This is another in a regular series on information for advisors intended to help them better understand their clients and possibly open up new niche markets to them.

It is based on data gleaned from surveys conducted by BBM Canada, a Toronto-based not-for-profit, industry-owned and -run broadcast audience research organization. BBM Canada conducts a bi-annual 80-page survey with a sample size of more than 55,000 respondents, providing detailed insight into the consumer preferences of Canadians across a spectrum of industries including financial, banking and e-commerce.

Today’s “factoid” is taken from a survey conducted last year.

Many Canadian women have significant amounts of money to invest and may be looking to you for advice, according to a survey by BBM Canada.

The RTS Canada survey indicates that almost two million (15%) Canadian women have more than $100,000 in their savings and/or investments and that many prefer to turn to an advisor when it comes to making financial decisions.

The survey says this group is twice as likely to use a full service investment broker to take care of their finances, but only slightly more likely (1.5 times) to use online stock trading (by contrast, men with more than $100,000 in savings or investments are more than twice as likely to trade online).

The largest age group (at 25%) for women with more than $100,000 to save or invest is 65 and over (the top category for men in this is between ages of 45 and 54, at 28%). Most of this group of women (46%) is located in Ontario, with 26% of those polled having attended college.

These women are more than twice as likely (2.2 times) to take a cruise for their vacation and 1.5 times more likely to stay at a resort. The women are more than twice as likely to be widowed.