11. Technical Skills—Fortify Your Brand

Jensen, M. C., & Meckling, W. H. (1976). Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs, and ownership structure. Journal of Financial Economics, 3(4), 305–360.

Camarda, J. (2017). Relationship between Financial Advisory Designations and FINRA Misconduct. This research also includes the ChFC as an ethical designation and is another option for someone who does not want to sit for the CFP® examination. This analysis is robust since advisor misconduct is measurable, monitored, and disclosed to the public by FINRA based on RR U4 disclosures. The analysis was made possible by Eagan et al. (2016) who built a comprehensive database by accessing individual RRs’ BrokerCheck records, one at a time, in order to overcome FINRA’s reporting limits. They found that 12% of RRs have misconduct disclosures, and 7% have been disciplined for misconduct or fraud who are also five times more likely to be repeat offenders. They also found misconduct more prevalent with elderly and high-income retail clients.

Goldin, C. (2014). A grand gender convergence: Its last chapter. The American Economic Review, 104(4), 1091–1119.

Wilson, F. (2003). Can compute, won’t compute: Women’s participation in the culture of computing. New Technology, Work and Employment, 18(2), 127–142.

For a meta-analysis, see Hyde et al. (1990).

Nelson, J. A. (2014). The power of stereotyping and confirmation bias to overwhelm accurate assessment: The case of economics, gender, and risk aversion. Journal of Economic Methodology, 21(3), 211–231.