Guidance for Standard VI: Conflicts of Interest

Standard VI, Conflicts of Interest: disclosing conflicts, putting clients and employers before your own trades, and disclosing referral fees.

1. 1. Standard VI: Conflicts of InterestAvoid conflicts where you can and disclose the rest clearly, trade for clients and the employer before yourself, and tell people when someone is paying for a referral.Video · 6 minFree14 min
2. 2. Standard VI(A) cases: avoiding and disclosing conflictsAsk whether something could reasonably cloud your objectivity or look biased; avoid it where you reasonably can, and otherwise disclose it prominently and in plain language to those who must judge it: clients, prospects and your employer.14 min
3. 3. Standard VI(B) and VI(C) cases: who trades first and who gets paidClients first, employer second, yourself last; personal trades must neither disadvantage clients nor use their information, and any payment or benefit for a recommendation, in either direction, must be disclosed before the client signs.15 min
4. 4. Standard VI cases: what is new in 2027The 2027 text adds a duty to mitigate a conflict and explain how, removes the materiality limit on conveying information about client transactions, and names clients as well as the employer in the reciprocal-referral case.11 min