From the Editor This issue contains Issue 4 of Volume 23 of Financial Services Review (FSR). I would like to thank the board and members of the Academy of Financial Services for their continued support. I continue to work in broadening the scope of articles, while still focusing on individual financial management and personal financial planning. I encourage authors to reach out when discussing implications of their findings in a more comprehensive way. As such, all articles in the Journal more appropriately relate to financial planning issues. The lead article “Boomers’ Life Insurance Adequacy Pre & Post the 2008 Financial Crisis” is coauthored by Janine K. Scott at Massey University and John Gilliam at Texas Tech University. The authors use the Survey of Consumer Finance to examine life insurance adequacy among boomers before and after the financial crisis of 2008. They find a significant difference in 2010 between the baby boomers and the senior generation in life insurance adequacy. Variables related to net worth, such as income, marital status, and self-insurability, were also significant predictors of life insurance adequacy. They conclude that given greater life insurance adequacy among those with higher incomes, it may be beneficial for those with mid to low incomes to increase the level of group term insurance. The second article “Financial Adviser Background Checks’ is coauthored by Bhanu Balasubramnian, Eric R Brisker, Suzanne Gradisher, all at the University of Akron. Using the 2009 National Financial Capability Survey, the authors identify demographic character- istics associated with financial adviser users who conduct adviser background checks and/or consider more than one adviser before making a choice in advisors. They find that very few financial adviser users check backgrounds, but find a positive relationship between adviser background checks and trust levels. They conclude that having a reliable, easy, and efficient background check process in place will help improve trust in financial advisers. The third article, “Wealth and Credit Compliance: Does Economic Literacy Matter?” is coauthored by Celeste Varum and Alla Kolyban both at University of Aveiro, Campus Univer- sitário de Santiago. The authors examine the influence of economic literacy upon individuals’ over-indebtedness and households’ wealth. The authors propose that a lack of economic-financial knowledge may have detrimental consequences, in particular reflected in higher exposure to credit and financial risk. The authors provide evidence of the importance of financial literacy in Portugal, for both individuals’ over-indebtedness and household wealth. The fourth article, “Choosing Between Value and Growth in Mutual Fund Investing’ is coauthored by Glenn Pettengill at Grand Valley State University, George Chang at Grand Valley State University, and C. James Hueng, at Western Michigan University. The authors investigate investor’s choices between value and growth mutual funds. They indicate that the value premium demonstrates that value securities outperform growth securities, suggesting that an investor should choose value funds. Alternatively, existing studies suggest that growth funds outperform value funds. The authors show that value funds indeed outperform growth funds especially in terms of lower realized risk and higher realized terminal wealth. The authors conclude that previous findings may result from a bias against value in some multifactor models. The final article, “Low-Beta Investing with Mutual Funds” is by David Nanigian at Ph.D. Financial Services Review 23 (2014) v–vi 1057-0810/14/$ – see front matter © 2014 Academy of Financial Services. All rights reserved. The American College and Penn State University. The author states that empirical research has shown that investing in low-beta stocks can improve the mean-variance efficiency of an investor’s portfolio. Dr. Nanigian forms portfolios of mutual funds based on beta and examines whether mutual fund investors can capitalize on this puzzle. He finds that investing in a portfolio of funds in the bottom quintile of beta can improve alpha by a statistically significant 2.9% to 4.9% a year over the top quintile of beta funds. I would like to send a special thank you to the many reviewers that have significantly contributed to the quality of our journal by providing timely and thorough reviews of the submissions to our journal. I would like to recognize in the table below, those that reviewed for issues 23(1) through 23(4) during the past year. Thanks to those who make the journal possible, especially the referees and contributing authors. Please consider submission to the Financial Services Review and rely on the style information provided to ease readability and streamline the review process. The Journal welcomes articles over the range of areas that comprise personal financial planning. While FSR articles are certainly diverse in terms of topic, data, and method, they are focused in terms of motivation. FSR exists to produce research that addresses issues that matter to individuals. I remain committed to the goal of making Financial Services Review the best academic journal in individual financial management and personal financial planning. Best regards, Stuart Michelson Editor Financial Services Review Thank you to all of the FSR Referees for Issues 23(1) through 23(4) Alex Wang University of Connec cut Jose Linares-Zegarra University of Granada Andrei Shynkevich Kent State University Karen Benson University of Queensland Andrew Ching University of Toronto Karen Varcoe University of California Andy Terry University of Arkansas at Li le Rock Kevin Bracker Pi sburg State University Annamaria Lusardi Dartmouth College Khaled Elkhal University of Southern Indiana Bernhard Zwergel University of Augsburg Larry Prather SE Oklahoma State University Chris Browning Texas Tech University Larry Rose California State Cli Robb Kansas State University Ma hew Spiegel Yale University Coleen Clark Ryerson University Michael Finke Texas Tech University Dale Domian York University Michael Naylor Massey University Darren Lee University of Queensland Ning Tang San Diego State University David Nanigian The American College Pablo Ruiz-Verdu Universidad Carlos III de Madrid David Smith University of Albany Parvez Ahmed University of North Florida Diane Docking Northern Illinois Patryk Babiarz University of Alabama Diane Schooley Boise State Peter Lichtenberg Wayne State University Emery Trahan Northeastern University Phillip Tew Arkansas State University Frederick P. Schadler East Carolina University Rachel Smith University of Mississippi Giovanni Fernandez Stetson University Randy Gardner University of Missouri Kansas City J Michael Collins University of Wisconsin Robert Comment Analysis Group Jaakko Aspara Aalto Universitry Robert Dubil University of Utah Jacquelyn Humphrey University of Queensland Robert Kunkel University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Jim Gilkeson University of Central Florida Sharon Devaney Purdue University John Adams University of Texas Sherman Hanna Ohio State University John Clinebell University of Northern Colorodo Swarnankur Cha erjee University of Georgia John Grable University of Georgia Tim Query New Mexico State University John Haslem University of Maryland Walter Woerhide The American College John Salter Texas Tech University William Jennins U.S. Air Force Academy John Simon Australian Reserve Bank Wookjae Heo University of Georgia John Watson Monash University Yasser Alhenawi Univeristy of Evansville vi Editorial / Financial Services Review 23 (2014) v–vi