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Alsadius comments on Financial Effectiveness Repository - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: Gunnar_Zarncke 18 November 2014 09:57AM

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Comment author: Alsadius 25 November 2014 02:02:52AM 0 points [-]

Give me a practical model for a randomized study, please. Until you have that, let's work with the evidence we have available. And that evidence seems pretty consistent with my beliefs(that I've had since before I started this job) that advisors don't meaningfully improve investment returns per se, but they mildly improve investor tax planning, and they massively improve investor behaviour.

Comment author: gwern 20 January 2015 03:13:41AM -1 points [-]

Self-selection is the default explanation; the onus is on financial planners to show that they are helpful.

Give me a practical model for a randomized study, please.

You could... I don't know, select some people, offer half of them $1k to go to a financial planner and the others $1k in exchange for reporting on financial health, then see if the experimental group is better off a year later? This is not harder than doing things like deworming studies in Africa.