioral finance for Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, previously said.

A total of 808 couples took part in Fidelity's survey. It was required that respondents be at least 25 years old, married or in a long-term committed relationship and living with their respective partner with a minimum household income of $75,000 or at least $100,000 in investable assets.