Switching from commissions on mutual funds to flat-fees: How are advisory clients affected?
研究德国券商客户从佣金制转向固定费用制后的行为变化，发现转换者更频繁寻求并遵循理财建议，投资组合价值、多元化和绩效均提升。
• German brokerage introduces a flat-fee alongside a commission-based scheme. • Comparison of switchers to the flat-fee to matched commission-based clients. • Adopters seek and follow (unchanged) financial advice more. • Adopters increase portfolio values and trade more. • Adopters improve portfolio efficiency through higher fund shares. Using a field study at a German brokerage, we investigate advised individual investors’ behavior and outcomes after self-selecting into a flat-fee scheme (percentage of portfolio value) for mutual funds. In a difference-in-differences setting, we compare 699 switchers to propensity-score-matched advisory clients who remained in the commission-based scheme. Switchers increase their portfolio values, improve portfolio diversification, and increase their portfolio performance. They also demand more financial advice and follow more advisor recommendations. We argue that switchers attribute a higher quality to the unchanged advisory services.