Effective Disclosures in Financial Decisionmaking

Angela A. Hung ; Min Gong ; Jeremy Burke

RAND Corporation

RAND Corporation

关键词: Financial Decision Making;    Banking and Financial Services;    Personal Finance;   

DOI  :  10.7249/RR1270
RP-ID  :  RR-1270-DOL

学科分类：自然科学（综合）

美国|英语

来源: RAND Corporation Published Research

【 摘 要 】

In the financial services market, financial service providers often have better information about the quality, features, fees, risks, and benefits of their products or services than consumers. In a market with this type of asymmetric information, disclosure is an often-used policy tool designed to increase transparency and provide consumers with valuable information to make informed decisions. We define disclosure as a statement that provides relevant information to consumers for informed decisionmaking. A disclosure often reveals estimated costs and impacts to consumers, commitments of the relevant parties, existence of any conflicts of interest, and the nature of the relationship between parties. In this report, we review the literature on consumer disclosures in the financial industry. The primary focus of the review is on disclosures of conflicts of interest, particularly with regard to financial advice, but we also examine use of disclosure associated with other common financial products or services, including credit cards, mortgages, and mutual funds.