D14 - Household Saving; Personal FinanceReturn

The article deals with the analysis of the cost of retail investment products, with a focus on prepaid entry fees. These form the basis of the initial remuneration for the investment advisory service and at the same time also a significant cost item, reducing the value of the investment in the first years. The article models their effect in a broader context, not only as a simple mathematical difference between two otherwise similar investment programs. In particular, the behavioral dimension is taken into account, both in the form of the so-called behavioral gap, advisory alpha and also excessive conservatism of Czech investors. These factors are quantified on the basis of literature inputs and a quantitative model is compiled using them. The result is the finding that despite the higher fee burden, it is advantageous for an investor burdened with a behavioral gap and excessively conservative allocation to accept the advantageous market costs of investment advice. Assuming that this service delivers a surplus yield (alpha), the investment result is ultimately significantly positive for the average consumer.

This paper presents a large-scale study that deals with tax literacy and represents the largest research contribution published to date in this area. The study results indicate that approximately one-third of secondary school pupils do not know the basic VAT rate or how important this tax is for the state budget. Only one in ten pupils noted that personal income tax includes two bands of the rate. The results come from questionnaire surveys at domestic secondary schools with the participation of almost 500 pupils from five types of secondary schools analyzed using the chi-square test of independence method. The gender factor does not affect the tax literacy of secondary school students (p-value 0.8407); on the contrary, tax literacy differs depending on the type of school attended (p-value 0) and, at the same time, dependence between the level of tax literacy and the pupil's relationship to taxes (p-value 0.0142) has been demonstrated.

The article is focused on insurance products related to the indebtedness of Czech households in the area of consumer loans. The aim of this paper is, with the help of defined assumptions, to analyse the product payment protection insurance, its benefit to the final client and identify its appropriate use in the event of an economically rationally behaving entity. The authors analyse insurance conditions and define the pros and cons of insurance for supply-side and demand-side, and also focuses on information asymmetry. For completeness, the text is supplemented also in terms of cost of insurance, through the APR and development of acquisition costs for insurance contracts. Results of the analysis indicate not suitably configured product for clients, as evidenced by the low long-term value of loss ratio indicator, and information superiority on the supply side.