Important Financial Planning Journals

Whenever a financial planning practitioner or regulator visits the Financial Planning Performance Lab they almost always ask, “What should I be reading to keep current with the research?” Our answers—depending on who responds—tend to be somewhat evasive. The fact is that there are just a handful of academic journals that publish research on the tools, techniques, and processes of financial planning. Each journal provides a unique approach and focus. While there are quite literally hundreds of “finance” journals, the list of journals relevant to financial planning is quite limited, which makes answering the “what should I read” question a bit difficult.

Here is our core list of journals that we encourage graduate students to review on a quarterly basis. Some of the journals provide “specific financial planning content” whereas others occasionally publish papers that have planning implications. For those seeking a more comprehensive list check out one the Lab’s working papers: https://fpperformancelab.org/working-papers-2/journal-rankings-financial-planning/

A word of caution is in order. Unlike popular press magazines, such as InvestmentNews, Investor Advisor, and Financial Planning Magazine, the journals listed here tend to be a bit—now to put this politely—boring. These journals are rigorously peer review, which means that each published paper has gone through multiple levels of academic review. The result is that sometimes financial planners need to search for ways to apply findings to their own practice.

If you are interested specifically in recent work coming out of the Lab, check out the Journal of Financial Therapy and the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning – these two journals do a great job editing submissions for maximum practical impact.