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The benefits of engaging a financial planner are well-documented in the literature. That is why it is so surprising that very few financial planners had their own planners despite spending their days purporting the importance of having a planner to potential clients. This article introduces an exercise, designed for financial planning courses, which encourages students to meet with a financial planner and write about their experience. The essays were examined using the qualitative methodology of thematic analysis. Several themes emerged: (a) insights into what it would be like to be a financial planner, (b) decreased anxiety after seeing the planner, (c) better empathy regarding the client's experience, (d) increased respect for the interpersonal skills required to do financial planning, and (e) receiving personal and professional benefits to seeing a financial planner. Implications for both Certified Financial Planner Board Registered Programs and existing financial planners are provided based on these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advancements in healthcare and lifestyle are leading to longer lifespans, which requires careful financial planning. Longevity risk, the risk of outliving savings, is a primary concern. Building a robust retirement savings nest egg through regular contributions to pensions is essential. Investing wisely, considering inflation and the cost of living, planning for healthcare costs, and engaging in estate planning are also important factors to ensure financial security in retirement. Taking proactive steps towards financial planning early in life can lead to a fulfilling and prosperous retirement. [Extracted from the article]

The purpose of this study was to examine the likelihood of consumers hiring a financial planner based on race and gender utilizing an experimental design. Using a sample of Black and White MTurk respondents, cumulative logistic regression was employed to determine the effects of race and gender on the likelihood to hire a financial planner. Findings suggested that, overall, consumers did not have racially biased preferences when hiring a financial planner. However, they did express a preference for hiring female planners over male planners. Financial planning firms can use these findings to strengthen their support for and recruitment of women financial planners, as well as address concerns of racial bias amongst consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of economic statecraft is at a high-water mark. The United States uses sanctions, tariffs, and import and export controls more than ever before. These tools have problems, though. They impose financial costs on domestic interests. They can induce retaliation by target states. And overuse of these tools could drive the United States from its central position in the global financial and economic system, undermining the effectiveness of U.S. economic statecraft in the long run. But there is an underappreciated tool that could perform valuable foreign policy work: tax law. We argue that tax law holds promise to advance U.S. foreign policy interests and that it is especially important to deploy tax tools now. Tax law has distinctive features that make it both a partial substitute and a partial complement to other tools of economic coercion, which means that it can extend the influence of U.S. economic power while reducing the risk of overusing other economic tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is there an association between a household financial decision maker's risk tolerance and the performance of the stock market? Some researchers argue that financial market events have little association with the financial risk tolerance (FRT) of household financial decision makers, while others argue that FRT among individuals can vary in relation to significant market fluctuations. The applicability of either argument may depend on the length of the period before and after a major market event. The purpose of this study was to evaluate aggregate changes in FRT around a major stock market event for different anchor time periods and to test the recency bias hypothesis. The analyses were designed to explore the FRT of Americans during a volatile multimonth period of stock market performance in 2018–2019. Several univariate, bivariate, and multivariate tests were used to compare FRT assessment scores pre- and post-October 3rd, 2018 (i.e., the market high in 2018). A decrease in FRT from the market high was noted across the sample; however, the decrease was exhibited most acutely by younger, nonmarried respondents with few investable assets. A noteworthy finding from this study is that financial counselors and financial planners likely serve a "buffering" role when household financial decision makers experience stock market shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a nationwide online survey capturing detailed information on the backgrounds and practices of 654 financial planners, this study examines the associations between the use of technologies by financial planners and self-reported time spent within various stages of the six-step financial planning process. Surprisingly, in many cases, use of technology is associated with an increase rather than a decrease in time spent within various stages of the financial planning process. These results suggest that although technologies may provide efficiencies in completing certain tasks, these efficiencies do not necessarily result in net reductions in time spent within the financial planning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]