Advisers need to tailor their advice depending on which gender they are talking to, according to a white paper released by the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA).

It says women can also lift their financial management ability by up to 27% during the course of an advice relationship.

The white paper – Money, wellbeing and the role of financial advice: A gender-based approach – was based on research conducted by the Beddoes Institute and produced with the assistance of TAL.

“This study is really powerful for the financial advice profession because it shows that female clients offer significant growth potential for practices,” AFA CEO Brad Fox said.

“The research has found women’s financial management ability tends to improve more from an advice relationship than men, which means they are likely to have greater satisfaction and stay with their advisers longer.”

The impact of an advice relationship is especially true for people with low financial literacy, the white paper says.

But with only two out of every 10 Australians currently receiving financial advice, there would be “significant potential community benefit” if more Australians were to seek financial advice.

“The age of a ‘one size fits all’ approach to financial advice has clearly passed,” Mr Fox said. “The present and the future of financial advice are in tailoring advice, advice relationships and the adviser’s style specifically to individual client’s preferences.”

The paper says advisers can increase the acceptance of financial advice strategies by both men and women if they concentrate on what is important to each gender during the first meetings.

Segmentation of clients and targeting new markets using these findings will increase the success of practices' growth strategies, he says.