A Smart Financial Plan

This week I interviewed Dr.'s Derek Tharp, Meghaan Lurtz, and Kate Mielitz on their research into the gender pay gap in financial services, specifically those for financial planners and advisors. Their research was incredibly well done, but because of its subject matter, has incurred a decent level of controversy. In this interview, the researchers do an incredible job of detailing how they went about the research, what its limitations were, and the best practices both practitioners and firm owners are that can help the financial planning profession promote greater income equity.

This week we interviewed Dr. Kenneth White from the University of Georgia on his research into the Relative Income Hypothesis and how it relates to the financial stress experienced by black college students in the United States. We cover some interesting findings around the cause of this financial stress, and advice financial planners can give to their clients to help their children mitigate or overcome financial stress while attending college.

This week we interviewed Dr. Preston Cherry from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay on his research into Big Five personality traits and their effect on the use of risk management tools such as life, disability, and long-term care insurance.

This week we interviewed Dr. Derek Tharp from the University of Southern Maine and Lead Researcher with kitces.com on his research into Big Five personality traits and their affect on retirement satisfaction.

This week we interviewed Dr. Sarah Asebedo & Dr. Chris Browning of Texas Tech University on their research into client psychology and portfolio withdrawal rates, and how a client's psychological predisposition can make them more or less likely to follow financial planning guidance into prudent use of their life savings.

This week we interviewed Dr. Martin Seay, program director of the Personal Financial Planning program at Kansas State University, on a recent journal article from his dissertation research, covering the investing behaviors and psychology of investors in pre-recession real estate.

On this episode of A Smart Financial Plan, we interview Dr. Blain Pearson, a new entrant to the world of doctoral research Personal Financial Planning, on his dissertation research. Dr. Pearson has come onto the scene of academic research with interesting and bold research questions, analyzing the impact of moving in retirement, the level of retiree happiness in coordination to their income and financial resources, and hints at some interesting thoughts on asset allocation in retirement.

On this episode of A Smart Financial Plan, we interview Dr. Sonya Lutter on her research, "Love and money: Reducing stress and improving couple happiness." Dr. Lutter is a well known expert in the field of both family therapy and financial psychology, and she explains how a system of exercises that can be facilitated by a financial planner or therapist can reduce financial stress and increase financial confidence in clients.

On this episode of A Smart Financial Plan, we interview Dr.'s Megan McCoy and Kenneth White on their research, "Investigating the financial over-confidence of student athletes". Unsurprisingly, athletes are generally confident people, but this study found surprising links to student athletes and their sense of financial efficacy. By studying more than just the ticket-selling athletes in football and basketball, the study was able to derive some interesting findings that both reflect tough realities for student athletes, and should provide some encouragement for non-athlete students as well.

For our "pilot" episode of A Smart Financial Plan, we've invited Dr. Meghaan Lurtz to discuss her research, "Exploring Relationships Between Technology Use and Time Spent in the Financial Planning Process". This study was part of a larger study conducted by the research team with Kitces.com and had some particularly interesting and surprising findings around how the use of financial planning software, rather than making planning more efficient, simply makes planning deeper and more detailed.