...excerpt from Mo Lidsky's latest book, Partners in Preservation Financial education may sound simple, and you may take it as a given that financial literacy is helpful in supporting better investment decisions. And it is. But the story is a bit more nuanced. Research seems to indicate that financial education has negligible—if any—impact on investors. In a survey of 168 papers, covering 201 studies, even large educational interventions proved to have limited effect over tim

“Only when advisors are obliged to inform clients of all available investment options can the industry claim true fee transparency and ensure that advisors are working in the best interest of their clients, not just their own pocket books” – Mo Lidsky Below is an excerpt from Mo Lidsky, which was recently referenced in the Globe & Mail, on both the positive impacts and shortcomings of the new CRM II legislation for investors. “CRM II: Suitable, But Not Sufficient Fee transpar

...excerpt from Mo Lidsky's latest book, Partners in Preservation In 1764, Thomas Bayes bequeathed one of the greatest gifts to investors. The essence of his contribution is outlined in Bayes’s work An Essay Towards Solving a Problem in the Doctrine of Chance. Putting the technical math aside, his basic message is that, given the infinite factors contributing to movements in financial markets, the best we can do is a probability distribution. One cannot say with certainty tha

...excerpt from Mo Lidsky's latest book, Partners in Preservation Economists have attributed a great deal of poor decision-making to rational ignorance. Rational ignorance refers to our conscious and deliberate choice to be ignorant about certain matters because the effort to educate ourselves about those matters appears too difficult or deemed not worth it. In other words, the opportunity cost appears to be too high. And investors may say to themselves, “Why should we unders

...excerpt from Mo Lidsky's latest book, Partners in Preservation Studies demonstrate that most investors don’t understand basic investment and financial concepts, including diversification, compound interest, risk/return, and securities fraud. Most aren’t really aware of investment costs or the impact of those costs on investment returns. That is just one explanation for why so few retain wealth over long periods of time. J.P. Morgan Private Bank conducted a study of all tho