Steven Lee, Ph.D.

About

Steven is the Sievert-Sternberg Doctoral Research Fellow at The American College of Financial Services.  He began the PhD program immediately following his graduation from Cal Lutheran's financial planning program with an M.B.A. in 2016.  In addition, Steven trains professional fiduciaries at the University of Riverside Extension Program.  He is also an arbitrator with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). 

His research focuses on misconduct in financial services, which includes FINRA/SEC disclosures, financial elder abuse, and other types of white-collar crime, specifically fraud.  In 2019, he won Best Paper Award in Risk Management at the CFP Board's Academic Research Colloquium.  His dissertation, titled, "Fraud in Financial Services and Its Impact on Retirement Portfolios" analyzes the different ways in which scammers shut-down the victim's perceived need to conduct proper due diligence on the investment program.  It also determines whether individuals are able to discern being defrauded with suffering market losses.  Lastly, his dissertation quantifies the impact that being defrauded has on one's retirement portfolio success rate using Monte Carlo analysis. 

Education

• 2022 - DCJ, Criminal Justice--White-Collar Crime, Northcentral University
• 2021 - PhD, Financial & Retirement Income Planning, The American College of Financial Services          
• 2016 - MBA, Personal Financial Planning, California Lutheran University
• 2008 - MTh, Dogmatic Theology, St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary
• 2006 - MA, Philosophy, Claremont Graduate University
• 2004 - BA, Liberal Arts, Austin College

Publications

• Lee, S. J., & Kramer, E. W. (2019). The forced registration of hedge funds in the United States. Economic Affairs, 39(3), 381– 390.
  https://doi.org/10.1111/ecaf.12378
  
• Derek T. Tharp, Jeffrey Camarda, Steven James Lee & Pieter J. de Jong (2020) Do CFP® professionals engage in less misconduct? Exploring the importance of job classification when comparing misconduct rates among financial service professionals, Applied Economics Letters, DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2020.1854441
  
• Lee, S. J., & Augusto, D. (2021). Crime in the U.S. epicenter of COVID-19. Crime Prevention and Community Safety, forthcoming.