"[S]ome women realized that years of inadequate saving compromised their lifestyle. Others learned that overly conservative or aggressive investment choices threatened their retirement goals. Women who discovered hidden debt or spending faced even greater challenges in planning for a future on their own. The advice from divorcees and widows is clear: The time to become financially involved is today, not when unforeseen events happen in the future," said the report. 

The survey results are very much in line with other research. Among financial advisers, 90 percent said men have generally taken the lead with long-term financial planning, and 69 percent said men take the lead in providing for the family (though 52 percent said they have seen an increase in women taking the lead on family finances over the last few years). A study from insurance company MassMutual found that 32 percent of men versus 25 percent of women say they make most of the financial decisions with little to no input from other household members, and 41 percent of men versus 31 percent of women say they generally take the lead on such issues, though they do discuss decisions with another household member. Another study found that, overall, women tend to defer to men on financial matters because they are not as confident about these issues, and men overall seem not to trust their wives to properly differentiate between a necessity and a luxury.