Help Please: A Gender Perspective on Differences in Financial Help-Seeking Behaviour in Light of Retirement Preparedness, Risk Tolerance, and Financial Knowledge

Women and men have different financial stressors, attitudes, and knowledge, which may influence financial help-seeking. Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) 2022, a logit-based multivariate decomposition to examine gender differences in financial help-seeking behaviour indicates that group differences, rather than gender itself, explain these differences. Men’s higher rates of intentional saving, higher risk tolerance, greater subjective and objective financial knowledge, and higher education help explain why they seek financial help more than women do. Equalising these factors could reduce the financial help-seeking gender gap by an estimated 99%. These findings highlight how targeted interventions in these areas could help reduce disparities in help-seeking and address the retirement preparedness gap between men and women.