Factors Influencing the Motivation to Pursue a Career in Financial Planning*

Cull Michelle (), Skultety Csilla and Kumar Ryan
Additional contact information
Cull Michelle: School of Business, Western Sydney University, Sydney Australia
Skultety Csilla: School of Business, Western Sydney University, Sydney Australia
Kumar Ryan: School of Business, Western Sydney University, Sydney Australia

Financial Planning Research Journal, 2022, vol. 8, issue 1, 40-78

Abstract: This study presents a conceptual model to examine the factors influencing career choice in financial planning. Informed by career choice theory, the study uses questionnaires and interviews of financial advisers and financial planning students in Australia to find that social learning through life experiences, along with the enjoyment of working with numbers and aspiration to help others are important factors influencing the choice to pursue a career in financial planning. In addition, respondents scored highest on the agreeableness scale of the ‘Big Five’ personality test. Contrary to popular media reports, results show that people choose financial planning as a career primarily because they want to help people. Findings also highlight the uniqueness of financial planning as a career that fulfils both agentic and communal goals which allows advisers to use their interest in numbers to help people. The study makes a valuable practical contribution to the development of financial planning by providing insights that may prove useful in recruiting the next generation of financial advisers. Our findings also have important implications for educators, regulators, and the profession more broadly. Further, it makes a theoretical contribution by providing a conceptual framework to aid in understanding the factors relevant to career choice, particularly in an emerging discipline such as financial planning where information on career choice is limited.

Keywords: agency; career; career choice; communion; financial planning; personality; self-determination; social learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2478/fprj-2022-0003 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:finprj:v:8:y:2022:i:1:p:40-78:n:1003

DOI: 10.2478/fprj-2022-0003

Access Statistics for this article

Financial Planning Research Journal is currently edited by Mark Brimble

More articles in Financial Planning Research Journal from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().