An Examination of the Antecedent and Corollary of Personal Financial Planning: The Need for Early Education

Within the broad context of services, financial services play an integral part in the well-being of people’s lives. There is little doubt that, in a number of advanced economies, responsibility for long-term financial well-being is being shifted from the state to the individual citizen. This study provides an exposé of financial planning and whether it is informed by the advertising efforts of a financial services institution and, in turn, whether that advertising is influential.
Using a survey based approach amongst UK citizens, we reveal that advertising has an impact on financial planning. For practitioners, this means that communications must be an integral part of ensuring citizens are making the best decisions for themselves. This, we argue, has important implications for citizens and policy. We advocate that financial education should start as early as possible so as to highlight the longer-term benefits of good financial planning. This approach could be based on strategies used to educate and increase financial engagement. Another of our survey’s important contributions shows that good financial planning and decision-making lead to a greater level of financial ability. Financial ability leads to trust.