Rationality would suggest that advice-seeking investors receive benefits from costly financial advice. However, evidence documenting these benefits for U.S. investors has so far been lacking. This paper is the first to document that U.S. mutual fund investors indeed receive one of the many...

Whether financial advisors provide useful services for clients that seek to invest in mutual funds remains an open question. We are the first to show that financial advisors generate tangible benefits for their clients in the form of useful tax advice. Specifically, financial advisors help...

We are the first to show that financial advisors generate tangible benefits for their clients in the form of useful tax advice. Investors who purchase mutual funds through financial advisors exhibit a stronger tendency of avoiding taxable distributions than those who do not. Our calculations...

Rationality suggests that advice-seeking investors receive benefits from financial advice that are comparable in value to the fees paid for such advice. However, empirical evidence documenting these benefits for U.S. investors has so far been lacking. We document that U.S. mutual fund investors...

We analyze a market-wide panel dataset on retail options trading from India, a market with an 80% share in option contracts traded worldwide. Retail traders both concentrated in and dominate index options trading. They exhibit short-term speculative behavior with significant day trading, short-...

This study shows that financial advisors provide useful tax advice to their clients, being the first to provide evidence of tangible benefits delivered by financial advisors in the U.S. We find that investors who purchase mutual fund shares through financial advisors exhibit a stronger tendency...

This study shows that financial advisors provide useful tax advice to their clients, being the first to provide evidence of tangible benefits delivered by financial advisors in the U.S. We find that investors who purchase mutual fund shares through financial advisors exhibit a stronger tendency...

We investigate whether eponymous hedge funds-those named after their founder/manager-signal managerial ability or ethical behavior. While such funds do not outperform non-eponymous peers, they exhibit lower operational and fraud risks. Survey evidence supports these findings. Eponymous funds...

Open-end mutual funds can use redemption in kind to satisfy investor redemptions by delivering securities instead of cash. We find that funds that reserve their rightsto redeem in kind experience less redemption after poor performance. Evidence from actual in-kind transactions reveals several...

We exploit the staggered introduction of index funds in different segments and countries to study how increased competition from indexing affects the performance-flow relation and incentives of actively managed equity mutual funds. An increase in the market shares of available country-level...