Financial Literacy Among Investors

The Private Client Legal Committee of SIFMA provides comments to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the SEC’s study regarding financial literacy among investors, Release No. 34-6614; File No. 4-645.  SIFMA and its members have worked for many years to increase investors’ understanding of finance, investments, and the markets through various financial literacy and investor education initiatives. Much of this important work is performed by the SIFMA Foundation.  Section 917 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) requires the SEC to conduct a study of financial literacy among investors.  As the SEC moves forward, SIFMA strongly urges the SEC to recognize that more disclosure is not better disclosure.  SIFMA offers detailed recommendations including,  the SEC study should focus on several key aspects of financial disclosure h disclosure is effective. In particular, the study should consider the ways investors use and access information from their service providers, particularly in light of technological advances that should be harnessed to improve delivery of information to investors.