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Do Financial Advisors Provide Tangible Benefits for Investors? Evidence from Tax-Motivated Mutual Fund Flows

Author

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  • Gjergji Cici
  • Alexander Kempf
  • Christoph Sorhage

Abstract

Rationality would suggest that advice-seeking investors receive benefits from costly financial advice. However, evidence documenting these benefits for US investors has so far been lacking. This article is the first to document that US mutual fund investors indeed receive one of the many previously hypothesized benefits associated with financial advice. The documented benefit comes from valuable tax-management advice that helps investors avoid taxable fund distributions and becomes even more valuable when investors face distributions that can cause large and hard-to-predict tax liabilities. Additional evidence suggests that financial advice helps with other aspects of tax management such as tax-loss selling.

Suggested Citation

  • Gjergji Cici & Alexander Kempf & Christoph Sorhage, 2017. "Do Financial Advisors Provide Tangible Benefits for Investors? Evidence from Tax-Motivated Mutual Fund Flows," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 21(2), pages 637-665.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:revfin:v:21:y:2017:i:2:p:637-665.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rof/rfw014
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Diane Del Guercio & Jonathan Reuter & Paula A. Tkac, 2010. "Broker Incentives and Mutual Fund Market Segmentation," NBER Working Papers 16312, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Clemens Sialm & Hanjiang Zhang, 2020. "Tax‐Efficient Asset Management: Evidence from Equity Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(2), pages 735-777, April.
    3. Sendhil Mullainathan & Markus Noeth & Antoinette Schoar, 2012. "The Market for Financial Advice: An Audit Study," NBER Working Papers 17929, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Cristian Escudero & José L. Ruiz, 2022. "Choosing the highest annuity payout: the role of intermediation and firm reputation," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 47(4), pages 973-1004, October.
    2. James Byder & Diego A. Agudelo & Ignacio Arango, 2019. "Gender matters most. The impact on short‐term risk aversion following a financial crash," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 106-117, January.
    3. Clemens Sialm & Hanjiang Zhang, 2020. "Tax‐Efficient Asset Management: Evidence from Equity Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(2), pages 735-777, April.
    4. Roy Havemann, 2019. "Can Creditor Bail-in Trigger Contagion? The Experience of an Emerging Market," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 23(6), pages 1155-1180.
    5. Jennifer Alonso Garcia & Michael Sherris & Samuel Thirurajah & Jonathan Ziveyi, 2020. "Taxation and policyholder behavior: the case of guaranteed minimum accumulation benefits," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/307889, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    6. Beggs, William & Hill-Kleespie, Austin & Liu, Yanguang, 2022. "Mutual fund tax implications when investment advisors manage tax-exempt separate accounts," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    7. Hugh Hoikwang Kim & Raimond Maurer & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2019. "How Cognitive Ability and Financial Literacy Shape the Demand for Financial Advice at Older Ages," NBER Working Papers 25750, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Vladimir Kotomin, 2021. "The clientele effect around the turn of the year: evidence from the bond markets," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 45(4), pages 637-653, October.
    9. Wang-Ly, Nathan & Bateman, Hazel & Dobrescu, Isabella & Newell, Ben R. & Thorp, Susan, 2022. "Defaults, disclosures, advice and calculators: One size does not fit all," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies

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