An investigation of the consistency of financial advice offered by web-based sources

Authors

  • Conrad S. Ciccotello Director of Financial Planning Programs, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
  • Russell E. Wood Financial Planner, Homrich and Berg, Inc., Atlanta, GA, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1057-0810(01)00078-6

Keywords:

Advice dispersion, Web-based sources, Financial advice

Abstract

Individuals increasingly rely on web-based sources for financial advice. But does the advice you get depend on the site you visit? Relying on standardized input data from three different family scenarios, we observe that the variation in advice across web-sites increases with client input complexity. Web advice dispersion also differs in magnitude across ®nancial planning domains such as insurance, investments, retirement, income tax, and estate tax. `Live advisor' ®nancial solutions, however, are not always more consistent than those available on the web. Human advice varies less with client complexity, but in certain planning domains web advice has lower dispersion. The results suggest that client characteristics and planning domains matter in the development of ef®cient distribution mechanisms for financial advice. Copyright 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

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Published

2001-12-30

How to Cite

Ciccotello, C. S., & Wood, R. E. (2001). An investigation of the consistency of financial advice offered by web-based sources. Financial Services Review, 10(1-4), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1057-0810(01)00078-6

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1-4 (2001): Financial Services Review

Section

New Original Submission

License

Copyright (c) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc.

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