The financial services industry has not adjusted to the emergence of women as financial decision makers, according to a new report.ING Direct executive director delivery, Lisa Claes, said women were wealthier and more confident about making financial decisions but financial institutions tended to focus on male decision makers in their marketing and had a majority of male advisers.For its report, Women & Finance, ING Direct commissioned Galaxy Research to find out how the country's household finances are being managed. In the majority of households (66 per cent) men and women are joint financial decision makers. Twenty-seven per cent of women said they make the majority of financial decisions and eight per cent said they were the sole financial decision makers.Only one per cent said they defer all financial decisions to a male partner.While men remain the main breadwinners, in 34 per cent of households women make a similar income contribution to their male partners and in 11 per cent of households women contribute substantially more.Women tend to be greater beneficiaries of retirement benefits and intergenerational wealth transfer because they live longer than men. The number of women over 60 living alone was 600,000 in 2006 and is expected to rise to 1.1 million by 2031.They are increasingly interested in their financial affairs and have an unmet need for assistance. Seventy-seven per cent of the users of ASIC's MoneySmart Facebook community are women.Women invest differently to men. They generally have a lower appetite for risk and are more conservative with their money. They have a higher exposure to cash and fixed income in their investment portfolios.Claes said it was possible that this profile would change as women gained more confidence in managing their money.The main financial priorities of women aged 40 and over are to feel financially secure and have enough money to afford a comfortable retirement.The report argues that the financial services industry caters predominantly to men. In financial services marketing men are typically depicted as the decision maker. Only 20 per cent of financial planners are women.