Financial planning for women gets a boost with the announcement of a specialised practice called HerMoney, which will cater for the needs of growing numbers of successful self-employed and professional women in Ireland.

HerMoney has been set up by financial advisor Carol Brick (pictured) and is a new division of CWM Wealth Management, which was established nine years ago and has offices in Dublin and Cork.

According to Brick: "There are more successful women who are becoming the main contributor to households. The women who tend to nurture their careers and businesses as well as their employees and families now realise that neglecting their own financial planning is a mistake.”

HerMoney offers financial advice for women in areas such as pensions and retirement planning, life and serious illness cover, mortgage and income protection, and savings and investments. The business has a team of five women which includes newly recruited director Karen Goodliffe, who has 20 years financial services experience.

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Brick claims that female clients admit to feeling more comfortable dealing with a woman on their personal finances: “Women want to truly understand financial products, and will look in detail at things like illness cover and what different policies provide, so the approach tends to be thorough.”

Brick added that there is a low take-up of income protection among professional women.  While money management for women entails the same basic principles as men, Brick maintains that women’s retirement planning needs are quite different to men’s.  “Women still generally earn less than men, even in the same roles.  Plus, they are more likely to take breaks from paid work, and on average live longer, all of which affects the approach to retirement planning.”