IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jcopol/v38y2015i3p247-264.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

All Financial Advice for the Middle Class is Not Equal

Author

Listed:
  • Danielle Winchester
  • Sandra Huston

Abstract

Professional financial advice has been shown to improve the financial well being and stability of US households. However, less than 2% of middle-class households use the services of a financial advisor compared to 60% of affluent households. Many contend that this difference is a result of the middle class’s belief that financial advice is only beneficial to the wealthy. This study is one of the first to empirically test this sentiment, and it finds that middle-class households who are comprehensively managed are more than three times as likely to be well prepared for retirement, more than twice as likely to use their employee benefits appropriately, and nearly twice as likely to have an adequate emergency fund compared to households who do not purchase financial advice. These findings demonstrate that, although goals may differ between middle-class and affluent households, financial advisors have a positive influence on household financial behaviours regardless of economic class. Results from this study suggest that financial advice, particularly comprehensive financial planning services, should be promoted to US middle-class households and that financial planners should be encouraged to serve the middle-class market. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Danielle Winchester & Sandra Huston, 2015. "All Financial Advice for the Middle Class is Not Equal," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 247-264, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jcopol:v:38:y:2015:i:3:p:247-264
    DOI: 10.1007/s10603-015-9290-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10603-015-9290-8
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10603-015-9290-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angela A. Hung & Joanne Yoong, 2010. "Asking for Help: Survey And Experimental Evidence on Financial Advice And Behavior Change," Working Papers 714-1, RAND Corporation.
    2. Hans-Martin Von Gaudecker, 2015. "How Does Household Portfolio Diversification Vary with Financial Literacy and Financial Advice?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(2), pages 489-507, April.
    3. Angela A. Hung & Joanne K. Yoong, 2010. "Asking for Help Survey And Experimental Evidence on Financial Advice and Behavior Change," Working Papers WR-714-1, RAND Corporation.
    4. Drazen Prelec & George Loewenstein, 1998. "The Red and the Black: Mental Accounting of Savings and Debt," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(1), pages 4-28.
    5. Jan B Engelmann & C Monica Capra & Charles Noussair & Gregory S Berns, 2009. "Expert Financial Advice Neurobiologically “Offloads” Financial Decision-Making under Risk," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(3), pages 1-14, March.
    6. Gärling, Tommy & Kirchler, Erich & Lewis, Alan & van Raaij, Fred, 2009. "Psychology, Financial Decision Making, and Financial Crises," Sustainable Investment and Corporate Governance Working Papers 2009/7, Sustainable Investment Research Platform.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alair MacLean & Piotr Paradowski, 2024. "Financial Capability, Cumulative Advantage and Racial Inequality in Wealth," LWS Working papers 44, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kramer, Marc M., 2016. "Financial literacy, confidence and financial advice seeking," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 131(PA), pages 198-217.
    2. Hermansson, Cecilia & Song, Han-Suck, 2016. "Financial advisory services meetings and their impact on saving behavior – A difference-in-difference analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 131-139.
    3. Liu, Bofan & Lu, Bin, 2023. "Can financial literacy be a substitute for financial advisers? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. Cruciani, Caterina & Gardenal, Gloria & Rigoni, Ugo, 2021. "Trust-formation processes in financial advisors: A structural equation model," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 185-199.
    5. Sprenger, Julia, 2016. "Financial literacy: A barrier to seek financial advice but not a shield against following it," Ruhr Economic Papers 634, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    6. Steffen Westermann & Scott J. Niblock & Jennifer L. Harrison & Michael A. Kortt, 2020. "Financial Advice Seeking: A Review of the Barriers and Benefits," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 39(4), pages 367-388, December.
    7. Paul Gerrans & Douglas A. Hershey, 2017. "Financial Adviser Anxiety, Financial Literacy, and Financial Advice Seeking," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 54-90, March.
    8. Lu, Xiaomeng & Zhang, Yong & Zhang, Yixing & Wang, Lin, 2020. "Can investment advisors promote rational investment? Evidence from micro-data in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 251-263.
    9. Nolte, Sven & Schneider, Judith C., 2017. "Don’t lapse into temptation: a behavioral explanation for policy surrender," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 12-27.
    10. Bellofatto, Anthony & Broihanne, Marie-Hélène & D'Hondt, Catherine, 2019. "Appetite for information and trading behavior," LIDAM Discussion Papers LFIN 2019002, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain Finance (LFIN).
    11. Johansen, Kathrin, 2010. "Multiple information search and employee participation in occupational pension plans," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 114, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    12. Amaral, Christopher & Kolsarici, Ceren, 2020. "The financial advice puzzle: The role of consumer heterogeneity in the advisor choice," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    13. Stephen Brown & Chris Veld & Yulia Veld‐Merkoulova, 2020. "Credit Cards: Transactional Convenience or Debt‐Trap?," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 295-322, June.
    14. Sprenger, Julia, 2016. "Explanations or advice: The impact of financial literacy on information acquisition behavior," Ruhr Economic Papers 626, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    15. Oscar A. Stolper & Andreas Walter, 2017. "Financial literacy, financial advice, and financial behavior," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(5), pages 581-643, July.
    16. Claude Montmarquette & Nathalie Viennot-Briot, 2015. "The Value of Financial Advice," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 16(1), pages 69-94, May.
    17. Calcagno, Riccardo & Monticone, Chiara, 2015. "Financial literacy and the demand for financial advice," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 363-380.
    18. Park, Youngkyun & Banerjee, Sudipto, 2020. "Coworker influence on annuitization decisions: Evidence from defined benefit plans," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 582-606.
    19. Claude Montmarquette & Nathalie Viennot-Briot, 2019. "The Gamma Factors and the Value of Financial Advice," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 20(1), pages 387-411, May.
    20. P. Jenkins, Stephen & Sacker, Amanda & P. Taylor, Mark, 2011. "Financial capability, income and psychological wellbeing," ISER Working Paper Series 2011-18, Institute for Social and Economic Research.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jcopol:v:38:y:2015:i:3:p:247-264. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.