In many ways, index funds have effectively solved investing, yet many people continue to delegate their investment management and financial decision making to financial advisors.

在許多方面，指數基金已經有效地解決了投資問題，但許多人仍然將投資管理和財務決策委託給財務顧問。

Why?

為什麼？

I'm Ben Felix, portfolio manager at PWL Capital, and I'm going to tell you why people still hire financial advisors despite investing being functionally solved.

我是PWL Capital的投資組合經理本-費利克斯（Ben Felix），我將告訴你為什麼儘管投資在功能上已經解決了，但人們仍然會聘請理財顧問。

I want to specify what I mean by a financial advisor before I start.

在開始之前，我想說明一下我所說的財務顧問是什麼意思。

I'm talking about someone who manages your investments for you and provides you with ongoing financial advice.

我指的是為您管理投資並持續為您提供理財建議的人。

This is different from something like a fee-only financial planner who might charge you an hourly rate but will not manage your investments for you.

這與只收取費用的理財規劃師不同，後者可能會按小時收費，但不會為您管理投資。

Financial advisors allow you to delegate the majority of your investing and financial decision making and the related ongoing tasks, and they monitor your financial situation.

財務顧問可以將大部分投資和財務決策以及相關的持續性任務委託給您，並對您的財務狀況進行監控。

Financial advice is a credence good, a good that is hard to value even after the service has been provided.

財務諮詢是一種信譽商品，是一種即使在提供服務之後也很難估價的商品。

But the fact that many people continue to hire financial advisors does suggest that it's worth something.

但事實上，許多人仍在繼續聘請財務顧問，這確實說明它是有價值的。

In a study conducted by Morningstar, 312 individual responses to the question, Please list some reasons why you hired your financial advisor, were manually analyzed and sorted into various financial and emotional motivations.

在晨星公司進行的一項研究中，對 312 個回答 "請列出您聘請財務顧問的一些原因 "問題的個人進行了人工分析，並按照各種財務和情感動機進行了分類。

The top motivations were to alleviate discomfort in handling financial issues and the desire to achieve a specific goal.

最主要的動機是減輕在處理財務問題時的不適感，以及實現特定目標的願望。

The next most common motivation was behavioral coaching.

其次最常見的動機是行為指導。

Overall, non-financial motivations were identified more frequently than financial ones as the reason that people hired their financial advisor.

總體而言，在人們聘請財務顧問的原因中，非財務動機比財務動機更常見。

This suggests that purely quantitative assessments of financial advice could miss the mark.

這表明，對財務諮詢進行純粹的量化評估可能會失之偏頗。

Similarly, only looking at the cost of fees while ignoring perceived benefits may paint an incomplete picture.

同樣，只看收費成本而忽視可感知的收益可能會造成不全面的情況。

A similar study from Morningstar analyzed 620 responses to the question, Please list some reasons why you continue to have a financial advisor.

晨星公司（Morningstar）的一項類似研究分析了 620 份對 "請列出您繼續聘請財務顧問的原因 "這一問題的答覆。

In this case, discomfort handling finances as a broad category with specific reasons like peace of mind and money makes me nervous was the top overall response, followed by the quality of the advice and behavioral coaching.

在這種情況下，"財務處理不適 "作為一個寬泛的類別，加上 "心安理得 "和 "錢讓我緊張 "等具體原因，在總體回答中名列前茅，其次是建議的品質和行為指導。

Finally, a 2020 study titled The Needs and Wants in Financial Advice, Human vs.

最後，在 2020 年進行的一項名為 "金融諮詢中的需求與願望，人與人 "的研究中，我們發現，金融諮詢中的需求與願望之間存在著巨大的差異。

Robo-Advising, uses a broad survey to elicit investor needs and their satisfaction in the context of financial advice.

Robo-Advising 是一項廣泛的調查，旨在瞭解投資者在金融諮詢方面的需求和滿意度。

In line with the Morningstar survey analysis, the authors find evidence that people hire financial advisors to satisfy needs including purchasing, peace of mind, having access to the opinions of an expert, and delegating financial decisions.

與晨星調查分析一致，作者發現有證據表明，人們聘請財務顧問是為了滿足購買、安心、獲得專家意見和委託財務決策等需求。

Even for people who use robo-advisors, the authors find that the possibility to reach out to and interact with humans is greatly valued.

作者發現，即使是使用機器人顧問的人，也非常重視與人類接觸和互動的可能性。

They classify investor needs into five categories.

他們將投資者的需求分為五類。

The need for knowledge, trust, personal improvement, delegation, and investment performance.

對知識、信任、個人進步、授權和投資業績的需求。

They find that the most important need is trust, followed by self-improvement, and knowledge, while the least important is investment performance.

他們發現，最重要的需求是信任，其次是自我提升和知識，而最不重要的需求是投資業績。

This finding aligns with a 2015 paper in the Journal of Finance titled Money Doctors, where the authors suggest that trust in an investment manager reduces an investor's perception of the riskiness of a given investment.

這一發現與《金融雜誌》2015 年發表的一篇題為《金錢醫生》（Money Doctors）的論文不謀而合，作者在該論文中指出，對投資經理的信任會降低投資者對特定投資風險性的認知。

They suggest that the central point of trust-mediated money management is that it enables investors to take risks and earn returns that they might otherwise not obtain.

他們認為，以信任為中介的資金管理的核心要點是，它使投資者能夠承擔風險，並獲得他們可能無法獲得的回報。

The preceding information suggests that trust-based peace of mind is one of the primary services that investors are purchasing when they hire a financial advisor.

上述資訊表明，基於信任的安心服務是投資者在聘請財務顧問時購買的主要服務之一。

Investing in financial decision-making are scary for a lot of people.

投資理財決策對很多人來說都很可怕。

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield once told me, The greatest antidote for fear is competence.

加拿大太空人克里斯-哈德菲爾德曾對我說："恐懼的最大解藥就是能力。

If people can gain the necessary skills and knowledge, they might not need a financial advisor at all.

如果人們能夠掌握必要的技能和知識，他們可能根本不需要財務顧問。

That's of course true of any skill, but gaining skills comes at a cost.

當然，任何技能都是如此，但獲得技能是要付出代價的。

This tradeoff is addressed in the context of financial advice in a 2016 paper in the Journal of Financial Economics titled Time is Money, Rational Life Cycle Inertia and the Delegation of Investment Management.

金融經濟學雜誌》（Journal of Financial Economics）2016 年發表的一篇題為《時間就是金錢、理性生命週期慣性與投資管理委託》的論文，在金融諮詢的背景下論述了這種權衡。

The authors show that the empirically observed investor inertia, where investors devote only sparse attention to their finances, can be explained by the time costs required for being actively engaged in managing them.

作者指出，從經驗中觀察到的投資者惰性，即投資者對自己的財務只投入很少的關注，可以用積極參與財務管理所需的時間成本來解釋。

To address inertia, people can either delegate their portfolio management and financial decisions, or use their time to gain the necessary skills to manage their own finances.

要解決惰性問題，人們可以將投資組合管理和財務決策權下放，或者利用時間學習必要的技能來管理自己的財務。

The opportunity cost of time is different for everyone, which is one of the focuses of this paper.

每個人的時間機會成本都不同，這也是本文的重點之一。

The authors build and solve a realistically calibrated life cycle model where the time cost required to manage one's portfolio is traded off with the opportunity to accumulate job-specific knowledge and to enjoy leisure time.

作者建立並求解了一個經過實際校準的生命週期模型，在這個模型中，管理個人投資組合所需的時間成本與積累特定工作知識和享受閒暇時間的機會進行了權衡。

Investors in the model have the option to delegate their portfolio management for a fee.

該模式下的投資者可以選擇委託他人進行投資組合管理，但需支付一定費用。

The attractiveness of delegation varies over the life cycle.

授權的吸引力隨生命週期而變化。

In related research, the authors show that consumers are always better off when given access to a financial advisor, but these gains decline with age.

在相關研究中，作者表明，消費者在獲得財務顧問的幫助後，其經濟狀況總是更好，但這些收益會隨著年齡的增長而下降。

Specifically, they find that workers can expect a 1.07% improvement in lifetime welfare when they have an opportunity to delegate their financial decisions to an advisor from the start of their working lives.

具體來說，他們發現，如果工人在工作之初就有機會將財務決策權委託給顧問，那麼他們的終生福利有望提高 1.07%。

On the other hand, when the delegation option is introduced just prior to retirement, at age 60, the lifetime welfare gain is tiny, only 0.02%.

另一方面，如果在退休前，即 60 歲時引入委託選擇，則終身福利收益很小，僅為 0.02%。

They conclude that it is better for investors to have an early opportunity to hire financial advisors, since access to financial delegation early in life can produce important improvements in wealth and well-being.

他們得出的結論是，投資者最好能儘早有機會聘請財務顧問，因為在人生的早期階段獲得財務授權可以在財富和福利方面產生重要的改善。

It's also worth noting that delegation's ability to improve wealth and well-being is increasingly relevant with increasing complexity.

同樣值得注意的是，隨著複雜性的增加，代表團改善財富和福祉的能力也越來越重要。

A single person saving just enough to max out their TFSA and investing in asset allocation ETFs doesn't have that much learning to do in order to manage their finances.

單身人士只需存夠 TFSA 的最高限額，並投資於資產配置 ETF，在理財方面並不需要學習太多。

But someone with a family, taxable investments, maybe even a family trust or a corporation, would have a much steeper learning curve, increasing the benefits of delegation.

但是，如果一個人有家庭，有應稅投資，甚至有家族信託或公司，他的學習曲線就會陡峭得多，從而增加授權的好處。

Retired investors may gain less from delegation, but another relevant issue is the potential for cognitive decline.

退休投資者從授權中獲得的收益可能較少，但另一個相關問題是認知能力下降的可能性。

Research has found that older people tend to underestimate their own cognitive decline, and that those who have experienced a severe cognitive decline but are unaware of it are more likely to suffer wealth losses compared to those who are aware or did not experience a severe decline.

研究發現，老年人往往會低估自己的認知能力衰退，與意識到或沒有經歷過嚴重衰退的人相比，經歷過嚴重認知能力衰退卻不自知的人更容易遭受財富損失。

The 2024 study, Are Older People Aware of Their Cognitive Decline?

2024 年研究 "老年人是否意識到自己的認知能力衰退？

Misperception and Financial Decision Making, examines data from the Health and Retirement Study, a representative panel of a U.S. population age 50+, to study the relationships between self-ratings of memory changes, assessed changes in memory performance, and wealth changes across waves of the survey.

誤解與財務決策》研究了健康與退休研究（Health and Retirement Study）的數據，該研究是對美國 50 歲以上人口的代表性小組調查，研究了記憶力變化的自我評價、記憶力表現的評估變化以及各波調查中財富變化之間的關係。

The results suggest a causal role of unawareness of cognitive decline for wealth losses, and that wealth losses among unaware respondents mainly reflect a decrease in the value of their riskier assets, like their stocks.

結果表明，不瞭解認知能力下降對財富損失具有因果關係，不瞭解認知能力下降的受訪者的財富損失主要反映了其風險較高的資產（如股票）價值的下降。

They also find that wealth losses are concentrated in the highest wealth quartiles.

他們還發現，財富損失主要集中在財富最高的四分位數。

The authors interpret their findings as the effects of overconfidence where people who have experienced cognitive decline but did not realize it end up making poor financial decisions.

作者將他們的研究結果解釋為過度自信的影響，即經歷過認知能力衰退但沒有意識到這一點的人最終做出了錯誤的財務決策。

On the topic of hiring a financial advisor, the authors do point out that delegation itself is not necessarily the solution, since deciding who to delegate to itself requires non-trivial cognitive skills.

關於聘請財務顧問的問題，作者確實指出，委託本身並不一定是解決辦法，因為決定委託給誰本身就需要非同一般的認知技能。

This is an important point.

這一點很重要。

Other research has found that more financially literate people are more likely to seek financial help from professionals, and that this effect is more pronounced among older and those with more wealth and more complex financial situations.

其他研究發現，財務知識更豐富的人更有可能向專業人士尋求財務幫助，這種效應在老年人、財富更多的人和財務狀況更復雜的人中更為明顯。

This result implies that financial literacy and financial advisory services are complementary rather than substitutes for each other, and that you should keep watching my videos.

這一結果表明，金融知識普及和金融諮詢服務是相輔相成的，而不是相互替代的。

Something that I have observed working at PWL Capital is that highly capable and financially literate people do often make the decision to delegate for many reasons.

我在 PWL Capital 工作時發現，能力出眾、精通財務的人往往會出於多種原因做出委派他人的決定。

A common one is increasing complexity coincident with the peak of a busy career.

常見的一種情況是，在繁忙的職業生涯達到頂峰時，工作變得越來越複雜。

Another common reason is to provide continuity for a less financially literate spouse in the event of an unexpected death or cognitive decline.

另一個常見的原因是，在配偶意外死亡或認知能力下降的情況下，為經濟能力較差的配偶提供連續性。

There are also behavioral reasons for hiring a financial advisor.

聘請財務顧問還有行為方面的原因。

Some research has suggested that financial advisors act as a commitment device for good financial decisions.

一些研究表明，財務顧問是良好財務決策的承諾工具。

One study found that German brokerage clients with self-control issues were more likely to delegate their decisions to financial advisors, and that over-trading for these investors decreased, their investment biases were mitigated, and their performance was improved.

一項研究發現，有自我控制問題的德國經紀客戶更傾向於將決策權委託給財務顧問，這些投資者的過度交易減少了，他們的投資偏差減輕了，業績也提高了。

Another study of German investors found that financial advice improves savings behavior, particularly for households with low self-control, and increases their allocation to stocks.

另一項針對德國投資者的研究發現，理財建議能改善儲蓄行為，尤其是對自控力較低的家庭而言，並能增加他們對股票的配置。

It is worth noting that not all financial advisors are the same, and many of them do have severe conflict of interest affecting the advice that they give.

值得注意的是，並不是所有的財務顧問都是一樣的，很多財務顧問確實存在嚴重的利益衝突，影響了他們提供的建議。

When seeking out a financial advisor, it's very important to ask how they are paid.

在尋找財務顧問時，詢問他們的薪酬是非常重要的。

In general, advice from someone receiving commissions in exchange for selling you financial products is at severe risk of being affected by conflict of interest.

一般來說，通過向您銷售金融產品而收取佣金的人所提供的建議極有可能受到利益衝突的影響。

Fee-based financial advisors who charge a direct fee for their ongoing advice mitigate many of these conflicts.

以收費為基礎的財務顧問對其持續提供的建議直接收取費用，從而緩解了許多此類衝突。

It is also worth asking if the advisor is held to a fiduciary standard.

還值得詢問的是，顧問是否遵守信託標準。

A fiduciary is required to act in your best interest, which seems like it should be table stakes for something as important as financial advice, but it is not.

受託人必須以您的最佳利益為出發點，這對於像財務建議這樣重要的事情來說似乎是理所當然的，但事實並非如此。

In Canada, there is no statutory fiduciary standard for financial advisors, but some professionals, including those registered as portfolio managers, are highly likely to be held to a fiduciary standard by the courts.

在加拿大，沒有針對財務顧問的法定信託標準，但一些專業人士，包括註冊為投資組合經理的專業人士，極有可能被法院要求遵守信託標準。

Hiring a financial advisor can make sense if delegation is valuable to you.

如果授權對您有價值，那麼聘請財務顧問是有意義的。

This can be the case if you're uncomfortable with investing in financial decision-making, or if you're comfortable but simply do not want to dedicate the time to managing them yourself.

如果您不習慣在財務決策方面進行投資，或者您很習慣但根本不想花時間自己管理，就會出現這種情況。

For many people, the choice to delegate is rational due to the opportunity cost of time, which could alternatively be dedicated to acquiring job-specific skills or leisure.

對許多人來說，由於時間的機會成本，選擇委派工作是合理的，因為這些時間可以用來學習特定的工作技能或休閒娛樂。

This is increasingly true with rising income, specialized skills, and as financial situations get increasingly complex.

隨著收入的增加、專業技能的提高以及財務狀況的日益複雜，這種情況也越來越明顯。

Hiring a financial advisor can also make sense to mitigate the risk of cognitive decline affecting your household's financial decisions as you age, and to act as a commitment device to reduce unwanted financial behaviors.

聘請理財顧問還可以降低認知能力下降對您年老時家庭財務決策的影響，並作為一種承諾工具，減少不必要的財務行為。

I'd be curious to know from those watching why they do or do not have a financial advisor.

我很想知道那些觀眾為什麼要或不要財務顧問。

You can tell me in the comments.

您可以在評論中告訴我。

Thanks for watching.

感謝觀看。

I'm Ben Felix, portfolio manager at PWL Capital.

我是 PWL Capital 投資組合經理本-費利克斯（Ben Felix）。

If you want to learn more about how PWL helps Canadians delegate their investing and financial decision-making, you can book a meeting with us below.

如果您想進一步瞭解 PWL 如何幫助加拿大人委託他人進行投資和財務決策，請在下方與我們預約會面。