Distinguished Visiting Speaker: Following the Pied Piper of Pensioners | Academic Seminar

July 10, 2026

• Title: Following the Pied Piper of Pensioners | Academic Seminar: Finance
• Speaker: Marc Daniel Bernhardt | Investors in Business Education Distinguished Professor, Gies College of Business | Professor of Finance at University of Illinois and the University of Warwick
• Date: Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019
• Time: 2:00 PM
• Room: LH4114 (LSBE Dean's Boardroom)

Summary

Using survey and administrative data, we study followers of H&L, a massively popular Chilean pension advisor, establishing that financial literacy is not a panacea for poor retirement decision-making. We find that followers are wealthy, well-educated and truly financially sophisticated. Indeed, exposure to H&L increases financial sophistication and likelihood of additional voluntary savings. Nonetheless, followers are badly hurt by H&L’s advice, earning mean annual returns that are 1.4-1.9% below all buy-and-hold strategies, and they are aware of this underperformance. Moreover, performance does not materially affect renewal rates, and 77% renew. Perversely, reasons given for following are: high returns, loss minimization and trust.

Biography

Dan Bernhardt is the IBE Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Illinois and a Professor at the University of Warwick. He has a PhD in Economics from Carnegie Mellon University. Bernhardt's research is focused on indusrtial organization, finance, and political economy.