Motley Fool: The financial services market is broken

Oh, it might be working 'efficiently' and exactly as you would expect a 'market' to behave -- but only the most extreme of free-market ideologues would suggest that the industry is a net positive for our country in its current shape.

An unregulated financial services market would lead straight to shysterism, dishonesty and the triumph of the white shoe brigade. It would happily make its fortune on the back of uninformed, misinformed and trusting consumers; ripping them off blind in the process.

That's the free market at work, people.

Now, I'm all for capitalism. And I work for a company that's happily putting out its shingle to provide investment advice. And I happen to think that our system of democratic capitalism is the most productive and useful system that's yet been invented.

But as a society, we have rules and laws to moderate the behaviour of the otherwise free will of our citizens. You can't kill, steal or defraud. There's a basic level of ethics built into the way we expect each other to behave, codified by law... even if it is an ass.

But when you have rapid innovation or massive complexity, the law generally struggles to keep up. Witness the slow pace of approval for Uber as an example, or the challenge of dealing with 'too big to fail' banks.

A market in need of tighter regulation

And, whether by ideological preference, sloth or an inability to understand the situation, our governments continue to let us down when it comes to financial services. It's fine to mandate superannuation. It's great that more Australians are saving and investing to build their financial futures. But the captain is asleep at the wheel when it comes to making sure the resulting boom in financial services meets basic societal expectations.

As we've seen in scandal after scandal (after scandal), the financial services industry tends -- on the whole -- to attract people who want to make a buck by -- to not put too fine a point on it -- fleecing individual investors.

Want some financial advice? Sure, that'll cost you many thousands of dollars… each year. Want to invest in Australian shares? Forget about that ultra-low cost fund that matches the market performance, here's one that costs almost 10 times as much and will -- on average -- give you an inferior return.

The financial services industry exists to charge as much as it can get away with, to as many people as it can convince should pay.

And, due to the relatively low level of financial literacy among Australians when it comes to investing generally and superannuation in particular, most of them get away with it.

But surely a business is entitled to make a profit, right? And any decent business would charge as much as it can get away with, wouldn't it? Yes, and yes. The problem here is that consumers are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to financial services.

Choosing between Coke and Pepsi is a simple, straightforward choice. Price, brand, quality, flavour. We are used to making such choices. And while I might think paying $200 for a pair of jeans is pretty silly when you can buy a different pair for $50, those shelling out the big bucks are doing so knowing exactly what they're being offered, what the alternatives are, and why they're doing it.

Not so with financial services.

Sign here, and pay up, big

Have you been to a financial planner recently? He or she will likely charge you a few thousand each year, just for the privilege of slightly tweaking last year's plan. The financial products chosen will be from a carefully curated list supplied by their company -- with strange names, and impenetrable product disclosure statements… if you even ask for them.

Those products will cost you even more in fees -- and will likely deliver inferior results.

And, thanks to a vested interest in keeping you in the dark, you'll likely be none the wiser.

A mate of mine recently asked his adviser a simple question: what are my average returns, relative to a market benchmark. Three emails and a bunch of indecipherable information later, he finally found out that he'd lagged the market -- badly.

I have no beef with financial planners earning a decent living. While there are a lot who simply (legally) skim your portfolio to pay for their cars, boats and holidays. I'm pleased to say there are a (small) number of planners who genuinely deliver performance for their pay.

And where planners come into their own is when it comes to structuring your financial life -- estate planning, insurance and tax, in particular.

Foolish takeaway

Want to know if your planner is one of the good ones? Next time you speak to him or her, ask two simple questions: Why am I not invested in an ultra-low cost index fund, and just what are you doing to justify your multi-thousand dollar bill each year.

If you have your BS detector turned on, you'll pretty quickly find out whether they are on the level. For most of you, it'll be an uncomfortable discovery.

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Scott Phillips is a Motley Fool investment advisor. You can follow Scott on Twitter @TMFScottP. The Motley Fool's purpose is to educate, amuse and enrich investors. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691).