Views on improving the integrity of global capital markets
11 January 2018

Ethics in Practice: Performance, Footnotes and Benchmarks. Case for Week of 8 January

CFA Institute Ethical Decision-Making Framework

Analysis now posted! How did your answer compare?

Happy New Year! Ready to get back into practicing your ethical decision-making skills? Read on, and then be sure to let us know what choice you believe is right.

Case

Howard Young is CEO, portfolio manager, and sole owner of Stewardship Investment Advisers (SIA), a registered investment adviser with more than $154 million assets under management and over 250 discretionary accounts. For several years, Young has distributed marketing materials to clients and potential clients that contain gross-of-fee performance for returns on SIA’s managed portfolios. Young believes that gross-of-fees calculations are the most relevant because management fees are negotiable and can vary by client. Young includes a footnote at the end of the brochure disclosing that advisory fees would have to be netted out to show actual performance. The marketing material also includes a table that compares percentage increases in the S&P 500 Index with percentage increases in SIA’s performance. SIA’s performance includes the reinvestment of dividends. Young believes that the S&P 500 is the most appropriate and understandable benchmark because it is commonly reported in the financial press and recognizable by his clients. Has Young engaged in misconduct by using gross-of-fee returns or showing the S&P 500 performance? Join the conversation and tell us what you believe is the correct answer and use the Ethical Decision-Making Framework to help explain your choice.

  1. Young is guilty of misconduct in showing gross-of-fee performance.
  2. Young is NOT guilty of misconduct in showing gross-of-fee performance.
  3. Young is guilty of misconduct in providing the S&P 500 as a benchmark.
  4. Young is NOT guilty of misconduct in providing the S&P 500 as a benchmark.

Analysis

This case involves the presentation of performance history. CFA Institute Standard III(D): Performance Presentation states that “when communicating investment performance information, members must make reasonable efforts to ensure that it is fair, accurate, and complete.” The goal is to provide credible performance information to clients and prospective clients and to avoid misstating performance or providing misleading performance information. Absent legal or regulatory provisions prohibiting such conduct, presenting gross-of-fee performance results is acceptable as long as there is clear disclosure that relevant fees must be deducted to get the actual performance history. It is unclear from the facts presented whether Young’s footnote is prominent or clear enough to be sufficient to meet this standard. Best practice would be to present both gross-of-fee and net-of-fee performance histories, or in some other way, prominently show the effect of the fees so that the performance information meets the “fair, accurate, and complete” requirement of Standard III(D).

Similarly, presenting a table that includes the S&P 500 performance as a benchmark for returns may be appropriate under certain circumstances. But when it is used as a benchmark for firm performance history that includes reinvested dividends, as in this case, it would not be an “apples-to-apples” comparison and would likely be misleading because the S&P 500 performance history does not include reinvested dividends. If Young wants to use the commonly reported S&P 500 returns over time as his benchmark, he should ensure the SIA’s returns are calculated in a comparable way. At minimum, there should be prominent disclosures of any differences between the benchmark’s and the firm’s returns. It is unclear from the facts presented whether Young has made the necessary disclosures regarding the benchmark. So, to judge whether there has been any misconduct, a thorough examination of the presentation material would be necessary to determine whether Young is presenting performance that is fair, accurate, and complete or whether his presentation misstates performance and is misleading.

This case is based on a CFA Institute Professional Conduct enforcement action.

Have an idea for a case for us to feature? Send it to us at [email protected].


More About the Ethics in Practice Series

Just as you need to practice to become proficient at playing a musical instrument, public speaking, or playing a sport, practicing assessing and analyzing situations and making ethical decisions develops your ethical decision-making skills. To promote “ethical exercise,” we are excited to introduce Ethics in Practice.

Each week, we post a short vignette, drawn from real-world circumstances, regulatory cases, and CFA Institute Professional Conduct investigations, along with possible responses/actions. We then encourage you to assess the case through the lens of the Ethical Decision-Making Framework and the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct and let us know which of the choices you believe is the right thing to do and why. If you are not a CFA Institute member, you can post your choice and reasoning in the comments section below. For CFA Institute members, we would like you to join the conversation in our new Member App and post your responses there. Later in the week, we will post an analysis of the case and you can see how your response compares.

CFA Institute Member App

The Member App gives CFA Institute members access to a content from multiple CFA Institute publications, including these weekly Ethics in Practice posts. Best of all, the app allows in-app submission of Continuing Education credits, which members can earn by reading and participating in the conversation for each case. (0.25 CE, 0.25 SER). The app is available in the Apple and Google Play stores. After downloading, simply log in using your CFA Institute website credentials (e.g., [email protected] + password).

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Image Credit: ©CFA Institute

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.

1 thought on “Ethics in Practice: Performance, Footnotes and Benchmarks. Case for Week of 8 January”

  1. Patricia Sawyers says:

    Young is not guilty of misconduct by showing gross-of -fees performance, assuming trading expenses were subtracted. His footnote disclosure to explain his reporting could be considered adequate.

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