  I study a model of advisors with hidden motives: a seller discloses
information about an object's value to a potential buyer, who doesn't know the
object's value or how profitable the object's sale is to the seller (the
seller's motives). I characterize optimal disclosure rules, used by the seller
to steer sales from lower- to higher-profitability objects. I investigate the
effects of a mandated transparency policy, which reveals the seller's motives
to the buyer. I show that, by removing the seller's steering incentive,
transparency can dissuade the seller from disclosing information about the
object's value, and from acquiring that information in the first place. This
result refines our understanding of effective regulation in advice markets, and
links it to the commitment protocol in the advisor-advisee relation.
