New research flags major gaps in social media financial advice quality
Almost a third of finance-related videos on social media contain misleading content, according to new research that raises questions about where consumers – including prospective borrowers – are turning for financial guidance.
The analysis, by compliance and licensing firm Legalaes, examined 1,764 English-language finance videos across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, collectively drawing more than 692 million views.
It found 29% of the videos qualified as misleading under the study's criteria – defined as content promoting a paid product, suggesting specific returns, guaranteeing outcomes, or providing inaccurate or potentially damaging advice.
Misleading content draws bigger audiences
The data points to a troubling pattern: misleading videos significantly outperformed accurate ones, averaging 555,547 views compared with 326,170 for non-misleading content.
YouTube carried the highest share of misleading videos of any platform, at 41.8%, though the same platform also produced the highest share of accurate content, at 38.3% – a split the analysis attributes partly to YouTube hosting a wider mix of both professional and unregulated creators.
The Legalaes report notes that "a video can be both accurate and misleading" if it offers sound advice but also carries a risk signal, such as promoting a paid product alongside otherwise reasonable content.
Trading tips and technical analysis content proved the riskiest category overall, with 40.6% of videos in that space flagged as misleading, well above categories such as financial literacy education.
Qualifications and disclosures remain rare
Perhaps most striking, only 2.2% of the 1,266 individual content creators sampled held demonstrable, relevant financial qualifications, such as a Certified Financial Planner or Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Just 11.7% of videos included any disclaimer, either within the content itself or on the creator's profile. Around 16.6% of creators promoted their own products or services, a figure that rose to 32.8% among YouTube creators specifically.
The problem has drawn regulatory attention closer to home, too. In April, New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority (FMA) contacted 14 local finfluencers as part of a global crackdown involving 17 regulators, resulting in the removal of misleading content and some finfluencers scaling back services to New Zealanders.
That concern sits alongside a genuine advice gap: the FMA's own Access to Financial Advice Review found just 28% of New Zealanders obtained financial advice in the past 12 months – suggesting many are turning to unregulated social media content instead of a licensed adviser or broker.
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