Conflicted advice about portfolio diversification
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61190/fsr.v27i1.3380Keywords:
Conflicts of interest, Financial advice, Portfolio diversificationAbstract
We investigate the validity of the argument by the financial services industry to “roll over your ‘old’ 401(k) plan” because 401(k)-type plans have a limited number of investment options, while Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) have a virtually unlimited number of options. We empirically analyze the diversification of a large 401(k)-type plan with only five basic investment options. Financial advisers with a conflict of interest may use strategic complexity to encourage rollovers, recommending complex portfolios to impress naïve clients who have a weak understanding of the concept of diversification, while not weighing the cost of the complex portfolios against any added benefits of diversification.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 Academy of Financial Services
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Author(s) retain copyright and grant the Journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License that allows to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this Journal.
This license allows the author to remix, tweak, and build upon the original work non-commercially. The new work(s) must be non-commercial and acknowledge the original work.
