At this writing, the SEC is pursuing one of the charges given it by Congress in the Dodd-Frank Act by attempting to decide whether to impose a uniform fiduciary obligation upon stock brokers and other professionals giving investment advice to customers or, among other options, to require brokers merely to disclose to customers that the brokers owe them no fiduciary duty. This Article draws upon the general literature of behavioral psychology and some fascinating new developments in the field of behavioral ethics to argue that disclosure in this narrow setting, and disclosure more generally as a default remedy for all manner of ills present in the financial system, are probably inadequate.
