Code of Ethics
PDF versionThe exercise of the profession of Independent Consultant in Financial Investments in all absence of conflicts of interest is an activity of science and of public usefulness.
The trust is at the base of the professional relations of the independent consultant in financial investments.
The indipendent consultant in financial investments has to behave with good faith, correctness, loyalty, sincerity and transparence.
For these reasons an exact normativeness regulates the relations and the behaviours of the consultants who adhere to ACOFIIN and is expressed in the Code of Ethics.
RULES OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
INTRODUCTION
The exercise of the profession of Independent Consultant in Financial Investments in all absence of conflicts of interest is an activity of science and of public usefulness.
The title of Indipendent Consultant in Financial Investments must be indicated in full.
The trust is at the base of the professional relations of the independent consultant in financial investments.
The independent consultant in financial investments has to behave with good faith, correctness, loyalty, sincerity and transparence.
Article1. The nature of the ethical rules
The nature of the present code is that of internal regulation of the Academy of Independent Consultancy in Financial Investments – A C O F I I N.
They are rules of conduct characterised by an ethical-social content with obligatory value.
The independent consultant in financial investments has to watch those rules in the development of the professional activity.
Article 2. Field of application
The ethical rules apply to all the independent consultants in financial investements in their activity, in the reports between them and in the reports with third persons.
The rules are also applicable to the apprentices.
Article 3. Independence and objectivity
The independent consultant in financial investment cannot, in any case, renounce his freedom
and professional independence.
The independent consultant in financial investments entrusts his reputation to his own conscience,
objectiveness, competence and professional ethics, with liberation of material, moral, political and
ideological enslavement, rejecting each external influence of any kind and/or nature.
There is no discrimination of religion, race, nationality, political ideology, gender or social class.
Article 4. Integrity
The conduct of the independent consultant in financial investments must be appropriate to the dignity and to the decorum of the profession, even outside the professional engagement.
He has to refrain from any action that could bring discredit to the prestige of the profession and to the Association to which he belongs.
The independent consultant in financial investment ought to regularly fulfill the assumed obligations towards third persons, to not compromise the trust of those same persons towards the persons who practice the profession.
Article 5. Secrecy
The independent consultant in financial investments, undertakes the observance of professional secrecy. Furthermore than respecting the professional secrecy, he complies with an attitude of reserve in relation to news learnt during the relation with his own clients or even news learnt by accident or better even if it regards the personal sphere of the client or of those who are tied to him with a family, economic bond or of another nature.
Article 6. Professional updating
The indipendent consultant in financial investments has the obligation of continuous and constant professional updating.
The independent consultant in financial investments has moreover the duty of continuous personal vocational training.
He also has the duty to know and respect all the legislative dispositions and regulations governing his activity.
Article 7. Reports with other professionals
The independent consultant in financial investments excercising the profession together with other professionals, or making use of experts, not necessarily registered in professional registers, for the execution of a task, needs to make sure that these adopt compatible conducts following the ethical rules contained in the present code.
Article 8. Reports between colleagues
The independent consultant in financial investments ought to behave with correctness, regard, courtesy, politeness and discretion, with the colleagues. Manifestations of courtesy and regard are the timeliness and the promptness in the relations with the colleagues.
Also manifestations of courtesy and regard is the discretion on the typology of the colleague's clientele, the abstinence of doing, between colleagues, questions of personal, professional, economic nature and similar which the good sense , the education and the professional ethics define secretive, personal and/or sensitive.
The independent consultant in financial investments cannot use improper and offensive expressions while carrying out his professional activity, neither.in reprisal toward the incorrect conduct of colleagues or of third persons.
The young independent consultant in financial investments needs to act with regard to the senior colleague, who, with suggestions and advice, is his guide and model in the practice of the profession.
The independent consultant in financial investments has to keep himself from expressing judgement or from starting susceptible actions damaging the reputation of the colleagues, without a founded motive.
The independent consultant in financial investments cannot put himself directly in contact with a client, who he knows is assisted by another colleague, without his consent.
That also applies in reference to the relations between colleagues on the inside of an associated
study and to the relations between colleagues terminating a contract or to the agreement of
professional association existing between them.
Article 9. To succeed to a colleague
The independent consultant in financial investements, who is called to substitute a colleague in the execution of a professional task, must abide by the procedures and correct formalities and behave with loyalty.
Except particular impediments, matters of urgency, of hardship or other severe reasons, the independent consultant in financial investments must respect the following dispositions.
a)verify that the client has informed the colleague about the own will of substituting him.
b)invite the client to pay the competences due to the preceding colleague.
The independent consultant in financial investments who is substituted by another colleague must lend the incoming one full collaboration and do his best so that the substitution happens without prejudice for the client or for the third persons directly involved.
In case of suspension, or of another temporary impediment of an independent consultant in financial investments, the colleague by him designated and called to substitute him, in a temporary way and/or predetermined period, takes care of the management of the office of the suspended and the occluded with particular diligence and does his best to keep its characteristics.
In case of decease of a colleague, the indipident consultant in financial investments, if previously designated by that colleague to substitute him, can take the task, except justified impediment.
The substitution is only possible in cases in which the deceased colleague preventively informed his own clientele and the third persons directly involved with his future intentions and after having received the preventive written consent from all the parties, introduces the colleague who will succeed him.
The successor must act with particular diligence towards the clientele of the deceased colleague and, and if they expressly requested it , he must also act with regard to the interests of the widow of the deceased colleague or to those of his children, who remained orphans from both parents, who are autonomously not capable of providing for their maintenance and more precisely, and exclusively, in case they are disabled and/or unable.
Article 10. Assistance to clients having different interests
The independent consultant in financial investments who in the completion of the received task from his client and through him comes into contact with other professionals with whom he has to behave according to the principles and the general rules of collegiality, taking care, with particular attention, that motives of personal and/or professional contrast haven't to be created.
The independent consultant in financial investments does not express opinions or critical judgements about the colleague's work or about the work from other professionals, even from other sectors, and uses maximum moderation when opinion contrasts about the technical formalities of the execution of a task arise.
Article 11. Corrispondence between colleagues
The independent consultant in financial investments can not divulge written documents or confidential informations, received, even occasionally, from a colleague or from other professionals.
A conversation cannot be divulged or recorded, without the consent of the colleague or, if it concerns conferences, without the consent of all the participants.
In case of distance communications the possible participation of third persons must be notified to the interlocutors.
Article 12. Reports with the clients
The safeguard of the just interests of the client can never lead to conducts that have no regard for correctness and loyalty.
The independent consultant in financial investments, in particular, doesn't gain profit from the impediment of the colleague, nor does he make use of confidential information or written documents of confidential nature, that he gave him.
Article 13. Acceptance of the task
The independent consultant in financial investments must promptly inform the client with his decision of accepting the task or not.
The independent consultant in financial investments must make an effort, when possible, in order that the task will be conferred to him in writing so to specify its limits and contents, also with the objective to define the field of the own activities.
It is however opportune that the independent consultant in financial investments, who has received a verbal task, to give the client written confirmation of it.
The independent consultant in financial investments that accepts a task must correspond and assure the request of a specific competence and also of an adequate organisation of the study.
Article 14. Execution of the task
The independent consultant in financial investments has to use the diligence and expertise requested from the rules that regulate the professional report in the time and place in which it is executed.
The indipendent consultant in financial investments has to, promptly, illustrate the client with simplicity and precision the essential elements of the own activity.
He must also, during the task and with regular periodicity, give the client a report of the activity carried out for him, inform the client in a punctual manner about the events that can have influence of partial or substantial modification on the possibilities defined with the client and from which a strategy of approach to the markets and/or investments has originated.
The independent consultant in financial investments must set the the client's interests above his own.
The application of such a principle cannot, in any case, influence the dignity and the decorum of the professional and limit the right to his compensation.
The independent consultant in financial investments may not exceed, except in cases of urgent necessity, the limits of the task given to him.
He must, however, assume the initiatives with caution and execute all the suitable activities with the goal and objective as well as the expected result agreed on with the client.
The independent consultant in financial investments called by the client to examin a portfolio of financial products and instruments proposed to him and/or created for him by intermediary and/or operators, if it appears that this portfolio is a monomark or almost one and in any case doesn't include relevant products and services offered on the market from other Italian and/or foreign operators, is expressly obligated to communicate such a fact in writing to the Client highlighting the obvious conflict of interest of the operator during the execution of the received task.
The independent consultant in financial investments never and in any case assumes personal interests or profit sharings of economic nature deriving from third persons.
The independent consultant in financial investments who receives a professional task has as only source of income, for the received task, the fee he will invoice the assisted client.
Article 15. Cessation of the assignment
The independent consultant in financial investments doesn't have to carry on with the task if circumstances or constraints that could influence his freedom of judgement or condition his work.
The independent consultant in financial investments doesn't have to go on with the task if the conduct or the client's requests, or other severe motives, hamper the correct execution of it.
The independent consultant in financial investments, who is not able to continue the task with specific competence, for occuring modifications to the nature and difficulty of the assignment, has to inform the client and ask, depending on the cases, for the withdrawal of the assignment.
In case there is intention to withdrawal of a received assignment, the independent consultant in financial investments needs to inform the client promptly or better even as soon as he determined his own intentions.
The independent consultant in financial investments is held to the rigorous observance of the articles 2235 and 2237 of the civil code.
Article 16. Funds of the clients
The independent consultant in financial investments must never in no case and at any title detain sums of the client not even in a total temporary way even if it's only a few hours.
The independent consultant in financial investments must never receive proxies from the client in such way to consent the consultant to have the use of the client's money.
The independent consultant in financial investments must operate with maximum diligence and total respect of other persons' property and to always act with the good sense of the family man.
He also has the obligation to respect and to enforce the rules on the antirecycling in vigour in Italy.
Article 17. Professional tariff and quality of the performance
The professional tariff and other rules in matters of compensations are a guarantee of quality of the performance that however has to be maintained even in case of dispensation to minimum tariffs.
Article 18. Reports with other professions
The independent consultant in financial investments, if in the exercise of the profession has reports with attached members of other professional registers, must keep to the principle of reciprocal respect and to the safeguard of the specific competences.
Article 19. Utilisation of public offices
The independent consultant in financial investments must not have recourse to political or public offices in such way to make believe that, for this effect, he can gain professional advantages for himself or for others.
Article 20. Prohibition of intermediation
For the independent consultant in financial investments the activity of intermediation in any sector is strictly forbidden and for any reason that can or cannot jeopardise the indipendence, the objectivity, the transparence, the absence of conflict of interests in relation to the received assignment and the objectivity of the work that he carried out.
Article 21. Information and informative publicity
Information to third persons is allowed even through press, telematic networks and similar means on the structure of the office and on its composition, on the professional activity that is exercised, on particular branches of the activity.
Own professional results or nominative citations of clients cannot be highlighted.
Academic or professional degrees which do no refer to the activities object of the profession, cannot be used.
The organisation and participation in seminaries and conventions are allowed, as well as the publication of written documents and the participation in surveys on professional matters.
The communication of technical information can be carried out freely concerning the own clientele and third persons who request it.
The activities of the persons mentioned above and the utilisation of publication means have to be inspired by extreme moderation, good taste and respect for the dignity and decorum of the profession, don't have to be equivocal, misleading, deceitful or eulogistic.
Forms of comparative publicity, nor forms of publicity other than those described in the preceding points are allowed.
It is an obligation to communicate its home Association the beginning of any informative activity through telematics having for goal the diffusion of the image or of the services of the professional study towards the public.
In case of doubts about the application of the present article the preventive consultation with the Board of Directors of the Association is recommended.
Article 22. Reports with collaborators and employees
The reports with the collaborators have to be based on mutual respect and coordinated in such way to allow optimum execution of the professional activity.
The independent consultant in financial investments in particular must avoid to make use of the collaboration of third parties who excercise the profession in an improper manner and must not dissuade collaborators of others by unfair means.
Article 23. Remuneration of the employees
Within his reports with the employees the independent consultant in financial investments is held to respect the rules of the collective contracts for the professional offices when it concerns the remuneration as well as the expected qualifications.
Article 24. Respect of the confidentiality
The independent consultant in financial investments has to oversee that the collaborators and the employees are aware of and respect the obligations of the professional secrecy and confidentiality, that they need to observe also.
Article 25. Collaborators of other colleagues
In the hypothesis of collaboration with people coming from other colleagues the independent consultant in financial investments must abide by the principles of loyalty and correctness towards the titular colleagues of such other offices.
Article 26. Duties of the professional
The independent consultant in financial investments has the duty of favouring the development of the profession granting, within the limits of the own operative needs, to who asks, directly through the Association, to perform the professional training, or making an effort so that such possibility can be realized with other colleagues.
The independent consultant in financial investments must consent to who performs the training at his office the study of the ethics, besides the professional technique and practice referred to all the fields of knowledge of each colleague of the office, admitting him, where possible, as an auditor in the periodic meetings with the client and/or third persons.
It is not allowed to entrust only purely executive secretarial tasks to whom is performing professional training.
The independent consultant in financial investments has to manage the reports with the person that performs the training at his office with maximum precision with reference to the tasks, roles, remunerations and in general to all the conditions that both parties need to follow during and after performing the training.
It is expedient that the report is regulated in writing.
The independent consultant in financial investments has to give the trainee at the beginning of the training period a copy of the ethical code publicated by this Association, keeping one copy signed for acceptance.
The independent consultant in financial investments needs to control that the apprentice is aware of and respects the obligations of professional secrecy and confidentiality, that he needs to observe also.
Article 27. Obligations of the trainee
The apprentice has to avoid, with maximum scruple, to acquire clients for the future drawing on clients from the office where he performs the training.
At the end of the training he won't be able to appropriate procedures and forms of the office, neither, for a reasonable period of time following the cessation of the training report, accept tasks from clients known at the office during the same training, without the explicit consent of the titular.
The apprentice won't be able to use headed letter-writing paper or business cards from which results that he is a collaborator of the office where he performs the training without the explicit consent of the titular.
The apprentice is held to respect all the ethical regulations typical of the independent consultant in financial investments.
Article 28. Economic treatment and duration of the apprenticeship
The apprenticeship report considered as a learning period is by its nature for free.
Nevertheless, the independent consultant in financial investments won't fail to attribute sums to the apprentice, as a scholarship, to support and to stimulate the commitment and the assiduous efforts of the performed activity.
Past such period the collaboration report, being able to involve a different juridical configuration, will be regulated by the free definition of the parties.
Article 29. Coming into effect
The rules of professional ethics here expressed and that precede in the 28 articles, enter into vigour contextually to the consitution of A C O F I I N.