The committee will become active in January 2014 and will advise senior staff at FINRA on proposed rulemaking, policy initiatives and other issues that impact both retail and institutional investors. It will also help inform FINRA's economic analysis from the perspective of investors, the authority said. 

Dr Madrian, the Aetna Professor of public policy and corporate management at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Dr Viceira, the George Bates Professor at the Harvard Business School, will join the board in January 2014.

Dr Madrian's current research focuses on behavioral economics and household finance, with a focus on household saving and investment behavior.  

Dr Viceira, FINRA said, is interested in the study of asset allocation strategies for long-term investors , capital markets , and household finance.  

Other members on the new committee include: Brandon Becker, executive vice president and chief legal officer, TIAA-CREF; James Choi, associate professor of finance, Yale School of Management; Roger Ganser, chairman, BetterInvesting; founder and managing director, Venture Investors; Lawrence Greenberg, chief legal officer, The Motley Fool; Catherine Heron, former senior vice president and senior counsel, Fund Business Management Group, Capital Research and Management Company; and Mark Ready, department chair for finance, investments and banking and academic director of the Hawk Center for Applied Security Analysis, University of Wisconsin School of Business.

As well as: Barbara Roper, Director of Investor Protection, Consumer Federation of America; Paul Roye, senior vice president, Fund Business Management Group, Capital Research and Management Company; Nancy Smith, corporate secretary and chief integration officer, AARP; Elisse Walter, former chairman, US Securities and Exchange Commission; and Stephen Williams, former senior special advisor to the director, trading and markets, US Securities and Exchange Commission.