Financial literacy affects wealth accumulation, and pension planning plays a key role in this relationship. In a large field experiment, we employ a digital pension aggregation tool to confront a treatment group with a simplified overview of their current pension claims across all pillars of the pension system. We combine survey and administrative bank data to measure the effects on actual saving behavior. Access to the tool decreases pension uncertainty for treated individuals. Average savings increase especially for the financially less literate. We conclude that simplification of pension information can potentially reduce disparities in pension planning and savings behavior.

We provide evidence of a positive causal link between financial knowledge acquired through business education and returns on stock investments. Using exogenous variation generated by admission thresholds to university business programs in Sweden, we document that early investments in financial sophistication causes individuals to invest significantly more in the stock market, to earn higher portfolio returns, and to end up accumulating higher levels of wealth. Investments in financial sophistication at the launch of economic life thus significantly alters the life cycle wealth profiles of individuals.

We study how bankers affect financial decisions of their social connections. Register data from Finland allow us to relate professional transitions into the banking industry to the financial decisions of the newly appointed banker’s family members. This within-individual identification strategy reveals a strong positive effect on financial market participation. The banker effect declines in social distance, emanates largely from nonparticipating individuals, and is stronger for riskier assets. Market participants appear unaffected. Additional results suggest bankers’ sales skills are instrumental for effecting change rather than their financial knowledge solely. These insights are relevant for understanding the design of policies attempting to improve financial literacy, the impact and value of financial advice, and the nature of expertise in financial markets.