I find this study - published February 26, 2016 - pretty amazing and disturbing. Three individuals at the University of Chicago state in the study they examined the available information on financial advisor misconduct and fraud for the approximately 1.2 million registered financial advisors in the U.S. between 2005 and 2015. According to authors, this represents only 10% of all employment in the financial and insurance industry.
Below you will find the first six sentences from their conclusion:
"We document substantial misconduct among United States advisors. More than 12% of financial advisors have a disclosure on their record, and approximately 7% have been disciplined for misconduct and/or fraud. The costs of misconduct are not small: the median settlement amount is $40,000. Misconduct varies dramatically across advisors and firms, and repeat offenders are common. Although advisors face consequences for misconduct, the majority of advisors remain in the industry following misconduct. More than 50% remain with the same firm after a year, and 20% switch to a different firm in the industry."
The study also lists the financial firms with the most and least advisors with reported misconduct, based on percent of their total number of advisors. The paper only lists the 10 most and least firms with reported misconduct, not all firms studied.
Here is the link to the study: The Market for Financial Adviser Misconduct by Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos, Amit Seru :: SSRN
There is an active discussion on this study at bogleheads.org as well.
Below you will find the first six sentences from their conclusion:
"We document substantial misconduct among United States advisors. More than 12% of financial advisors have a disclosure on their record, and approximately 7% have been disciplined for misconduct and/or fraud. The costs of misconduct are not small: the median settlement amount is $40,000. Misconduct varies dramatically across advisors and firms, and repeat offenders are common. Although advisors face consequences for misconduct, the majority of advisors remain in the industry following misconduct. More than 50% remain with the same firm after a year, and 20% switch to a different firm in the industry."
The study also lists the financial firms with the most and least advisors with reported misconduct, based on percent of their total number of advisors. The paper only lists the 10 most and least firms with reported misconduct, not all firms studied.
Here is the link to the study: The Market for Financial Adviser Misconduct by Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos, Amit Seru :: SSRN
There is an active discussion on this study at bogleheads.org as well.
