Attitude towards financial planning of Italian households

Employing structured financial planning to manage personal finances is associated with higher levels of financial well-being and increased resiliency to shocks. Therefore, it is important to understand the factors associated with the propensity to plan and what it is that promotes financial planning. This issue is especially relevant in Italy, where financial planning is not wide-spread among households yet. This study brings empirical evidence on this by using CONSOB survey data on the financial investments of Italian household over 2019-2021. Estimation results of a probit model show a positive association between financial planning and financial knowledge, and the relevance of financial control (control over savings, spending and indebtedness) and financial conditions. Also personal traits such as financial self-efficacy and financial anxiety play a main role, resulting to be associated with a reduced propensity to plan: in particular, financial decision-makers who find it easy to resolve financial problems and to be able to cope with them in any case, and respondents who prefer not to think about their financial conditions, in order to mitigate perceived anxiety, are less likely to set a financial plan. These findings provide useful insights for the design of financial education initiatives and for an interaction between client and intermediary aimed at promoting appropriate attitudes and choices towards money management. Since perceived ability to solve financial issues plays a role in financial planning, more attention should be paid to enabling the population to have a better and unbiased awareness of their financial skills. It is also important to take account of additional personal traits, such as financial anxiety, when considering individual segmentation and the definition of content and methods. In this respect, the tools used to elicit individuals’ personal traits will be crucial. The use of multi-item questionnaires, corroborated by the experimental literature, could help to mitigate the risk of unreliable self-assessments.