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Often left out of the financial picture, women need help to bridge life insurance and savings gaps and achieve a secure retirement.

By Susan Rupe

ary Grace Musuneggi has faced financial challenges as a widow, single mom and divorced woman. Those experiences have shaped her determination to help women overcome the lack of knowledge — and lack of confidence — many of them share when it comes to their personal finances.

Musuneggi was widowed with a 9-month-old son when she was 25 years old. Years later, she remarried, but that marriage ended in divorce.

When asked her marital status, she jokingly replies, “All of the above.”

Today, she is the chairman and CEO of The Musuneggi Financial Group in Pittsburgh, Pa., and founder of Single Steps Strategies, a life planning resource for women. She also is the author of two books, Single Steps: Strategies for Abundant Living and A Man Is Not a Plan: Success Strategies for Independent Women.

Musuneggi’s challenges as a widow, single mom and divorced woman inspired her to help women achieve financial independence and plan for whatever life might throw their way. And she is aware of the need to help women attain financial security. Consider a few statistics:

» In 2022, 46% of women owned life insurance, seven points below the ownership rate of men (53%). This marks the sixth consecutive year of declines in the rate of women’s life insurance ownership. (Source: LIMRA)

» 44% of women are very concerned about outliving their assets (versus 29% of men). (Source: LIMRA)

» Women workers have saved only $43,000 (estimated median) in all household retirement accounts. (Source: Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.)

Musuneggi has seen these statistics play out among the women she serves in her practice, many of whom have lost a partner through death or divorce and are now navigating their finances alone.

“I heard more and more stories from women who are now trying to learn all the things they should have learned in high school and college and before they got married and whatever, and it was a struggle for some of them,” she said.

“Some of them were frustrated because they didn’t know anything. Some were scared to make mistakes. Not all of the women whose husbands died left them well off either. So, I said I wanted to focus on making sure, before these things happen, that women do not center their entire lives around believing ‘I’m secure because I have someone in my life.’”

That focus was the inspiration for writing A Man Is Not a Plan.

“Nobody else should be your plan. Not your father, not your bartender, not the girl across the street, not your business partners,” she said. “You need your own plan because the person who will take the best care of you is you.”

Musuneggi works with couples as well as single women, and she finds that “women have come a long way, but we still find that when we work with couples, the husband more than likely overrides the entire conversation. When I ask the wife about it, she says, ‘Oh, he handles all that.’ That ends the conversation right there. I say, ‘No, he doesn’t. We do this as a team. Everyone needs to be involved.’”

Going

Where The Women Are

Women began coming to Musuneggi when she started her practice because she went to them instead of waiting for them to come to her.

“I took the time to go to women’s organizations, to do workshops, to do speaking engagements,” she said. “Today, we do very little prospecting. People come to us. Part of it is because we have a program called ‘Friends Helping Friends.’ If someone’s a client, we encourage them to find their friends who might be good clients and to spread the word. About 98% of the new people we get as clients in a year are people who came to us.”

Musuneggi started Single Steps as a way to educate women about their finances.

“The whole focus of Single Steps is one step at a time. Let’s get you in front of someone you need to get in front of,” she said. “We decided if we were going to focus on women, we needed to have some way for women to learn. So, we gathered together a group of resources who were willing to give some free time to women. We have attorneys, accountants, counselors. We brought all these people together and said, ‘What we need you to do is be available and not charge anything for at least one session if one of our people calls, so that they can get some professional advice and not worry about having to pay for it.’ And these resources jumped on board; they said, ‘Yes, let’s do that.’”

In the decades Musuneggi has operated her practice, she sees the needs of women changing yet being the same.

“As much as we say, ‘You’ve come a long way, baby,’ I still see women and think, ‘It’s 2023! You do know this isn’t the way things are done anymore?’

“But at the same time, I see younger women who are starting out in a job that pays well, and they know they need to plan for their future. They’re ready to get started.”

Musuneggi said she believes the financial services industry must “work at not making this such a scary experience.”

“I’ve had women who have told me that they’ve gone to advisors, male and female, who’ve talked down to them. They don’t need that. They need somebody who’s going to counsel them. So I think we need to do a better job of saying, ‘We’re here as counselors — we’re not here to sell you bitcoin.’

“We need to tell women that [planning] needs to be the next life experience. You go to grade school, high school, college, get a job and start doing your financial planning. It all needs to flow together.”

Bridging the gap

LIMRA research shows a life insurance gap as well as a retirement savings gap between men and women. The reasons for those gaps are complex, but three main factors contribute to them, said Alison Salka, LIMRA vice president and director of research.

Salka

“First, there’s a pay gap. Women earn an estimated 82 cents for every dollar that men earn, so they earn less. So they may be less able to

What are some of the misconceptions that women have about life insurance/ financial planning, and how do those thoughts keep women from seeking professional advice?

LIMRA did a qualitative study last year to learn the obstacles that prevent women from getting the life insurance they need.

Knowledge: Women believe they have less financial knowledge. Carriers and financial professionals should provide easy-to-understand information and tools that feature data specifically for women, such as the average financial value a wife/ mother contributes to a household, to explain why they require life insurance.

Confidence: Women feel intimidated by/ uncertain about financial decisions. Carriers and financial professionals can empower women with knowledge and tools that allow them to compare their coverage choices with those of their peers. This will increase their self-confidence and remove some of their hesitancy about buying the life insurance they need.

Vulnerability: Women feel vulnerable to something happening to the incomeearning spouse and are uncomfortable sharing personal information with financial professionals or insurers. Understanding and acknowledging how uncomfortable many women are when thinking about the reasons for needing life insurance can help financial professionals and companies engage more effectively and overcome a significant barrier to purchase

Treatment: Women perceive male agents as condescending and resent being treated like a child.

They fear a carrier might take advantage of their lack of knowledge/confidence. Training financial professionals on the best ways to build a trusting relationship with their women clients can help overcome women’s negative perceptions of the industry.

Source: LIMRA save. In addition, women are more likely to work in jobs that don’t offer benefits such as a retirement savings plan or life insurance, which means they have to take an extra step to seek out retail solutions. And they’re more likely to take a break in their employment to take care of other people. Our research has found that when they do that, their retirement savings likely take a hit.”

LIMRA conducted a study in 2022 to examine why women are less likely than men to own life insurance.

“We found that women believe they have less financial knowledge than men do,” Salka said. “We also found women feel uncomfortable sharing personal information with financial professionals or with insurers. Women are more uncertain about making financial decisions because they believe they have less knowledge. That makes them feel more vulnerable when meeting with an advisor, and sometimes they’re afraid that someone may take advantage of that. All of these things hinder them from being

Life insurance ownership: men versus women

There are 131 million adult women in the United States. In 2022, 46% of women owned life insurance, seven points below the ownership rate of men (53%). This marks the sixth consecutive year of declines in the rate of women’s life insurance ownership.

able to have a full and good relationship with an advisor.”

Research shows women are stressed about their household finances, and the industry must take steps to help women address those concerns, Salka said.

“It starts off with understanding women’s concerns and looking at their goals. We also know that women tend to have self-professed lower levels of financial literacy. When they’re looking for financial relationships, they want to find

Women’s total household retirement savings

Women’s total savings in household retirement accounts was less than half of men’s ($43,000, $91,000) (estimated medians) in late 2021. Men were significantly more likely than women to have saved $250,000 or more in total household retirement accounts (32%, 21%). A worrisome 25% of women and 16% of men had saved less than $10,000 or nothing at all.

2021 total household retirement savings (%)

somebody they’re comfortable with. So what the industry has done is tried to understand the needs of women, and they’ve tried to make advice more accessible, make educational material accessible to everybody.”

LIMRA also looked at the impact of female financial advisors on female consumers.

“We saw that female financial advisors tend to do more holistic planning, and they tend to do more budget and expense management,” Salka said. “From that, we can assume that women want or need those services more and that women advisors recognize that. I think giving women access to education and advice is crucial. Not everyone wants education, but I think it always should be accessible.”

Advice = wellness

Advisors have an opportunity to serve women by being aware of women’s unique concerns, Salka said.

“One way advisors can do a better job of reaching women is to ask for referrals,” she said. “Women are more likely than men to consult friends and family when choosing an advisor. I also would say that advisors can do a better job when they reach out to women. Instead of saying, ‘I’m going to help you invest or look at these products,’ say, ‘This is about your wellness, your overall health. You want to be financially healthy in addition to being mentally and physically healthy. The way to do that is to take care of your finances.’”

Salka said advisors should start by helping women develop a formal written plan for day-to-day issues such as budgeting, then move on to a holistic plan that would include life insurance, an annuity or an individual retirement account or other retirement plan.

The industry is making progress in recruiting women advisors, Salka said, but women’s life insurance ownership remains down.

“I think the momentum to reach women is increasing, I think the effort is there, and the interest is there. But it takes a lot to reach women in a world where they are hyperdistracted and inflation is high. How do you get women

Source: Transamerica Institute for Retirement Studies to stop and take a minute and say, ‘I’m going to prioritize this; I’m going to meet with a professional’? It’s such a challenging environment overall.”

The rocky road to retirement

For the past 22 years, the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies has looked at women’s retirement readiness. The outlook for women’s retirement prospects remains bleak, although some slow progress is being made.

Catherine Collinson is CEO and president of Transamerica Institute and TCRS. She said the risks women face in attaining retirement security have become part of the national dialogue — something that wasn’t the case 10 or 20 years ago.

The COVID-19 pandemic shone a light on women’s financial challenges and intensified the struggles that many women dealt with for years, TCRS found in its most recent study, “Emerging

Collinson

Insufficient income to save for retirement

More than half of women (57%) agree with the statement “I don’t have enough income to save for retirement.” Twenty-seven percent of women “strongly agree,” which is significantly higher than reported by men (18%.)

“I don’t have enough income to save for retirement” (%)

from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Women’s Health, Money and Retirement Preparations.”

Many women became stretched beyond their limits, juggling paid employment with home schooling and caregiving for aging loved ones, the study said. As these unpaid family responsibilities increased during the pandemic, many women also experienced employment setbacks. Some women gave up their employment and dropped out of the workforce altogether. These factors put women further behind in saving and investing for retirement.

In addition, Collinson said, women are more likely than men to be busy with taking care of families and working in their jobs to the point where they don’t think about financial or retirement planning until a major life event hits them.

“It could be a divorce, a financial emergency, a health emergency, becoming a caregiver — any one of these things can prove to be a wake-up call and motivator for people to take charge of their situation.”

When TCRS asked women what would motivate them to become more engaged in retirement planning, the majority said they wanted to obtain advice that is easy to understand.

“Financial services still tends to be laden with jargon and technical terms,” Collinson said. “And those types of terms don’t resonate with women the way they do with men. It’s really important for women when an advisor is able to break things down and explain them in relatable, conceptual terms. And the starting point for the discussion on saving and investing for retirement is the sum of money you will need and that you will not run out of when you are retired. That can be a bit of an overwhelming proposition for most people.”

How does the industry help more women become financially secure? Collinson said it’s crucial “to offer assistance in an empowering manner.

“When we look at women being at greater risk than men of not achieving a secure retirement, it isn’t that women are ill prepared and men are super prepared,” she said. “Women are taking steps, and they need help and assistance to mitigate their risks. But men are far from perfect

Source: Transamerica Institute for Retirement Studies in the retirement plans. So we have to keep reminding ourselves that this is an everyone issue. It isn’t that men are good at it and women aren’t. In reality, relatively few people — women or men — are extremely good at it. Otherwise, we would not be so concerned about people achieving retirement security.

“When we approach retirement planning for women, we must be supportive, encouraging and empowering, offering guidance versus being critical of women and potentially undermining their confidence.”

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents’ association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at Susan.Rupe@innfeedback.com. Follow her on Twitter @INNsusan.

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BY JOHN HILTON

Bonnie Maize offers financial planning with a progressive sheen in the heart of conservative Kansas. If those odds of success weren’t long enough, she opened Maize Financial during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Maize has found her niche as the business’s two-year anniversary nears.

“I just love it,” Maize said. “It’s very important to me that just regular, working-class people can afford my fees. I have some local clients who I meet with, but I do almost all of it virtually, and I have clients across the country now.”

The work is fulfilling and fits Maize’s need for family flexibility. Maize and her husband, Will, are the parents of three boys, ages 11 to 17, two of whom are special needs.

“We’ve home-schooled them,” Maize said. “It has worked out so well because we live in a really small town that doesn’t have lots of special services. And I love it and they love it.”

Maize recently won a diversity scholarship from the Financial Planning Association. It will provide her fledgling business with several industry perks, including conference attendance and a oneyear FPA membership.

“She is really involved in financial literacy and trying to help underserved communities,” said Christopher Woods, chair of the FPA Diversity and Inclusion Committee. “Anytime I see people doing that kind of community service work, it tells me something.”

Law on the mind

A fifth-generation Kansan, Maize was raised on a farm near Manhattan. About 85% of all Kansas land remains agricultural, and the state economy relies upon it. The state generally ranks low in unemployment data and Gross Domestic Product growth. “I didn’t leave my military clients. I stretched myself and added more women and federal employees. And that’s my client base right now.

Many Kansans retain a vigorous provincial identity. The pop culture image of insular Kansan neighbors helping neighbors is not all fictional, Maize said.

“They’re all such hardworking, wonderful people, and they deserve to get help with their questions and to feel secure in their finances, too,” she said.

After graduating Kansas State University with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, Maize got her law degree from Washburn University in Topeka, Kan. She married Will, “a computer geek,” and the couple settled down.

Maize never intended to practice law, she explained (“I’m too agreeable to make a good attorney.”). Instead, she advocated for farmers in the public policy arena.

“I did work in the policy arena in state government for almost two years and enjoyed it immensely,” Maize recalled, “but get a part-time position, and plans to take the Certified Financial Planner exam in the summer of 2020 had to be postponed.

“Just like that, everything’s kind of up in the air,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what to do.”

‘My own business’

Fortified by a lifetime of challenging situations, Maize massaged her plan on the fly. She took an FPA virtual externship in the summer and passed the CFP exam in September 2020.

“By that point, I just kind of figured, ‘If I want to get started in financial planning, I’m going to have to open my own business to do it,’” she said.

Maize Financial began serving clients out of the Maize home in May 2021. With a roster of about 20 families, Maize is delivering highly personalized, neighborly, Kansas-style financial advice. Fees are low, and the focus is on the family financial building blocks, including things like health savings accounts, how much to contribute to a 401(k) plan and what types of insurances are available.

time to advance financial literacy, teaching financial literacy courses and doing pro bono work when she can.

Progressive lean

Maize is also proud to advocate for causes such as wealth equality and LGBT issues. Those progressive issues, and others endorsed by Maize on her website, are not normally associated with conservative Kansas. It is a polarity of opinion that Maize hopes to overcome by remaining true to herself.

After all, financial independence and good family budgeting are largely agnostic concepts, she noted.

“The wealth gap in the country really bothers me,” she said, “I guess because of my background. I see how hard people work and they’re still struggling, and I want them to be able to feel comfortable. I believe everyone deserves to feel financially secure.

after a change in administrations, we decided to start a family instead of me trying to find a new job.”

The family plan called for Maize to stay at home until the kids started school.

That short stay turned into 15 years while the couple raised their boys. As the years went by, Maize drifted further from the law and more toward helping people with their finances. It became a new calling, one she answered by returning to Kansas State in 2019 to earn a graduate certificate in personal financial planning.

“Eventually, it got to the point I was thinking the boys don’t need me as much,” Maize said. “I’d really like to do something professionally but still have time to take the kids to appointments and activities and stuff.”

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The plan to become a financial planner was scrambled before Maize could even get started. She couldn’t do an internship or

“They’re not high net worth clients that have needs like extensive estate planning or all this tax planning,” Maize explained. “They just have basic questions. They just want to know that they’re doing the right things and will be secure in the future.”

Maize reminds clients first and always to take care of their kids. “Even if you don’t think you have a lot of assets, enough to need a will, please have a guardianship for your kids,” she said.

Repeated studies show that financial literacy corresponds with better preparedness for all aspects of money management.

For example, a 2022 FINRA study found that respondents with higher financial literacy (scoring above the median on a seven-question financial literacy quiz) spent less than their income and set aside three months’ worth of emergency funds.

Those with higher financial literacy were also more likely to have taken steps to plan for their long-term financial future by calculating retirement savings needs and opening a retirement account.

Maize is very committed to giving back

“If you’re getting up, working hard every day, there’s no reason you should be just barely scraping by or not being able to afford your rent or mortgage. So it’s just really important to me to try and help narrow that divide.”

The combination of motherhood and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina cemented Maize’s progressive idealism. The epic Category 5 Atlantic hurricane caused 1,392 fatalities and between $97.4 billion to: and $145.5 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas.

“Seeing mothers on the news, stranded and unable to get formula to feed their babies, while I held my own sweet boy, broke something inside of me,” Maize said. “I had never really questioned the way things worked in our country before, but there was no going back after that. The initial desire to create a better world for my kids began to grow into the larger goal today of creating a better world for everyone.”

When political issues do stray into the financial planning process, Maize takes direction from her clients. Take environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing. ESG took a place along the cultural divide in 2022 when the Biden administration published a Department of Labor rule recognizing that ESG factors may be relevant to the risk-return analysis of potential investments.

That rule took effect Feb. 1. On her website, Maize includes an endorsement of ESG titled “Values-based investing.” It is a tool, she stressed, that can get a client excited about investing in things that matter.

“If you get into these different issues with them and say, ‘What values do you care about? What’s important to you?’” Maize recounted, “then they just feel so much better about investing, and they get so much more engaged in the process. So that’s why I really enjoy it.”

Continued outreach

As the two-year anniversary of opening her business nears, Maize keeps her focus on the work. She now has clients nationwide, a nod to the new virtual methods that have taken root.

Maize remains active in her community and serves on the board of directors of a pair of Topeka groups: the Omni Circle Group, a professional development organization, and Capital City Equality Center, a nonprofit supporting the LGBT community.

In an industry known for being white, male and boomer age, Maize is among the wave of women and people of color taking advantage of opportunities. She won three scholarships to attend industry conferences and plans a greater involvement in debates about the future of the industry.

“That’s just really important to me — to try to help keep increasing the diversity in financial planning,” she said.

InsuranceNewsNet

Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at john.hilton@innfeedback.com. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.

Please keep in mind that the primary reason to purchase a life insurance product is the death benefit.

Life insurance products contain fees, such as mortality and expense charges, and may contain restrictions, such as surrender periods.

Additional agreements may be available. Agreements may be subject to additional costs and restrictions. Agreements may not be available in all states or may exist under a different name in various states and may not be available in combination with other agreements.

SecureCare III may not be available in all states. Product features, including limitations and exclusions, may vary by state.

SecureCare III includes an Acceleration for Long-Term Care Agreement and an Extension of Long-Term Care Benefits Agreement. These two agreements are tax qualified long-term care agreements that cover care such as nursing care, home and community-based care, and informal care as defined in the agreements. These agreements provide for the payment of a monthly benefit for qualified long-term care services. These agreements are intended to provide federally tax qualified long-term care insurance benefits under Section 7702B of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended. However, due to uncertainty in the tax law, benefits paid under these agreements may be taxable. Please ensure that your clients consult a tax advisor regarding long-term care benefit payments, or when taking a loan or withdrawal from a life insurance contract.

The death proceeds will be reduced by a long-term care or terminal illness benefit payment under this policy.

The return of premium options affect the amount available upon full surrender of the policy. This amount varies based on the return of premium option selected in the application, and premiums paid at the time of surrender. Please ensure that your clients consult with a financial professional regarding return of premium options.

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The purpose of this material is the solicitation of insurance. An insurance agent or company may contact you.

Policy form numbers: ICC20-20212, 20-20212 and any state variations; ICC21-20220, 21-20220 and any state variations; ICC21-20221, 21-20221 and any state variations.

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4 In 10 Consumers Shop Online Or On App

One-third of consumers do not have a life insurance policy. The top reason given was they don’t believe they need one.

SOURCE: TransUnion

Most consumers still buy life insurance through an agent, but a sizable percentage are going online or to an app to shop for coverage, a TransUnion survey showed.

While the TransUnion survey aligned with the industry trend toward digitalization across all segments, it also underscored that life insurers generally were slow to adopt technology innovation. Mark McElroy, executive vice president and head of TransUnion’s insurance business, pointed to statistics from the Insurance Information Institute that show more than 65% of personal lines policies were sold direct in 2021, while only 6% of life policies were.

However, he said, TransUnion’s survey found 41% of consumers received a life quote online. The increase is likely partly due to companies streamlining what previously was a cumbersome underwriting process, in which applicants typically had to submit to blood draws, physical exams and other in-person procedures to obtain a basic quote. More insurers now access data sources that include medical scores and credit-based scores, which speeds up underwriting and eliminates home and office visits and invasive testing.

West Virginia Eyes Protecting Life Payouts From Bankruptcy

The West Virginia House of Delegates advanced a bill to exempt life insurance payouts from being taken during bankruptcy proceedings. The bill goes to the state Senate for approval.

The bill would exempt from bankruptcy any unmatured life insurance policy owned by the debtor, other than a credit life insurance contract. Existing state law exempts only the first $8,000 of a payout from a contract owned by the debtor or an individual of whom the debtor is a dependent. Delegate Steve Westfall, R-Jackson, a State Farm Insurance agent, is the lead sponsor of the bill. He said 34 other states have similar laws.

The bill also would protect all life insurance proceeds paid to the debtor as a beneficiary, as well as any annuities owned by the debtor, including those payable to someone else.

78% OF FAMILIES SUFFER FINANCIALLY WHILE HANDLING ESTATES

Death can cost a family, not only in terms

Quotable

of emotions but in terms of dollars and cents. Empathy, a platform helping families navigate the journey they face after the loss of a loved one, released its annual report “The Cost of Dying,” which showed the emotional, logistical and financial challenges of bereavement for the family of the deceased.

Among the findings:

• It takes families an average of 12.5 months to resolve all financial matters after a loss, and they spend a median of 12 hours per week on these tasks.

• The average total expense of handling financial matters is $4,384, including accountants’ fees and paying off bills, while the average family spent $4,967 on legal matters.

• Dealing with the house is a responsibility for a sizable number of families: 47% of estates included a house or other real estate. Making house-related arrangements takes a long time: The families who were surveyed required an average of 15 months to settle them all.

• Nearly one in four insurers expect more than 25% of their portfolio to be invested in private assets in two years.

• One in three said their firm will likely make its first allocations to private assets in the next two years.

SOURCE: Conning

Insurers Expected To Increase Investment Risk Tolerance

U.S. insurers are expected to increase their risk tolerance and grow portfolio allocations to private assets amid their concerns about higher market volatility and inflation, according to a new Conning survey of U.S. life insurers. The survey also captured insurers’ latest thinking on environmental, social and governance principles.

Overall, the findings suggest risk management and sustainability continue to grow in both importance and complexity among insurers. Most acknowledged they face a learning curve when it comes to their risk-management and ESG investing processes.

Investment return was one of the top two overall business concerns among respondents in 2022, on par with cybersecurity. When asked what their investment focus would be in 2023, nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents said they expect an increase in risk tolerance.

SOURCE: Allianz Life

The Spectrum Financial Group ascended to the top of Kansas City Life Insurance Company by winning the Agency Building Award (ABA) for 2022 and the second year in a row. The agency also achieved the ABA in 2021 and an ABA Honorable Mention in 2010.

Pictured from left: General Agent Dennis Parrish, President, CEO, and Vice Chairman of the Board Web Bixby, and Agent Alex Parrish.

2022 Agency Building Award winner

The Agency Building Award is Kansas City Life Insurance Company’s most prestigious agency honor, bestowed only to agencies that embody the spirit of entrepreneurship, growth, and building for the future.