“The trouble is that in order to give financial advice, you have to do a full fact find process, and the numbers for that only stack up for people of a certain asset base,” said Ms Howitt.

“Sadly, women are going to be disproportionately outside of that cohort.”

Ms Howitt said this is another structural impediment being faced by women that needs to be discussed by the industry.

“The issue also is that scaled advice models elsewhere in the world are increasingly technology-driven. There’s a lot that you can automate now, but we don’t have the regulator framework for that yet,” she explained.

SMSF Association policy manager Tracey Scotchbrook said there is a strong need for affordable, quality scaled advice in the market, particularly for women. 

Ms Scotchbrook gave an example of women needing advice following a separation, divorce or death of a spouse, in which case it might be better to receive it in stages.

“Scaled advice improves the affordability of advice at a point in time as the costs and advice services received can be spread over time,” she noted.

“However, due to the current complexity and layers of compliance an adviser must comply with, this may increase the total cost of the overall advice the individual will ultimately receive.”

Ms Scotchbrook said that advice needs to be addressed in a time frame that is suitable for the client and their circumstances, with more urgent issues addressed as a priority.

“Statistically, women are lower-income earners; however, this does not reduce the need for advice. Targeted, bite-sized advice can have an important impact on long-term financial outcomes,” she said.

"Whilst the gender gap on superannuation balances is reducing, women still statistically have lower superannuation balances than men. This means that women need to work smarter with their superannuation savings across their working lives and into retirement. Scaled strategic advice has a role to play in improving the financial independence and security for women."