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Top1. Introduction
Financial planning is a challenging process for any investor as it involves a very careful consideration of risk and choices of financial products. The difficulty of this process is further compounded as the global financial world is continuously expanding, constantly changing and becoming increasingly complex and highly diverse. Against this backdrop, macro-economic policy makers and regulatory authorities are facing a daunting task of devising policies that would safeguard the interests of the retail investors who are vulnerable to this increasing complexity of the financial world (Flood et.al, 2016; Bhandari et .al, 2008; Reinhart & Rogoff, 2009; Goodhart, 2005). A sound financial plan should also take into consideration the various aspects that would safeguard the investors from various financial disasters and mitigate the risks involved in investing (Baker & Riciardi, 2015; Rabanni et. al, 2017).
The global financial crisis had stemmed from financial deregulation coupled with rapid innovation in financial products, which was exacerbated by the perverse incentive system that compelled the key personnel in almost all financial institutions as hedge funds, mutual funds, pension funds, commercial banks and investment banks to take extremely high risk resulting in great financial distress for the investors (Crotty, 2009).Times like these tend to negatively affect retail and institutional investors, however the damage is more palpable in case of retail investors(Kacperczyk & Schnabl, 2010; Neaime, 2012).The global financial crisis massively impacted the retail investors causing to great financial distress to them(Bekaert et.al,2014).Investors of both emerging and developed markets were hurt financially in the aftermath of the global financial crisis(McNally, 2009; Eichengreen, 2012; Kolb, 2012).The huge impact on the global financial landscape has urged the policy makers to figure out ways to shield retail investors from devastating financial impact of such crisis (Claessens, 2010; Bartram & Bodnar, 2009; Kenourgios & Padhi, 2012).
Post the global financial crisis, regulators and policy makers across the global financial landscape have taken steps to safeguard the interest of the investors given the advancement in the number and nature of financial products they have access to, apart from the steps taken by the regulators, the technological advancements in financial technology has also contributed immensely in helping investors in managing financial risk and facilitating financial planning in a systematic manner in order to make retail investors aware of the financial consequences and risks involved in a financial investment and processes (Moshirian, 2011; Gabor and Brooks, 2017; Chishti and Barberis,2016; Zavolokina et.al,2016; Lacasse et.al,2016).
The financial technology (Fintech) revolution is a massive financial innovation which has given birth to various innovative financial services and tools at the disposal of the investors to enable them to make informed financial choices and also assist them in risk management, thus ensuring that retail investors have a sense of financial awareness when it comes to making risky financial choices and decisions (Zopounidis et.al,2018;Haddad and Hornuf,2016;Bussmann,2017). The fintech ecosystem have led to the rise of robo-advisors and visual analytics in the portfolio management space, large number of investors are now relying on the use of robo-advisory and visual analytics in financial planning in order to better manage risks and make sound financial decisions in order to have a better risk-return pay off (Cocca,2016;Glaser et.al,2019;Beltramini,2018). Such financial services have also overloaded the retail investors with a lot of information by presenting them with a large number of financial products with different risk and reward attributes (Bawden and Robinson,2009; Speier, 1999;). This information overload might actually be detrimental to the financial planning of the investors (Eppler and Mengis,2004; Buchanan and Knock,2011).In order to solve this problem of information overload, the financial services industry has witnessed the launch of various visual analytic tools like ‘Finvis’ and ‘Portfoliocompare’, which simplify the process of making financial investment decisions of the retail investors (Savikhin et.al,2011;Lusardi et.al,2017;Booth et.al,2018;Booth et.al,2019).