Self-efficacy of Personal Finance Professionals in Later Life Financial Well-Being: Evidence From a Virtual Professional Development Seminar

Financial health falls under the purview of family and consumer sciences (FCS) educators and financial counselors. It is important for these professionals to understand the complexities of later life financial concerns in order to help prepare individuals at all stages of life for financial health in their senior years. We examined financial professionals’ perceived mastery of later life finances by role and gender. We analyzed the effectiveness of a virtual professional development program in improving participants’ perceived financial knowledge using retrospective pretest–posttest survey responses (n = 112). Results suggest that content focused, virtual professional development offerings may be an effective medium to enhance financial professional self-efficacy.

Dorothy Nuckols, MPH, AFC®

Agent and Family and Consumer Sciences Educator

University of Maryland Extension

Ellicott City, MD dnuckols@umd.edu

Isha Chawla

Doctoral Candidate

University of Maryland

College Park, MD

Jesse B. Jurgenson, PhD, AFC®

Assistant Professor

Department of Consumer Sciences

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, AL

Financial planning for later life has become increasingly important for individuals in the United States. First, fluctuating economic conditions over the last 4 decades and a series of recessions have resulted in a population that has faced great financial uncertainties as they have aged (Dudel & Myrskylä, 2017). Second, the responsibility of funding, planning, and managing retirement planning has shifted from employer to worker (Ali & Frank, 2019). Third, individuals are working longer. Due to interruptions in employment and policy shifts in Social Security and other retirement-related legislation (Dudel & Myrskylä, 2020), more households will need to engage with often complex calculations to maximize their earned benefits while still working. Last, compounding all the above, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll, not only on health and mental well-being, but on personal finance as well (Guilford, 2021). According to the

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of the other University of Maryland Extension, Financial Wellness Team members who worked to plan, organize, and facilitate the Personal Finance Seminar for Professionals on which this study was based. Those individuals are: Michael Elonge, Priscilla Graves, Patricia Maynard, Catherine Sorenson, Crystal Terhune, and Diana Yacob.

Jesse M. Ketterman, Jr., PhD, AFC® Agent and Family and Consumer Sciences Educator University of Maryland Extension Cumberland, MD

Jinhee Kim, PhD Professor and Assistant Director Family and Consumer Sciences Program Leader University of Maryland Extension College Park, MD

Pew Research Center, 43% of U.S. individuals report that they or someone in their household has lost a job or faced a reduction in pay due to the pandemic. This figure is even higher (52%) among lower-income adults (Parker et al., 2020), suggesting that economically vulnerable households were affected differently by the global health emergency. The need for financial education in later life financial preparedness is clear. What is not known is the capacity of financial professionals to provide guidance in areas essential for senior life financial satisfaction.

Literature Review and Theoretical Framework

Many consumers are approaching retirement age financially unprepared. Four of ten individuals currently in their 50s have limited or no savings, and they are projected to face a savings shortfall (CFPB, 2015, 2022). Financial preparedness for retirement is determined by an individual’s capacity, disposition, and opportunity to plan and save (Palaci et al., 2017). These qualities track back to financial literacy, which research shows is often lacking in older adults (Berkman et al., 2011). The family and consumer sciences (FCS) discipline concerns itself with wellbeing, relationships, and resources to achieve optimal quality of life (About AAFCS, 2022). Financial literacy undergirds all three (Smith et al., 2016; White et al., 2021). The desired outcome of financial literacy efforts is improvement in financial well-being (CFPB, 2022), often defined using the construct of financial satisfaction (Nanda & Banerjee, 2021).

Financial professionals in consulting roles who are without proper education and experience can cause more harm than good.

Managing complex financial products, increased health needs, changing life situations, and rising living expenses all strain seniors’ financial satisfaction and necessitate support and resources that financial professionals can provide (MacLeod et al., 2017). Financial professionals operate in two primary realms: educational and consultative. The latter helps clients achieve individualized financial objectives, and educators primarily provide knowledge and skills for making informed decisions (Delgadillo, 2014a). The two realms are complementary, important, and dynamic components of FCS practice, and FCS financial leadership depends on informed practitioners (Delgadillo, 2014b).

According to Way and Holden (2009), improved control over finances during later life requires financial education during early years. For educators, bolstering content knowledge enhances confidence to develop instructional strategies and the ability to teach financial topics (Brandon & Smith, 2009). Similarly, financial professionals in consulting roles who are without proper education and experience can cause more harm than good (Mazzolini et al., 2018). Financial educators, counselors, planners, and coaches all have different training and credentialing criteria (Swan, 2015). How content knowledge and selfefficacy in later life financial topics vary among these professional roles is yet to be understood.

It is well established that people with higher levels of financial literacy tend to be more financially prepared for their senior years (Mitchelli & Lusardi, 2007), and that among the general population, women face greater obstacles to financial well-being than men (Jenkins & Barrett, 2021). As a demographic, women have lower levels of subjective financial knowledge than men, but much of the difference can be attributed to lower financial self-efficacy (Rothwell & Wu, 2019), lower confidence, and higher financial anxiety rather than to objective knowledge (Tinghög et al., 2021). Bucher-Koenen et al. (2021) quantified the knowledge difference as being one-third attributed to lower confidence. Because it has been found that sound consumer financial decision making is highly correlated with confidence (Atlas et al., 2019; Lind et al., 2020), it is worth examining whether gender differences exist among financial professionals. Using Bandura’s (1977; Lightsey, 1999) theory of self-efficacy as a theoretical framework, and Desimone et al.’s (2002; Desimone, 2009) Professional Development (PD) conceptual framework, this paper explores the impact of PD on financial professional’s perceived self-efficacy regarding their professional work related to various financial topics centered on later life financial planning. Self-efficacy refers to a person’s expectation or sense of confidence that he or she can master a behavior or accomplish a goal (Brady et al., 2021).

According to Bandura, personal efficacy determines whether a behavior is initiated and sustained. The desired outcome of PD is for professionals to experience an increase in knowledge and skills, and changed attitudes and beliefs, thereby achieving increased self-efficacy in applying those skills professionally (Desimone et al., 2002). Given the strong connection between mastery experiences and self-efficacy, perceived mastery has been utilized as a measurement of self-efficacy (Chen et al., 2001). Virtual PD has challenges that in-person training does not. In Desimone’s (2009) framework, quality professional development features content, a coherent focus, significant duration, active learning, and collective participation. The latter two criteria face limitations in a virtual environment; therefore, we sought to determine whether a PD session singularly focused on issues concerning senior financial well-being but delivered remotely increased perceived self-efficacy in the teaching and counseling of financial topics related to later life planning. Given that Lobley and Ouellette (2017) report that virtual training is accessible and reliable, and virtual consumer education participants demonstrate increased content knowledge and understanding (Kness et al., 2020), we suspected this virtual training had potential to meet this objective. Robideau and Matthes (2021) created a framework to guide the development of webbased consumer education programs, but their rubric assesses the quality of webinar teaching, and does not evaluate change in skills, knowledge, behaviors, or confidence of program participants. Content-focused PD may be the single most accessible means for mastering new knowledge, skills, and practices (Franck et al., 2017; Garst et al., 2014), thereby increasing practitioners’ selfefficacy in applying these skills to practice, but this supposition has not yet been measured.

The Current Study

The annual Personal Finance Seminar for Professionals aims to offer accessible, timely, and relevant knowledge support to financial professionals through virtual professional development training. The seminar is designed for personal finance educators and counselors from public, private, military, and not-for-profit organizations. The seminar, planned and hosted by University of Maryland Extension Family and Consumer Sciences faculty, invites researchers and specialists in current issues to share their expertise with financial practitioners. This approach results in shared tools and evidence-based practice strategies to guide future programs and services (Delgadillo & Law, 2019).

The purposes of the study are: (a) to examine financial educators’ and counselors’ perceived knowledge of topics related to later-life financial well-being along with any existent professional role or gender gap, and (b) to determine if a virtual seminar is effective in raising financial professionals’ level of perceived knowledge in the financial topics taught during the seminar. The findings would reveal the need for continuing professional development in the specialized area of later-life financial well-being and the effectiveness of delivering that training through a virtual format. Our hypothesis, which guided the planning and implementation of this study, was that financial educators and counselors lacked some confidence and knowledge regarding later life financial planning. We know of no studies or reviews to date that specifically explore or measure this phenomenon, but presumed this could be a motivating factor for the study participants to attend the seminar.

Method Data

Study participants were recruited by promoting the seminar through professional organizations, including the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences (AAFCS), the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE), and Extension FCS channels. Participants attended 8 hours of programming, and completed pre- and post-surveys related to financial topic self-efficacy, financial topic relevance, and the seminar’s effectiveness. The virtual 8-hour seminar was held via Zoom video conferencing and required paid registration. Multiple speakers presented on single topics relevant to later life financial planning, behaviors, attitudes, and communication (i.e., Social Security, estate planning, elder fraud, family conflict resolution, Medicare) allowing time for moderated interaction from the participants. The University of Maryland Institutional Review Board granted approval for this research. A total of 173 attendees took part in the seminar. Of those, 112 respondents at least partially completed the voluntary pre-survey for a response rate of 65%, and 119 respondents at least partially completed the voluntary training post-survey for a response rate of 69%. Participants completed surveys both before and after the seminar. All of the survey topics were specifically covered during the seminar and respondents were not compensated for their participation. Following the seminar, participants were also given access to session recordings and presenter resources.

A majority of the participants were female (74%) and White (64%); the largest age category was between 45–54 years old (33%). The Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®) credential was held by 62% of the respondents with 88% either Extension educators or financial counselors. Most (79%) had more than 5 years of career experience as a financial professional, and 21% had 0–5 years of experience.

Measures Financial Confidence at Baseline

To assess baseline financial confidence, we summed 16 items (see Appendix) on the pre-survey. Respondents rated their level of confidence in their training, knowledge, and skills on 16 financial topics related to later life financial planning. The scale ranged from 1 = not confident at all to 5 = completely confident. These items were summed together to create an index where a higher score indicated greater financial confidence and displayed excellent internal consistency as measured by Cronbach’s alpha (α = .94) (George & Mallery, 2003). The variable has been used to ascertain baseline level of financial confidence. Given the long-established association between level of confidence and financial behavior, it may be useful to gauge the distribution of financial confidence among the practitioners who participated in the seminar.

Perceived Financial Knowledge

We used eight positively worded survey items (see Appendix) from the post-survey questionnaire about understanding related to later life financial topics, which retrospectively asked participants about their perceived financial knowledge before and after the seminar. The scale ranged from

1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree and scores on each item were summed together to create an index whereby a higher score indicated a higher level of perceived financial knowledge and which displayed excellent internal consistency as measured by Cronbach’s alpha (α = .87). This retrospective pretest–posttest design allows participants to better understand their rate of change on topics with greater awareness and understanding of the topics than would have been available before the training occurred (Little et al., 2020). An overall summation score for perceived financial knowledge also was created whereby a higher score indicated higher perceived financial knowledge of later life financial planning topics.

Personal Finance Role

To determine whether financial confidence in later life financial topics varies by financial professional role, we utilized the survey item that asked participants about their professional role. Eight categories were combined to create a three-category variable whereby 1 represented Extension Educator, 2 = Financial Counselors, and 3 = Others (see Appendix).

Gender

We inquired about gender to determine if this predicted financial confidence. We assigned values of 1 and 0 to responses of male and female respectively. There were only 2 responses in the pre-survey of “choose not to answer” representing 1.8% of the sample, and one response in the post-survey representing 0.8%. These responses were eliminated from the analyses.

Results

Descriptive Statistics

The average confidence about the compilation of later life financial topics was 49.03 on the scale ranging from 19 to 80, suggesting limited confidence. Confidence in all topics varied significantly by personal financial role, with financial counselors (M = 55.41, SD = 12.90) reporting the highest confidence level followed by Extension FCS educators (M = 45.77, SD = 11.23) and others (M = 45.35, SD = 15.52).

With a scale ranging from 1 to 5, the pretest results suggest that participants reported higher confidence in their knowledge and skills regarding retirement planning and household family communication/transitions and the lowest confidence (M = 2.35, SD = 1.20) in Medicaid. Furthermore, the confidence in later life topics varied significantly by gender with males (M = 16.86, SD = 3.10) reporting higher confidence in financial topics than did females) (M = 14.32, SD = 3.36). This is consistent with existing research that women report lower confidence, which may impede their actual financial knowledge over time (Jenkins & Barrett, 2021)

Change in Perceived Financial Knowledge

The two-tailed dependent sample t-test with the focus on entire sample revealed that respondents significantly increased their perceived knowledge on all eight topics relevant to later life financial well-being. Respondents particularly reported improving their knowledge of Social Security rules and benefits from before (M = 2.85) and after (M = 3.43) the seminar (t(df) = 6.58, p < .001). They also significantly increased their level of understanding related to the Medicare program (t(df) = 6.38, p < .001) from before (M = 2.78) to after (M = 3.34) the training. Participants increased their perceived understanding of estate planning foundation significantly from before the training (M = 2.91) to after the training (M = 3.51) (t(df) = 6.85, p < .001). Respondents disclosed a significant increase in their level of understanding on how to effectively work with those experiencing cognitive decline from before the training (M = 3.05) to after the training (M = 3.64) (t(df) = 6.49, p < .001). Last, they experienced a significant increase in their ability to promote conflict resolution and

Table 2. Change in perceived financial knowledge

mediation for elders from before the seminar (M = 2.73) to after the seminar (M = 3.36) (t(df) = 6.92, p < .001). Overall, the majority of participants (98%) indicated a greater ability to counsel and educate others on increasing their later life financial well-being as a result of the seminar

Discussion

This research had two objectives: (a) to measure financial professionals’ confidence of later-life financial topics, and (b) to evaluate the effectiveness of a virtual seminar by measuring changes in perceived financial knowledge those topics to practice. This research makes a unique contribution to the understanding of professional development as it applies to financial professionals. By gathering data on both topic-specific knowledge and confidence improvements from a virtual professional development session, this study fills narrow yet relevant gaps in the literature and can serve as a foundation for future PD seminars.

Professionals’ Financial Confidence

Regarding the study’s first objective, much research has been conducted on consumer objective financial knowledge and financial self-efficacy, especially as it relates to well-being, but none was found on professionals’ subjective knowledge or financial confidence in teaching or counseling on financial topics, especially as they relate to later life financial planning. Study results imply that even among trained and engaged financial professionals, financial confidence in providing guidance in later life planning is not high, but it is sought. The data further reveal disparate levels of self-confidence reported between male and female professionals. This parallels gender differences in financial confidence found in the general population. Evaluating outcomes and impact of financial education and counseling programs is challenging (Mazzolini et al., 2018). But with insight on professionals’ subjective knowledge through the measure of financial confidence, continuing study could determine how that translates into successful outcomes for clients and students.

Study results imply that even among trained and engaged financial professionals, financial confidence in providing guidance in later life planning is not high, but it is sought.

Results showed that study participants reported a significant increase in knowledge about helping individuals and families affected by cognitive decline, financial abuse, and fraud—topics particularly relevant to professionals serving individuals already in or soon approaching their senior years. However most notable are the data analyses of financial confidence and knowledge change in the topics related to health insurance, one of the key issues of concern for seniors and their families (MacLeod et al., 2017). On the pre-program survey, Medicaid, Medicare, healthcare/ long-term care, and insurance/risk management in retirement were ranked 16th, 15th, 14th, and 12th, respectively, in self-efficacy among the 16 financial topics, indicating a relative lack of perceived knowledge. However, knowledge of health-related risk management is vital for educators and counselors so they can equip individuals at all life stages to be financially prepared in that area. Financing of healthcare for seniors is complex, expensive, and disparate (Cubanski et al., 2019) with the average person on Medicare spending $5,460 out of their pocket in 2016. Those in the lowest income quintile pay even more (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2015). Health insurance protects both health and financial resources. It is meaningful, therefore, that seminar participants experienced significant confidence and knowledge gains on the topic of Medicare.

virtual Professional Development

Educational content delivered via distance learning is not new; the internet has transformed the way people learn. There is a large body of research examining the importance of professional development and how to evaluate it, but much is focused on K-12 classroom teachers. This includes Desimone’s five components of effective PD. Of these five, content focus is one that has the most impact on learning (Compen et al., 2019), a driving factor in constructing this study using senior-centered content. However, the virtual environment places limitations on human interaction and collaboration, important learning components. Published research on virtual learning outcomes is scant. Most studies are related to student learning and pedagogical strategies for success, such as critical thought and feedback channels (Annansingh, 2019). Other research has explored web-based learning for adult audiences, but is still centered on a teacher-student model (Rehm et al., 2013). Even after extending Desimone’s framework, there is still little clarity on professional development evaluation (Merchie et al., 2018). Evaluation of virtual professional development applied to other professions has shown mixed results (Pilcher & Bradley, 2013). Dillon et al. (2008) tested in-person PD learning against a comparative asynchronous virtual format and found statistically significant learning outcomes in both. However, that study measured gains in content understanding rather than self-efficacy in applying the knowledge. This study builds on this prior research by measuring self-efficacy outcomes of virtual PD for financial professionals. We do not know how the same content delivered virtually would compare with outcomes from an in-person experience. However, results suggest that within this professional domain, increased self-efficacy can be achieved successfully when meaningful, targeted content is delivered via virtual platform.

Limitations and Future Considerations

This study was limited to financial professionals who participated in a virtual professional development opportunity. Presently, there is little data on the effectiveness of virtual consumer financial education. Furthermore, this was not a controlled study. There was no control group receiving in-person training. All data came from professionals who self-selected to attend an online program and voluntarily completed pre-, post-, and follow-up surveys. It may be beneficial to further explore the effectiveness of different learning modalities on similar outcomes. A disadvantage of virtual programming is the relative isolation of the participant. Learning is dynamic and interactive, qualities that are not lost but reduced over a virtual platform.

The measures used for gauging change in perceived financial knowledge were based on participants knowledge, skills, and training on financial topics rather than just focusing on knowledge, possibly influencing validity of the measure. Furthermore, the findings are less generalizable due to the limited sample size and nature of analysis that was conducted in this study. The female/male ratio was higher than that of the general population. However, the low levels of confidence in later life topics prior to the training, especially among female practitioners, reflects the need for additional study on focused educational interventions and for evaluating gender differences in practitioner outcomes.

The study raises several areas of consideration as FCS practitioners look to the future. The first is to reinforce the impact of early financial knowledge on later life financial well-being. Financial professionals need to be informed and confident on related topics, with an emphasis on content related to health and insurance funding. Health-related expenditures are complicated and weigh heavily on a senior’s spending. Health insurance capability requires an understanding and application of both health and financial knowledge, which could explain why the professionals in our study had lower perceived knowledge in this area. Second, despite research challenges, it is apparent that FCS professional organizations should support an investigation into the relationship between professional self-efficacy of content delivery and client/student outcome. That will provide greater insight into the significance of reported gender differences and offer guidance for PD content providers. Last, virtual program delivery is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Study participants reported an overall positive experience. Financial professional PD providers can feel comfortable about virtual PD effectiveness, particularly when topic-focused. Future study could examine learning and self-efficacy outcome differences between in person and virtual delivery of important financial topics.

Conclusion

This study provides new insight into the self-efficacy of financial educators and counselors to provide services related to later life planning. A confident financial professional provides higher quality services. The results indicate that financial professionals have knowledge deficiencies in later life financial planning, but could increase their self-perceived knowledge and skills with virtual professional development. Later life financial well-being requires a broad approach in addressing older adults’ social, emotional, and physical needs. Expertise is needed for educating consumers of all ages in life-span financial decision-making and for assisting consumers through a labyrinth of choices and options because the stakes are quite high.

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See appendix on page 34.