From the Editor

This issue contains Issue 2 of Volume 25 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 “Behavioral and Wealth Considerations for Seeking Professional Finan-
cial Planning Help,” is coauthored by Jodi Letkiewicz, Chris Robinson, and Dale Domian,
all at York University. The authors use a Canadian survey to examine the decisions to seek
professional financial planning help. They find that people who use a financial planner have
more wealth, lower subjective financial stress and higher financial self-efficacy than people
who do not use a financial planner. They also find that people with higher self-efficacy in
period t-1 are more likely to seek help in period t, leading to the conclusion that high
self-efficacy drives one to seek financial planning help. Their results indicate that subjective
financial stress leads investors to seek financial planning help.

The second article “Financial adviser users and financial literacy,” is coauthored by Bhanu
Balasubramnian and Eric R Brisker both at The University of Akron. The authors use the
2012 National Financial Capability Study to determine what demographic characteristics
are associated with individuals that use financial advisers and whether financial advisers have
any impact on the financial literacy of their clients. They find a significant increase in the use
of financial advisers over the past decade. Their research shows that Savings or Investments
advisers have the largest positive impact on the financial literacy of their clients, followed by
Mortgage or Loan and Insurance advisers, even when controlling for financial education and
potential endogeneity issues.

The third article, “The Relationship between Time Perspective and Financial Risk Tol-
erance in Young Adults,” is coauthored by Kenneth N. Ryack and Aamer Sheikh both at
Quinnipiac University. The authors examine the relationship between time perspective (TP)
and financial risk tolerance (FRT) in young adults. Prior research suggests young adults
should invest in riskier portfolios to maximize wealth accumulation for retirement because
of a future TP and a high FRT. The results of their study indicate that TP accounts for a
significant amount of variance in FRT, however, the relationship between TP and FRT is not

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optimal. Future oriented individuals exhibit lower FRT and present oriented individuals
exhibit higher FRT.

The fourth article, “Hedged ETFs: Do They Add Value?” is authored by Srinidhi Kanuri
at The University of Southern Mississippi. Hedged ETFs provide individual investors with
the opportunity to invest in ETFs that follow strategies similar to those of hedge funds and
seek returns uncorrelated with the market. The author investigates the performance for 6
different categories of hedged ETFs and hedged mutual funds during the period 2008 to
2014. He found that hedged ETFs had much lower risk compared to other index ETFs, with
the exception of bond market ETF AGG. Although this did not translate into superior
absolute or risk-adjusted performance. Hedged ETFs underperformed all other asset cate-
gories (with the exception of Commodities ETF DBC) and the absolute- and risk-adjusted
performance of hedged mutual funds was similar to that of hedged ETFs. The author
concludes that investors would have been better off with index fund ETFs.

The final article, “Investment Strategies When Selecting Sustainable Firms” is coauthored
by Todd M. Shank at University of South Florida St. Petersburg and Benjamin Shockey at
Raymond James Financial, Inc. The authors investigate whether the emerging emphasis on
sustainability is financially rewarded by market participants. This study examines the
efficacy of passive versus active investment strategies when selecting sustainable firms for
inclusion within an equity portfolio. Utilizing two groups of “sustainability-focused” firms,
they find financial support for an active selection of sustainable firms on a risk-adjusted basis.
The author’s results support identifying global sustainability leaders by industry because they
collectively showed greater financial performance over the past decade than both the Dow
Jones Sustainability Index, as well as the broader market.

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. 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

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