Academy of Financial Services Annual Meeting 2022

help-seeking behavior, financial advice, financial planner, personal finance

This paper examines the influential factors that determine an individual’s decision to seek financial advice from a financial planner. We discuss this question by examining the national survey data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The findings suggest that subject norms, financial knowledge, financial risk tolerance, and personal traits have a direct positive impact on the decision to seek advice directly from financial planners. In contrast, any financial stress induced by the financial constraint has a significantly negative effect. Contrary to the prior studies (e.g., Blanchett, 2019; Grable and Joo, 2001; Reiter et al., 2022) minorities are more likely to seek advice from financial planners in the general population. However, such disparities across the racial groups diminished when the decision to use financial planners was further examined across different financial assets domains.