The Market for Retirement Financial Advice

Olivia S. Mitchell and Kent Smetters, Editors

The market for retirement financial advice has never been more important and yet more in flux. The long-term shift away from traditional defined benefit pensions toward defined contribution personal accounts requires all of us to be more sophisticated today than ever before. But the landscape for financial advice is changing all over the world, with new rules and regulations transforming the financial advice profession.

This volume illuminates the market for retirement financial advice. It outlines regulatory developments and behavioral challenges to help consumers, plan sponsors, and regulators make more informed decisions. It examines:

  • What financial advisors do, and how we can measure their performance and impact;
  • Who these professionals are and what standards they must abide by;
  • How they make money and what their incentives are;
  • How people can be protected against bad advice, and what constitutes good advice; and
  • Whether financial advice alone can actually change peoples’ financial habits.

Answers to these questions can transform how we access and implement the type of financial advice needed to enhance retirement security.

Publication date: November 2013 · Oxford University Press · ISBN 0-19-968377-2

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