Graduation Year

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

D.B.A.

Degree Granting Department

Business Administration

Major Professor

Alan Hevner, Ph.D.

Co-Major Professor

Robert Hammond, D.B.A.

Committee Member

Paul Spector, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Joanne Quinn, Ph.D.

Keywords

design science, founders, trust, wealth advisors, wealth management

Abstract

Though comprehensive financial planning is well-known terminology, it is not a well-known or adopted concept. Broadly, financial planning is associated with investment management, but this approach is changing. Most research on financial planning is confined to the benefits, or process, behind planning. For business owners, coordinated, comprehensive financial planning should include the founder’s largest, most concentrated financial asset, the business they are running. The underlying motivations and bias that inhibit business owners from engaging in a comprehensive financial planning relationship has not been heavily researched. In this dissertation, I studied business owner inhibitors to the adoption of comprehensive financial planning and methods financial advisors can use to avoid them through Elaborated Action Design Research (eADR), which involved the creation and testing of a conceptual model through interviews with business owners and financial advisors. From the conceptual model, I developed and tested an explanatory model before developing a framework that included three separate artifacts: Business Owner Intake Questionnaire, Profiling and Categorization process for business owners, and a Questioning Sequence. Then, I tested the framework via two case study scenarios. The result of this research study is a framework to help business owners avoid the associated inhibitors to adoption of comprehensive financial planning as well as a more comprehensive understanding of business owner and financial advisor motivations for comprehensive financial planning. This research enables financial advisors to more effectively engage business owners in the planning process, ultimately leading to larger professional practices. Additionally, it enables business owners to develop a higher level of confidence in financial advisors’ ability to assist them through the various business cycles and liquidity plans, leading to higher levels of clarity in achieving their financial objectives.

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