Fundementals Flashcards
What are the standards of professional conduct?
Code of Ethics and Practice Standards
Candidate Fitness Standards
Disciplinary Rules
What is financial advice?
Communication
Recommendation of action (or refrain from action)
Examples:
- how to manage portfolio
- how to manage assets
- selection and retention of other experts
- having discretionary authority
If they call you up and ask you to buy something, not advise
What is financial planning?
Collaborative
maximize the clients potential for meeting life goals through financial advice
Relevant elements
More extensive than advice
Review this chart.
What is required when you are providing financial advice? Financial planning?
Financial Advice
- Fiduciary duty
- Disclose and manage conflicts
- Provide info to clients
- Duties when recommending, engaging, and working with additional person
Financial Planning?
- Practice standards for FP
- Info to clients in Writing
What’s included on the Code of Ethics?
- Act with honesty, integrity, competence, and diligence
- act in the clients best interest
- exercise due care
- avoid or disclose and manage conflicts of interest
- maintain the confidentiality and protect the privacy of client info
- act in a manner that reflects positively on FP and CFP cert
What is the CE requirement for CFP?
30 hours every 2 years. 2 of these hours must be ethics
How do you use the CFP marks approprately?
Erin Little, CFP(R)
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER (tm) (All Caps)
Don’t use in parenthesis
If written, it’s followed by a noun:
- professional
- certificant
- practitioner
- certification
- mark
- exam
DO NOT use CFP in your email or url
What are the Standards of Conduct?
- duties owed to the client
- financial planning and application of the practice standards for financial planning process
- practice standards
What’s included with duties owed to the client?
Read A.1 - A.15!!!!
What are the components of fiduciary duty?
Duty of loyalty: clients interests before CFP, avoid conflicts of interest,
Duty of Care
Duty to follow client instructions
What are important things about avoiding conflicts of interest?
This is part of the duty of loyalty
Must fully disclose material conflicts
Must get the clients informed consent
What is the duty of care?
Care, skill, prudence, diligence
understanding their full situation, not just finances. Understand their personal circumstances
What are examples of conflicts of interest?
compensation
limited product set
proprietary funds
paid referrals
How do you inform the client about confidentiality and privacy?
Written
What are exceptions to the confidentiality and privacy rules?
for ordinary business purposes (client oks)
for legal and enforcement purposes
- defend against wrondoing
- audits
- subpoena (court approved)
Memorize this chart
When financial planning, what is the document that you need to provide that isn’t required with financial advice?
Terms of engagement - implementing, monitoring, updating, what’s excluded.
What are requirements around client payment?
If you, firm, or related party receive pay:
- Make sure to cover this before payment:
– product management fees
– surrender charges
Where do you typically put information about client payment?
ADV part 2
engagement letter
brokerage agreement
offering docs
prospectus
Can be in multiple places.. important thing is that it is very clear
What do you need to do if you file bankruptcy or had public discipline?
Disclose it to the client and disclose it on all relevant web-sites
- broker check (FINRA)
- IAPD (SEC)
- CFP.net (if board related issue)
What must you update annually with the SEC?
ADV
Privacy policy
What do you need to do if you have a material change in your business?
Material change: compensation policy, etc
Notify board within 30 days
Notify clients within 90 days
What does a FP terms of engagement need to include?
Scope
limitations (stuff you won’t do)
period of engagement
the clients responsibility
A CFP is responsible for implementing, monitoring, and updating the FP unless specifically excluded
How is sales related compensation defined?
12b-1 fees
transaction fees
revenue sharing
referral fees
What is the definition of Financial Planning?
A collaborative process that helps maximize a clients potential for meeting life goals through financial advice that integrates relevant elements of the clients personal and financial circumstances
What are relevant elements?
- manage cashflow
- identify and manage risk
- educational needs
- financial security
- tax consideration
- retirement
- philanthropic
What are integration factors and why are they important?
The more you are involved in them the more impact the advice has on the portfolio, the more likely that it’s financial advice
Factors include:
- Portion and amount of assets
- length of time the client might be affected
- effect on client’s overall exposure to risk
- barriers to modify
What is the financial planning process?
Uber is a drunk persons immediate motor vehicle
Understand
Identify
Analyze
Develop recommendations
Present
Implement
Monitor
What is prohibition on circumvention?
you’re prohibited to get someone else to do something that you’re not allowed to do.
What is motivational interviewing?
Conveys empathy and acceptance
focus on partnerships, evocation, acceptance, compassion
Basically help them to come to the right conclusion
What are the fitness standards?
How the CFP board judges if you are fit to be a CFP. They look at:
Conduct that is unacceptable
Conduct that is presumed to be unacceptable
Other conduct that might reflect adversely
What is conduct that is deemed unacceptable?
Can’t be a cfp!
Certain Felony CONVICTIONS
- theft, embezzlement, tax fraud, financial crimes
- murder/rap
- violent crime in the past 5 years
Revocation of financial professional license
(unless you forgot to renew your license
What conduct would be deemed a presumptive bar?
You have an option to petition
Presumptive bar if:
- two or more personal or business bankruptcy*
- felony conviction of violent crimes more than 5 years ago
- nonviolent crimes
– perjury, within 5 years
- REVOCATION or suspension of a non-financial professional license (real estate)
- SUSPENSION of a financial professional license
*bankruptcies are still disclosed on the CFP board website
What’s the process if the CFP is reviewing a presumptive bar
They review evidence
hearing panel recommends to DEC (Disciplinary Ethics Commission)
DEC reviews and accepts, rejects or modifies
DEC issues final order to grant or deny or impose temporary bar or permanent bar
CFP Board publishes
If you’re suspended for more than one year, when can you file a written petition for reinstatment?
after 6 month or before 5 years
Hearing panel and DEC review
What are the reporting requirements for bankruptcy?
Report it to CFP Board in 30 days
to clients in 90 days and on all relevant public websites
Alternatively, you can report it to the board then pay the hearing fee and try to convince them it’s not a problem
If 2 bankruptcies, must report and you follow the normal disciplinary procedure
According to the Investment Advisor act of 1940, when are you giving investment advice?
ABC
When giving Advice
As part of your Business
and you receive Compensation
At what AUM level do you register with the state versus the SEC?
> $100m - State
$100m-$110m - choose
<$110m - SEC
This is from the 2010 Dodd Frank act
Midsize advisors are between $25m and $100m
What are the registrations processes for RIAs?
File form ADV with SEC
Withdraw with form ADV-W
What is form ADV part 1A and B?
Filed annually with SEC (doesn’t need to go to client)
Firm name
background (executives)
Facts about FINRA?
Not actually a gov organization
What is part 2 of the ADV?
Client brochure
Includes:
-firm and advisor info
-compensation and fees
-education
-investment objectives and strategies
-conflicts of interest
What is ADV part 3?
client relationship summary
conflicts of interest
written in plain English
Who has an exception and does not need to register?
Make an exception for your TABLE
Don’t have to register, not subject to fraud statutes
banks, bank holding companies that aren’t investment companies
any broker dealer whose advisory services are solely incidental
lawyers, accountants, teachers, engineers that provide incidental advice
Teachers
Accountants
Bankers/brokers
Lawyers
Engineers
Publishers of bona fide
What are exemptions for investment advisor registrations?
Don’t have to register, are subject to fraud statutes
Advisors whose clients reside in their state and they do not provide advice
Advisors providing advice to securities not on the national exchange
Only clients are insurance companies
only clients are venture capital funds
only clients are private funds less than $150m
foreign advisors without a place of business
VIPS are SaFE from exemptions
Venture capitalists
Insurance companies
Private funds
S
Foreign
Exchanges
What is the brochure rule?
What form do you use to register with FINRA?
U-4
What exam do you need to pass to sell mutual funds, UITs and variables (life insurance and annuities)
Series 6
The more vertical the demand curve, the more…
Inelastic. Peopler are indifferent to the price.
Gas, milk, etc
What will shift the demand curve?
increase or decrease in
-income
-taxes
-savings rate
-disposable income