The financial advisory industry lacks professional standardization/regulation. There are few guideposts to assess advisor quality, and risks to consumer welfare abound. Some 91% of investment advisors operate on conflicted sales commission licenses, though many market themselves as fiduciaries....

We study two characteristics found to be associated with reduced financial advisor misconduct: gender and professional designations. Our findings suggest consumer guidelines helpful in avoiding adverse advisor experiences. These can be especially valuable given the advisory market's absence of...

Both managers and investors are increasingly concerned with the impact of advertising spending on shareholder returns. This study investigates the analyst-based processes by which advertising may create firm value. Using a large longitudinal dataset with 1,052 firms over 20 years, we find that...