A survey of MassMutual’s retirement plan clients shows they are generally upbeat about the potential for stock market gains, with 75.8 per cent expecting a higher market in the next 12 months, but data also reveals notable gaps between how men and women regard their investments.

Only 7.6 per cent of respondents said the market will decline, MassMutual said in a survey of 1,000 clients.

Although women were as optimistic as men, women are less optimistic about their ability to make investment decisions 932.5 per cent) than men (47.8 per cent).

Likewise, more men enjoy managing their investments (61.5 per cent) than do women (48.1 per cent). More women also prefer to spend as little time as possible on investment decisions (39.3 per cent) compared to men (28 per cent).

In terms of approach to retirement planning in the current economy, overall 40.3 per cent reported becoming more conservative, 32.9 per cent became more aggressive, and 26.8 per cent have not changed their approach.

Only 10.2 per cent of surveyed participants currently work with a personal financial advisor. However, the percentage (30.0 per cent) of participants who are more likely to seek help from an advisor as a result of the recession is more than double the percentage who are less likely (12.7 per cent), with the remainder no more or less likely to seek help than before.

Women are almost 25 per cent more likely to already work with an advisor than men (11.9 per cent vs. 9.6 per cent) and are almost 20 per cent more likely than men to seek help as a result of the recent economy (34.1 per cent vs 28.8 per cent).