Views on improving the integrity of global capital markets
18 April 2014

Ethical Dilemmas for Investment Advisers: Global Webinar Series Offers Framework for Thinking Ethically

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More than 1,100 people from 84 countries have participated in “Ethics Connection: A Webinar on Ethical Decision Making” since its introduction last year.  CFA Institute has held the free, highly interactive, live webinars twice monthly for the past several months to provide participants with a framework to analyze real-world situations in the investment business and choose the appropriate course of conduct. In response to the success of this course, CFA Institute is introducing a companion program:  “Ethical Decision-Making Webinar – Part II: Exploring Additional Case Studies.” The first session of “Part II” is scheduled for 23 April at 12 pm EST. Additional sessions will be offered monthly thereafter.

Part II of the course continues the popular format that encourages audience participation through poll questions, chat rooms, and the ability to participate in a verbal discussion of the cases with other attendees and the CFA Institute staff who lead each session. Participants from Argentina to Zimbabwe have offered positive input on the program on post-course evaluations. What aspects of the program did they find most helpful?

  • “The review and framework were helpful and being able to apply this to the case studies was extremely useful.”
  • “The ability for participants to respond to multiple choice questions and participate in [a] chat room [online] in real time during the seminar was a great feature.”
  • “The case studies and the [follow-on] discussion. The contributions made by attendees were really value adding.”

Nearly 100% of participants would recommend the course to colleagues.

Going forward, the Ethical Decision-Making webinar will be offered in two parts. Part I, the original program, examines the factors that lead well-meaning individuals to make unethical decisions, provides an introduction to ethical decision making, and walks through several case studies to give participants practice in applying the framework. Part II provides a brief review of the concepts introduced in Part I before exploring additional case studies. We recommend participating in a Part I session before registering for Part II. Both live courses are repeated monthly.

These courses give participants an increased understanding of the fundamental ethical principles applicable to investment professionals and how to make those principles a key factor in everyday decision making and action. Clients highly value investment professionals they can trust, and investment professionals, in turn, can gain client trust by demonstrating honesty, integrity, and ethical behavior. By making ethical conduct a priority, these webinars will help you improve client relationships by building confidence and trust, limit reputational and regulatory risks, and solidify your company’s ethical culture.

Register now.


Photo credit: iStockphoto.com/maxkabakov

About the Author(s)
Jon Stokes

Jon Stokes is the director of Professional Standards at CFA Institute. His responsibilities include developing, maintaining, and providing interpretation on the organization’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct, Asset Manager Code of Professional Conduct, and other ethics codes and standards. He has designed and created on-line ethics education programs for CFA Institute, including the CFA Institute Ethical Decision-Making and Giving Voice to Values education programs. Stokes has led numerous in-person and online ethics trainings for members, societies, and investment professionals and contributes to the ethics curriculum at all three levels of the CFA Program. He holds a JD degree.

2 thoughts on “Ethical Dilemmas for Investment Advisers: Global Webinar Series Offers Framework for Thinking Ethically”

  1. cesta says:

    What is the cost of the courses?
    Do I have to be a member of CFA in order to qualify?

  2. Jon Stokes, JD says:

    Courses are free and open to anyone.

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