Rational choice theory has been widely used in the field of economics. It states that individuals are assumed to be rational in their decision-making which maximizes the utility. Combining this idea with the life cycle theory (Ando & Modigliani, 1963), we can expect that consumers are likely to borrow when they are young, accumulate wealth at mid-age, and decumulate wealth after retired. Having a financial planner yields improvements of utility over the lifetime and increases the economic well-being (Goetz et al., 2020; Lei & Yao, 2016; Martin & Finke, 2016; Park & Yao, 2016). However, research has shown that there are racial and ethnic differences in who works with financial planners.

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