Are You Happy with Your Financial Services Provider?
Does being LGBT affect our ability to find and work with a financial services provider that we truly feels meets our needs? You bet it does and a recent national survey illustrates this very challenge, and often dissatisfaction.
Echelon Magazine reports this week that “GLBT Consumers See Financial Services Differently Than Others”.
According to a recent national survey conducted by Harris Interactive ®, over half (54%) of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender adults report they are very or somewhat comfortable in the environment created by their current financial services provider, while two-thirds of heterosexuals (67%) agree they are very or somewhat comfortable.
In the scheme of things that is a pretty wide gap — just over half compared to two-thirds of the people surveyed. What can we make of these numbers? Well, what we’ve always known here at Queercents — that being LGBT brings with it unique financial and relationship challenges not faced by heterosexual counterparts.
Consider just these few articles on tax discrimination, unmarried finances, and health care. Those alone are enough to get your head spinning and find you shaking in your boots.
Considering the fact that our financial lives are often even more intimidating and taboo to talk about than our sex lives, it doesn’t come as a surprise that gays and lesbians might feel gun shy working with a financial professional. Yet, by turning toward independent sources of information like the Internet, media, and friends rather than to financial experts, are we putting our finances and wealth potential at risk?
Consider these facts from the same survey:
The new survey also identified several gaps in ways that GLBT consumers appear to save and invest assets in slightly lower proportion to non-GLBT counterparts:
· While three quarters (75%) of heterosexuals state they have savings accounts, only 67 percent of GLBT adults did likewise;
· When asked whether they have investment accounts, 32 percent of heterosexuals agreed while only one out of four or 24 percent of GLBT adults said they have one;
· Thirteen percent of all heterosexuals report they have neither savings nor investment accounts, and a somewhat higher proportion of 18 percent of GLBT adults agreed.
From my personal experience it seems there are 3 main obstacles at play:
- Reluctance to talk about finances
- Concern that the financial expert will understand unique LGBT challenges and how to address them
- Fear to come out to other professionals
Yet the numbers in this survey show just how important it is to speak your truth and not let fear of differences hold you back. Your very financial foundation depends on it.
How about our little corner of the world here at Queercents? How do you feel about your financial provider? Take this mini-poll and let us know!
Photo Credit: OmirOnia .
Paula Gregorowicz, owner of The Paula G. Company, works with lesbians who are ready to create their lives and businesses the way the want rather than how they were told they “should”. Get the free 12 part eCourse “How to Be Comfortable in Your Own Skin” http://www.coaching4lesbians.com and start taking charge of your own success.
Paula: I met my financial advisor over ten years ago when I lived in Atlanta. I’ve continued to use her the entire time I’ve been in California. When Jeanine and I became domestic partners, I switched to her accountant. She switched to my financial advisor. I couldn’t enlist professional advice from someone without revealing the personal side of my own life… especially when it’s relevant to what they are advising us on. Neither one happens to be gay, but they’re both gay friendly which is all that matters when it comes to comfort and disclosure.