After two years of economic and market volatility, consumers surveyed by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards are more concerned about their finances.
Yet they are not turning to financial planners in droves to help them manage their finances, the survey found.
Twenty-eight percent of respondents to the CFP Board's latest survey said they used a financial planner, compared with 29% in the survey the board conducted two years ago.
Nevertheless, 43% said that financial planners have grown in importance since the financial crisis started two years ago, the CFP Board said during a press call last week to announce the poll's findings.
The survey of 1,002 consumers was conducted by phone on July 7 and 8.
"There are a lot of reasons why Americans have been reluctant to hire financial advisers in the past," said Robert Glovsky, the CFP Board chairman. They tend to think financial planning services are for the wealthy, not for the middle class, and many do not know where to find an adviser they can trust, he said.
As financial products become more diverse and complex, however, it will become more necessary for investors to entrust their financial futures to a CFP, Glovsky said.
The task before the profession is to get the public to understand what CFP certificants do and what distinguishes them from a professional who does not have that designation.
Among survey respondents who began using a financial planner since the start of the financial crisis, 31% said they had done so because difficult times created more need for financial guidance.
Forty-four percent of respondents said they leaned on financial planners for reasons other than the crisis.
"A lot of people will look for a financial planner when going through a life transition," Glovsky said.
He added, though, that the financial crisis might have heightened people's concerns about having enough money to retire comfortably.
Thirty-six percent of the survey respondents reported no change in their attitude toward financial planners, and 14% thought the professionals had become less important.
They might need a professional's help, the survey found. In general, about 65% of respondents said they were more concerned about their finances today than they were at the beginning of the financial crisis two years ago.
Thirty-seven percent said they expect their personal finances improve in the next six months. Less than half, 46%, said they expect to hold on to what they have, and 16% said they expect to lose money.
Thirty-three percent of respondents 33%, said they were cautious about their finances in general, and 65% said they are more concerned about their money than they were at the beginning of the financial crisis.
Forty-four percent of respondents said they expect the U.S. economy to improve in the next six months; just 28% said they expect it to worsen; and 22% said they expect no change in that time frame.
Lawmakers did not inspire confidence in the survey respondents. Eighty percent said Congress and regulators have not done enough to manage the problems in the financial markets and their impact on investors.
People's outlook on the economy varied by ethnicity. Seventy-four percent of blacks surveyed said they expected the economy to improve, versus 51% of Hispanics and 38% of white respondents.
