Ethics and Trust in the Investment Profession

Why trust is the product the investment profession sells: what ethics is, how codes and standards define a profession, why investment management needs especially high standards, what pushes good people into bad decisions, how ethics differs from law, and a four-phase framework for deciding what to do.

1. 1. What ethics is: principles, codes and standardsEthics is a set of moral principles and rules of conduct that guide behaviour, asking us to weigh our own interest against the effects of our actions on everyone with a stake in them.Free12 min
2. 2. What makes a profession, and how it earns trustA profession is an occupational community with specialised education, expert knowledge and a framework of practice and behaviour, and its central goal is to earn the trust of clients and of society.13 min
3. 3. Professionalism and trust in investment managementInvestment management runs almost entirely on trust, because clients hand over assets and decisions they cannot easily judge, so high ethical standards are what make the business possible.13 min
4. 4. Why good people slip: challenges to ethical behaviourMost ethical lapses come not from bad character but from overconfidence in our own morality, underestimated situational pressures and a pull towards short-term rewards.12 min
5. 5. Ethical standards versus legal standardsLaws often write ethical behaviour into rules, but law and ethics only overlap: some legal acts are unethical, some ethical acts are illegal, and ethical standards usually ask for more.11 min
6. 6. A framework for ethical decision makingAn identify–consider–act–reflect framework makes you look at a decision from every stakeholder's angle before acting, so fewer choices have ethical consequences you did not see coming.Video · 5 min14 min