Examining Anxiety as an Additional Antecedent to Trust and Commitment in Financial Planning

Question	*N or M*	*% or SD*
Age*	36.53	9.06
Gender
Female	198	46.15
Male	231	53.85
Sexual Identity / Orientation
Straight	368	85.98
Other	60	14.02
Relationship Status
Single	39	9.09
Committed Relationship	390	90.91
Religion
Christianity	284	66.20
Judaism	40	9.32
Muslim	31	7.23
Other	74	17.25
Religious
No	74	17.25
Yes	355	82.75
Disabled
No	399	93.01
Yes	30	6.99
Latinx
No	333	77.80
Yes	95	22.20
Racial Identity
White/Caucasian	363	84.81
Black / African American	44	10.28
Other	21	4.91
Education
High School Diploma or Equivalent	127	29.67
Associate’s Degree	143	33.41
Bachelor’s Degree	125	29.21
Graduate or Professional Degree	33	7.71
Annual Household Income
Less than $50,000	16	3.73
$50,000 – $99,999	100	23.31
$100,000 – $149,999	215	50.12
$150,000 – $249,999	83	19.35
$250,000 – $499,999	14	3.26
Greater than $500,000	1	0.23

[i] Note. Total sample size was 430. Percentages are based on available responses for each characteristic and may not sum to 100 because of rounding. Age range = 22–74 years.

Path diagram with standardized coefficients (standard errors).

Table 2.

Descriptive statistics

Question	N	M	SD	Minimum	Maximum
Trust
I have confidence in my financial planner’s integrity	429	3	1.2	1	5
I have confidence in my financial planner’s financial skills and expertise	429	3.6	1	1	5
I can rely on my financial planner to follow through on his/her commitments	429	3.5	1	1	5
I trust my financial planner	429	3.4	1.1	1	5
I view my financial planner as a sincere person	429	3.3	1.2	1	5
Relationship Commitment
I am very committed to maintaining a relationship with my financial planner	429	3.5	0.9	1	5
I intend to stay with my financial planner indefinitely	429	2.9	1.2	1	5
I have a strong sense of loyalty towards my financial planner	429	3.5	1	1	5
I could be persuaded to transfer to a different financial planner*	429	2.9	1.1	1	5
My financial planner is my primary financial advisor	429	3.1	1	1	5
I put maximum effort into maintaining my relationship with my current financial planner	429	3.3	1.1	1	5
Communications
My financial planner works hard at asking questions that will encourage me to open up with them	429	3.4	0.9	1	5
My financial planner paraphrases the factual content of our conversation	428	3.3	1	1	5
My financial planner paraphrases the emotional themes of our planning conversations	428	3.4	0.8	1	5
My financial planner communicated to me that it is very important to link their financial planning recommendations to my personal goals, needs, and priorities	428	4.6	1.4	2	7
My financial planner works hard at communicating their recommendations using terms and language that I can easily understand	428	4.5	1.6	1	7
My financial planner asks me questions to make sure I understand their recommendations	428	4.9	1.4	2	7
Absence of Opportunistic Behavior
I can trust my financial planner to keep my personal and financial information confidential	429	3.5	1	1	5
My planner provides courteous and friendly service to me	428	3.4	1	1	5
My planner responds promptly to my requests	429	3.3	1	1	5
Relationship Benefits
My planner helps me to make good financial decisions	429	3.6	0.9	1	5
My planner offers good investment advice	429	3.2	1	1	5
My planner shows genuine care and interest in each client’s personal circumstances	429	3.1	1.1	1	5
My financial planner has helped me to achieve my financial goals	429	3.7	0.8	1	5
My financial planner has helped me to improve my quality of life	429	3.4	0.9	1	5
My financial planner helps me to identify meaningful personal and financial goals and objectives	429	3.4	1	1	5
Relationship Termination Costs
What is your level of satisfaction with the relationship you have with your financial planner?	429	3.7	1	1	5
I fully cooperate with my financial planner by following through on all of the financial planning recommendations they make to me	428	4.9	1.3	1	7
My financial planner keeps in touch with me to see what changes in my life may affect my financial plan	428	3.3	1	1	5
My financial planner uses a goal setting process that helps me identify meaningful personal and financial goals and objectives	428	3.4	1	1	5
Shared Values
My financial planner presents their own values to me	429	3.3	0.9	1	5
My financial planner demonstrates knowledge about my culture	429	3.1	1	1	5
My financial planner recognizes limits that cultural differences can place on our relationship	429	3.5	0.9	1	5
My financial planner is aware of institutional barriers that affect me as their client	429	3.4	0.9	1	5
Planner makes effort to understand clients’ cultural values	429	3.4	0.9	1	5
Planner makes effort to understand clients’ personality	429	3	1.2	1	5
Planner makes effort to understand clients’ spending patterns	429	3.5	1	1	5
Planner makes effort to understand clients’ attitudes and beliefs about money	429	3.5	1	1	5
Planner makes effort to understand clients’ family history and family values	429	3.5	0.9	1	5
Financial Anxiety
I feel anxious about my financial situation	430	2.9	0.9	1	5
I have difficulty sleeping because of my financial situation	430	2.4	1	1	5
I have difficulty concentrating on my studies or work because of my financial situation	430	2.9	1.1	1	5
I am irritable because of my financial situation	430	2.8	1.1	1	5
I have difficulty controlling my worry about my financial situation	430	2.7	1.1	1	5
My muscles feel tense because of worries about my financial situation	430	2.7	1	1	5
I feel fatigued because I worry about my financial situation	430	2.9	1.2	1	5

[i] Note. Variation in the number of observations across variables is due to missing responses. Missing data in the full-path model were handled using full-information maximum likelihood (FIML) estimation.

[ii] Items marked with an asterisk (*) were reverse coded so that higher values consistently reflected higher levels of the construct. Means are reported on the transformed scale.

Table 3.

Confirmatory Factor Analyses

Model	χ²[df]	p	*RMSEA*	*CFI*	*TLI*	*SRMR*	Std. Factor Loading Range	Cronbach’s Alpha
Trust	10.302[3]	0.016	0.075	0.996	0.986	0.015	.51–.80	0.77
Relationship Commitment	30.017[7]	0.001	0.088	0.984	0.966	0.027	.37–.83	0.73
Communication Abilities	25.146[8]	0.002	0.071	0.988	0.977	0.021	.47–.75	0.72
Absence of Opportunistic Behavior	Just-Identified	-	-	-	-	-	.42–.60	0.53
Relationship Benefits	26.895[9]	.001	.068	.988	.981	.024	.59–.72	0.76
Relationship Termination Costs	5.106[2]	0.078	0.060	0.997	0.992	0.012	.60–.76	0.74
Shared Values	87.243[26]	< 0.001	0.074	0.973	0.963	0.036	.41–.75	0.78
Financial Anxiety	25.238[11]	0.008	0.055	0.993	0.986	0.018	.55–.79	0.81

[i] Note. The opportunistic behavior construct was just-identified (df = 0); therefore, global fit indices are unavailable or not interpretable. The weighted least squares means and variance-adjusted (WLSMV) estimator was used to account for the ordinal nature of the scales.

Table 4.

Path Coefficients

Path	B	β	SE (β)
Communication Abilities --> Trust	0.143	0.139	0.041^**
Absence of Opportunistic Behavior --> Trust	0.107	0.097	0.030^**
Relationship Benefits --> Trust	0.323	0.268	0.041^***
Shared Values --> Trust	0.501	0.371	0.041^***
Financial Anxiety --> Trust	−0.181	−0.166	0.026^***
Relationship Benefits --> Relationship Commitment	0.229	0.219	0.060^***
Termination Costs --> Relationship Commitment	0.024	0.028	0.047
Shared Values --> Relationship Commitment	0.235	0.200	0.057^***
Financial Anxiety --> Relationship Commitment	−0.117	-0.123	0.035^***
Trust --> Relationship Commitment	0.302	0.347	0.061^***

Note. Model fit statistics: χ²(3) = 11.310, p = .01; RMSEA = .08; CFI = .993; TLI = .970; SRMR = .014. R² = .81 for trust and .67 for relationship commitment.

* p < .05,

** p < .01,

*** p < .001

Table 5.

Correlations Between the Model’s Observed Variables

Variable	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1. Trust	-
2. Commitment	.790	-
3. Communication Abilities	.803	.733	-
4. Absence of Opportunistic Behavior	.680	.631	.624	-
5. Relationship Benefits	.823	.746	.782	.706	-
6. Relationship Termination Costs	.738	.663	.720	.618	.768	-
7. Shared Values	.844	.751	.821	.632	.800	.767	-
8. Financial Anxiety	−.601	−.551	−.535	−.435	−.488	−.473	−.501	-

[i] Note. All correlations are statistically significant at p < .001.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/fprj-2026-0013 | Journal eISSN: 2206-1355 | Journal ISSN: 2206-1347

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Language: English

Published on: Sep 20, 2026

Published by: Financial Advice Association of Australia

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 2 issues per year

Keywords:

client-planner relationships,

financial anxiety,

financial planning,

relationship commitment,

theory of trust and commitment,

trust

Related subjects:

Business and economics,

Political economics,

Economic theory, systems and structures,

Business management,

Business management, other,

Industries,

Banks, financial service provider, insurers

© 2026 Ashlyn Rollins-Koons, Ives Machiz, Megan McCoy, Joanne Wu, Kenneth White, published by Financial Advice Association of Australia
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 13 (2027): Issue 1 (January 2027)

Examining Anxiety as an Additional Antecedent to Trust and Commitment in Financial Planning

Figures & Tables

Table 1.

Figure 1.

Table 2.

Table 3.

Table 4.

Table 5.

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