[E377]Rotten advice|经济学人
本文音频及原文摘自杂志The Economist《经济学人》2016年第10期，Finance and Economics版块。
Bilking investors
America’s revolving door for financial advisers who do down their clients
Mar 5th 2016
FINANCIAL markets can seem bewildering[使人困惑的;令人产生混乱的;扑朔迷离] to those who don’t have the time and energy to understand them: all that jargon[行话,术语], all those sudden switches in mood. So it is natural that people look for help when trying to find the right products. In America, more than half of all households have sought advice[1], according to a survey conducted in 2010. They have more than 650,000 registered financial advisers[2] to choose from.
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注释与生词
[1]征求意见;请教
[2]金融顾问
▷bilk [bɪlk]
to get from someone or :欺骗，诈骗；使受挫折；赖帐
He bilked out of tens of millions of .
他从顾客那里骗取了几千万的美元。
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But how good is that advice? It can be hard to tell. There may be an “information asymmetry[1]” between the advisers and the clients, simply because finance can be so complex. Furthermore, although a diner can instantly tell if wine is corked or steak is tough[2], it may be many years before the success or failure of a financial tip becomes apparent.
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注释
[1]信息不对称
[2]牛排太硬
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A new paper* examines the records of American financial advisers between 2005 and 2015, using a database that contains 1.2m individuals. It finds that 7% of the advisers were disciplined for[1] misconduct[不端行为;处理不当] over the period, resulting in a median payment to customers of $40,000 in compensation. Around one-third of the miscreants[恶棍,歹徒,无赖] are repeat offenders[2]; past transgressors[违背者;犯规者;罪人] are five times more likely to engage in misconduct than the average adviser.
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注释
[1]受惩罚
[2]屡次违规者;重犯者;累犯
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What happens to the offenders? Just over half, astonishingly, keep their job. Although the remainder are let go, 44% of them are rehired by another firm within a year. On average, they take a 10% pay cut, but they continue to work as investment advisers. Unsurprisingly, the paper finds that these miscreants[恶棍,歹徒,无赖] tend to move to firms that hire more people with a record of misconduct than is typical. The same firms are less likely to fire their staff if they do something wrong.
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Why don’t such firms lose all their clients? The authors suggest that advisers with a dark past tend to prey on[1] elderly or unsophisticated[单纯的,朴实的;天真的;不懂世故的] customers. At any rate, they seem to congregate in relatively wealthy, elderly and less educated counties. In some places in Florida and California, one in five advisers has a record of misconduct.
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注释与生词
[1]prey on
to or a of , who are or can be or
伤害，欺骗，坑害（尤指弱势人群）He would at , preying on women in or.他总在夜间出没，袭击二三十岁的孤身女子。It's that these of on the.这种人坑害老年人真是太卑鄙了。
▷congregate ['kɒŋgrɪgeɪt]
to come together in a of or
聚集，集合A congregated around the to the , to a of the of the show.一群人聚集在戏院门口，希望能看一眼演出的明星。
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It is a sorry tale. But information on advisers’ records is at least readily available at BrokerCheck, a website run by FINRA, an American regulator. Clearly, a lot more investors need to use it.
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* “The Market for Financial Adviser Misconduct” by Mark Egan, Gregor Matvos and Amit Seru
以上言论不代表本人立场。
摘自《经济学人》杂志，仅外语学习之用。
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