Increasing Awareness

Client Impact Study

As announced in April 2022, CFP Board is leading the first peer-reviewed academic study to track and report on the actual impact of holistic financial planning on clients, in support of our work to increase awareness of the value of financial planning and working with a CFP® professional.

This multi-year longitudinal Client Impact Study will track, follow and measure financial and non-financial aspects of a diverse and representative sample of households in the U.S. Ultimately, the study will allow an empirical evaluation of the reported benefits of financial planning and the services of CFP® professionals as compared to the services of professionals who do not hold CFP® certification and do-it-yourself approaches.

Research Team

CFP Board is collaborating closely with a team of respected researchers on this important research project:

J. Michael Collins, Ph.D., MPP is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Collins studies household finance, especially consumer financial decisions and financial well-being over the life course.

Dr. Collins leads Wisconsin’s Social Security Administration Retirement and Disability Research Consortium research center. He also chairs the UW System defined contribution retirement plan and served on the Wisconsin Governor’s Retirement Task Force. Dr. Collins has a Ph.D. from Cornell University and an MPP from Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Stuart J. Heckman, Ph.D., M.S., CFP® is an Associate Professor of Practice and Ph.D. Program Director at Texas Tech University. Dr. Heckman has served as the Academic Editor of the Journal of Financial Planning and serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Financial Services Review and Financial Planning Review.

Dr. Heckman's research focuses on professional financial planning and on financial decision-making, especially among young adults. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Family Resource Management from The Ohio State University and a B.S. in Personal Financial Planning from Kansas State University.

Emily Koochel, Ph.D., AFC®, CFT-I™, BFA™ leads eMoney Advisor’s Financial Wellness team, where she focuses on innovative wellness research and education, in her role as Manager of Financial Wellness. Dr. Koochel also serves as Adjunct Faculty at New York University in the Financial Planning M.S. Program offered by the NYU School of Professional Studies Division of Programs in Business. She serves as a subject matter expert on understanding the effect of financial behaviors and financial decision making on personal and financial wellness, reviewing and authoring peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and contributing to public scholarship. Most notably, she served as a co-contributor for CFP Board’s book, The Psychology of Financial Planning. She holds a Ph.D. in Applied Family Science from Kansas State University, an M.S. in Financial Planning from Texas Tech University, the Certified Financial Therapist – I designation, and is an Accredited Financial Counselor and Behavioral Financial Advisor.

Sonya Lutter, Ph.D., M.S., CFP® serves as the inaugural Director of Financial Health and Wellness with Texas Tech University’s School of Financial Planning where she leads curriculum and continuing education opportunities in the areas of financial psychology, financial therapy, and financial behavior. Dr. Lutter is also the owner of ENLITE, where she helps bridge the gap between mental health and financial planning. Her developmental work in financial therapy is summarized in Financial Therapy: Theory, Research, and Practice with co-editors and she is the author of A Couples Guide to Love & Money: 15 Exercises to Strengthen Your Relationship, and she served on the editorial advisory board that produced CFP Board’s newest book, The Psychology of Financial Planning. She holds a Ph.D. in Financial Planning from Texas Tech University and an M.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Kansas State University and is a licensed marriage and family therapist.

Summary

Read a summary of the research team’s work to define “Consumer Financial Wellness” and create a framework for its measurement, as shared at CFP Board’s 2023 Academic Research Colloquium.

READ CONSUMER FINANCIAL WELLNESS: A DEFINITON AND FRAMEWORK