Internal factors driving willingness to seek financial advice: The role of trust and anxiety

Abstract We construct and test a conceptual framework that extends the five‐step financial help‐seeking model (Grable and Joo, J Financ Couns Plann , 1999, 10, 14–25) by incorporating different trust dimensions and financial adviser anxiety to examine how internal factors influence willingness to seek financial advice. Using structural equation modeling and a sample of 1297 Australian adults, we find willingness is mostly driven by narrow‐scope trust and, to a lesser extent, by future time perspective and an indirect effect of system trust (through narrow‐scope trust). However, we do not find evidence to suggest that financial adviser anxiety is associated with financial advice‐seeking willingness or narrow‐scope trust. Our results suggest factors that policymakers can target to increase consumer advice‐seeking willingness to help increase the uptake of financial advice when needed and available.