Anyone who has ever spent a frustrating few hours clothes shopping knows that one size doesn’t fit all. When it comes to retirement, many women, in particular, need a custom fit.

Because the risk of running out of money is greater for single than married women, some advisors favor a more conservative approach to financial planning. They assume lower expected returns on an investment portfolio to account for possible market volatility and higher costs in retirement. And, while women tend to provide much of the caregiving to others, they often end up without any such help themselves. It’s one reason why the majority of nursing-home residents are women. Some people can pay out of pocket for long-term care, but many advisors recommend that single women analyze whether buying some level of insurance to help with such aid is warranted.

“What we tend to see is that the first phase of long-term care tends to come from family members. For those who don’t have children or family near, you have to be more careful about costs because the clock on costs starts on day one,” says Laly Kassa, a certified financial planner at Chevy Chase Trust, which oversees $37 billion in assets.

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