Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct

Ethical and Professional Standards, LOS weight share 0.8 percent of the 365 Level I learning outcomes.

Ethical and Professional StandardsCode of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct

Candidates memorize the seven Standards and still miss the question, because the exam asks which of two governing documents an obligation lives in, not whether you can recite either one.

Before you watch

Answer these three first. Getting them wrong now is normal, and it helps the lesson stick. Reveal the answers when you're done, then read on.

1. Which of the following BEST describes the Code of Ethics statement regarding a member's obligation to the profession?

Answer: B. This is one of the six explicit statements in the Code of Ethics: reflecting credit on the profession is its own, broadest obligation. Client priority is a Standard (III), not a Code statement; legal compliance is Standard I(A), not the Code.

2. The CFA Institute Professional Conduct Program exists PRIMARILY to:

Answer: C. The Professional Conduct Program is the enforcement mechanism: investigation and discipline. Guidance on applying the Standards comes from the Standards of Practice Handbook, a separate function.

3. The Standards of Professional Conduct are organized into how many Standards, and which one covers duties to employers?

Answer: C. There are seven Standards, I through VII. Standard III covers duties to clients; Standard IV covers duties to employers. Six is the count of Code of Ethics components, a separate number the exam deliberately tests against seven.

The lesson

There is no video lesson for this unit yet. Everything this unit teaches is written out below.

The reading

Five to ten minutes on this one unit: what the exam wants, the idea in plain words, then straight into the trap and the practice.

The exam wants you to tell the six Code of Ethics principles apart from the seven numbered Standards of Professional Conduct, describe how the Professional Conduct Program enforces both, and explain what sits inside each Standard's own sub-sections well enough to place a described obligation under the right one. Most questions are short and direct: which document, which Standard, which stage of the process.

Two documents sit at the front of the CFA curriculum, and the exam's favorite trick is asking you which one a given sentence belongs to. The Code of Ethics is six broad principles: act with integrity and competence, put client interests ahead of your own and your firm's, use independent judgment, practice in a professional manner, promote market integrity, and keep improving your own competence. Think of the Code as the spirit of the profession, six lines you could say out loud to a client.

The Standards of Professional Conduct are the seven rules that make those six principles operational, numbered I through VII: Professionalism, Integrity of Capital Markets, Duties to Clients, Duties to Employers, Investment Analysis and Recommendations, Conflicts of Interest, and Responsibilities as a CFA Member or Candidate. Each Standard breaks into its own sub-sections. Standard I covers knowledge of the law, independence and objectivity, misrepresentation, and misconduct. Standard III, duties to clients, is the longest of the seven, covering loyalty, prudence, fair dealing, suitability, and confidentiality among clients. Standard IV covers a different relationship entirely: loyalty to the employer, additional compensation arrangements, and a supervisor's own responsibilities. A question that names a party (a client versus an employer) is testing whether you can tell III from IV.

Behind both documents sits the Professional Conduct Program, CFA Institute's enforcement arm. It investigates complaints and disciplines members and candidates who violate the Code or a Standard. It does not offer advice on how to apply a Standard to a gray-area situation; that guidance lives in a separate reference, the Standards of Practice Handbook. A question about what happens after a violation is reported is testing the Program's enforcement role, not a Standard's content.

One detail the exam tests directly: obligation begins at registration, not at the charter. The moment you enroll as a candidate, you are bound by the Code and Standards exactly as a charterholder is, and a violation during candidacy carries the same disciplinary weight, including a permanent bar from the program. There is no grace period for being new.

The trap

The exam's wrong choices routinely borrow the right idea and attach it to the wrong document, citing a Code principle as though it were a numbered Standard, or the reverse. Reading which noun a question uses, a principle or a rule, tells you which document to search before you read the choices.

Learning outcomes covered by this module

Verbatim from the 2026 CFA Level I topic outline. Every practice question and key rule below is tagged to one of these where the stem and explanation make the match clear.

  1. describe the structure of the CFA Institute Professional Conduct Program and the process for the enforcement of the Code and Standards
  2. identify the six components of the Code of Ethics and the seven Standards of Professional Conduct
  3. explain the ethical responsibilities required by the Code and Standards, including the sub-sections of each Standard

Key rules

Written from this module's own lesson and the 2026 CFA Level I topic outline, in teaching order, each tagged to the learning outcome it belongs to where that is clear.

LOS 02

The Code of Ethics is six principles; the Standards of Professional Conduct are seven rules

The Code of Ethics states six broad principles: act with integrity, competence, diligence and respect; place client interests before your own and before the firm's; use reasonable care and independent judgment; practice and encourage others to practice in a professional and ethical manner; promote market integrity; and maintain and improve professional competence. The Standards of Professional Conduct are seven detailed rules, numbered I through VII, that operationalize those principles. The exam tests whether a candidate can tell which document a given obligation belongs to, not just whether either list can be recited.

LOS 02

Standard III is clients, Standard IV is employers, and the exam tests the difference directly

Standard III (Duties to Clients) is the longest Standard, covering loyalty, prudence, care, fair dealing, suitability, performance presentation, preservation of confidentiality, and communication. Standard IV (Duties to Employers) covers loyalty to the employer, additional compensation arrangements, and the responsibilities of supervisors. Because Standard III has the most sub-sections, candidates default to assuming any duties question belongs there; Standard IV is a separate, shorter Standard that the exam deliberately tests as its own answer choice.

LOS 01

The Professional Conduct Program investigates and disciplines; the Standards of Practice Handbook guides

The Professional Conduct Program (PCP) is CFA Institute's enforcement body: it investigates complaints and disciplines members and candidates who violate the Code and Standards. It is not an advisory function. Guidance on how to apply a Standard to an ambiguous real situation comes from the Standards of Practice Handbook, a separate document. A question about the PCP's purpose is testing enforcement, not guidance.

LOS 03

Candidates are bound by the Code and Standards from the day they register, not the day they earn the charter

The Standards of Practice Handbook states explicitly that all CFA Institute members and candidates enrolled in the CFA Program must comply with the Code and Standards. An enrolled candidate who violates a Standard faces the same disciplinary process as a charterholder, including a permanent bar from the Program. There is no reduced obligation while still a candidate.

The trick

Authored only where a key rule has an arbitrary number, list, or formula shape worth a memory device; a module with none of those has no tricks here, on purpose.

Code = 6, Standards = 7

Never confuse the two counts. Six is the Code of Ethics' principles; seven is the Standards of Professional Conduct, numbered I through VII. A question naming a number and asking which document it describes is testing exactly this pair.

III versus IV: three letters in CLI, four letters in BOSS

Standard III covers clients (CLI, three letters). Standard IV covers employers, the boss (BOSS, four letters). When a duties question names a party, match the letter count to the Standard number before answering.

The method

Authored, ordered steps for answering this module's question types; a calculation module's calculator-dependent step ends with a bracketed BA II Plus keystroke sequence.

  1. Identify whether the question is asking about a principle (Code of Ethics) or a specific, numbered rule (a Standard).
  2. If it names a Standard by number or Roman numeral, place it in the seven-Standard structure: I professionalism, II market integrity, III clients, IV employers, V investment analysis, VI conflicts of interest, VII member and candidate responsibilities.
  3. If the question describes the enforcement process itself (investigation, discipline, sanctions), it is testing the Professional Conduct Program, not a Standard.
  4. If the question asks whether a candidate (not yet a charterholder) is bound, the answer is always yes, from the date of registration.
  5. Reject any answer that swaps Code-of-Ethics language for Standards language or vice versa; the exam's wrong choices routinely borrow the right idea and attach it to the wrong document.

One card

Condensed from the key rules and tricks above, nothing new. What you'd want on one index card the night before.

Practice questions

Pick an answer, say how sure you are, then reveal. Every wrong choice gets its own explanation. 10 question(s) available for this unit.

Question 1Harder

Maria Gonzalez, CFA, works as a portfolio manager at Apex Asset Management. Her firm's compliance department has reviewed a new municipal bond offering and determined it is suitable for retail clients. Gonzalez personally believes the offering has undisclosed risks. According to the CFA Institute Standards of Professional Conduct, Gonzalez should MOST LIKELY:

How sure are you?

Correct: A. The correct answer is Express her concerns to her supervisor and compliance department in writing, and if she remains uncomfortable, dissociate from the transaction by removing her name from the recommendation. Gonzalez's obligation is to her independent judgment. Compliance department approval does not override her personal professional obligation to assess suitability. Dissociation, not resignation, is the required first step..
B. Most candidates from finance backgrounds are trained to defer to compliance. The compliance department IS the authority in most firms. CFA Standards require member's independent judgment regardless of firm compliance approval. Compliance sign-off reduces legal liability but does not discharge the member's ethical obligation.
C. Candidates who know 'violations must be reported' jump to external reporting. External reporting is a last resort, not a first step. The Standard requires internal escalation first. Immediate external reporting without internal escalation is not the 'most appropriate' response.

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Question 2Exam level

David Chen, CFA, is a sell-side analyst covering semiconductor companies. A portfolio manager at a client firm takes Chen and his colleagues on a 5-day fishing trip to Alaska valued at approximately $4,500. Chen's employer has a policy permitting gifts up to $500. According to Standard I(B) Independence and Objectivity, Chen should most likely:

How sure are you?

Correct: A. The correct answer is Decline the trip. The gift exceeds his employer's $500 policy, and gifts of this magnitude from clients create a reasonable question about whether Chen's research independence is compromised. The employer's stricter policy applies, not CFA's general 'modest gift' standard..
B. Disclosure feels like the ethical fix-all. You might believe 'disclose and proceed' is always acceptable. When the gift clearly exceeds the employer's explicit policy ($4,500 vs $500), disclosure does not make acceptance permissible. The employer policy violation is a separate issue from the independence question.
C. Candidates who know there is a travel/entertainment carve-out try to reclassify the fishing trip as 'entertainment.'. The entertainment exception applies to normal business entertainment (dinners, sporting events). A multi-day luxury trip is a gift in substance regardless of how it is labeled.

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Question 3Exam level

Sandra Lee, CFA candidate, is preparing a research report on a healthcare company. She uses three paragraphs from a sell-side report published by Goldman Sachs without attribution, and incorporates her own analysis throughout the rest of the report. Lee's client finds the report valuable. Has Lee violated any CFA Standards, most likely?

How sure are you?

Correct: A. The correct answer is Yes, Lee has violated Standard I(C) Misrepresentation by plagiarizing Goldman Sachs' work. Attribution is required even when the work is used within a larger original report, even when clients find it valuable, and even when the plagiarized sections are factual rather than opinion-based. Candidate status does not reduce the obligation. CFA candidates are held to the same Standards as charterholders..
B. Common intuition: a few unattributed paragraphs in an otherwise original 20-page report seems minor. There is no materiality threshold in the plagiarism standard. Any unattributed use of another's work is a violation, regardless of what proportion of the total report it represents.
C. You might genuinely believe the Standards apply only after they earn the charter. CFA candidates are explicitly bound by the Code and Standards from the moment they register for the exam. The Standards of Practice Handbook states this explicitly.

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Question 4Harder

Thomas Muller, CFA, is a portfolio manager. During a golf game, he overhears a conversation between two executives of a publicly-traded company discussing disappointing quarterly earnings not yet disclosed to the public. Muller does not participate in the conversation. The MOST appropriate action for Muller is:

How sure are you?

Correct: A. The correct answer is Muller must not trade on this information and should report what he overheard to his compliance department. Accidentally overhearing material nonpublic information creates the same trading restriction as receiving it directly. The information is nonpublic (not officially disclosed), and the earnings disappointment is clearly material (would move the price)..
B. You might believe that passively overhearing information is different from actively receiving insider information. The Standards do not distinguish between solicited and unsolicited receipt of material nonpublic information. The restriction applies to the information's nature, not how it was received.
C. This sounds like mosaic theory. Combining public and non-material information to reach a conclusion. The overheard information is clearly material. Once a member has material nonpublic information, no amount of additional public research 'cleanses' the taint. Mosaic theory applies when the nonpublic component is non-material.

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Question 5Exam level

Rachel Park, CFA, manages separate accounts for two clients: Client A (aggressive growth) and Client B (capital preservation). Park receives a hot IPO allocation of 1,000 shares. Both clients have expressed interest in IPO investments. Under Standard III(B) Fair Dealing, Park should most likely:

How sure are you?

Correct: A. The correct answer is Allocate pro-rata based on the size of each account or on a pre-disclosed systematic basis that does not favor one client over another. Fair dealing does not require equal allocation (same number of shares to each client). It requires equitable treatment based on a systematic, pre-disclosed method. Given the different mandates, the allocation methodology must be defensible and pre-disclosed..
B. Suitability analysis suggests Client A is a better fit for an IPO. This seems like good fiduciary reasoning. Both clients have expressed interest and IPO investment is within scope for both. Allocating 100% to one client when both have expressed interest violates fair dealing. The suitability argument is legitimate but cannot justify a 100-0 split without a pre-disclosed systematic method.
C. Equal sounds like fair. You might confuse 'fair dealing' with 'equal treatment.'. Standard III(B) explicitly states that 'fair dealing does not mean equal treatment.' Equal share allocation ignores account size differences and may not serve either client's best interest.

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Question 6Exam level

Which of the following BEST describes the Code of Ethics statement regarding members' obligation to the profession?

How sure are you?

Correct: A. The correct answer is Members must act in a manner that reflects credit on themselves and the investment profession. This is one of the six explicit statements in the Code of Ethics. The profession-level obligation is distinct from duties to clients, employers, and markets. It is the broadest obligation and covers reputational considerations even in non-professional contexts..
B. Client-first is a strong theme throughout the Standards. Candidates who know the Standards content assume this must be in the Code. While Standard III covers duties to clients, the Code of Ethics statement is specifically about the profession's integrity and public trust, not client priority. Client priority is a Standard, not a Code component.
C. Standard I(A) Knowledge of the Law deals with legal compliance. You might confuse Standard I with the Code. The Code of Ethics is a set of principles. The legal compliance obligation is articulated in Standard I(A), not in the Code of Ethics statements themselves.

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Question 7Exam level

Femi Adeyemi, CFA, works at a hedge fund. His firm has instructed him to include estimated figures in a client performance report where actual figures are not yet available, and to label them as 'preliminary.' The actual numbers are expected to differ by as much as 8%. Adeyemi should MOST appropriately:

How sure are you?

Correct: A. The correct answer is Decline to include performance figures that he knows may be materially inaccurate. Labeling figures as 'preliminary' does not cure the misrepresentation if Adeyemi knows the estimates may differ by 8% from actual results. A material discrepancy is one that would affect a client's investment decision. 8% variance on performance figures is likely material..
B. Disclosure-fixes-everything reasoning. 'Preliminary' label = informed consent. Disclosure does not cure misrepresentation when the member knows the information is likely materially wrong. The obligation is to not communicate information the member knows to be false or misleading. Disclosure of that falseness is not a cure.
C. This seems like full disclosure. The candidate is adding a larger buffer than the expected variance. The issue is not the size of the disclosure range. The issue is that Adeyemi is communicating performance information he knows to be materially inaccurate. No footnote cures that.

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Question 8Exam level

The primary purpose of the CFA Institute Professional Conduct Program is most likely described as:

How sure are you?

Correct: A. The correct answer is To investigate complaints and discipline members and candidates who violate the Code and Standards. The Professional Conduct Program is the enforcement mechanism. Not an education program, not a research function. The exam tests whether candidates understand the governance structure of CFA ethics enforcement..
B. Guidance seems like a logical function for a professional conduct body. Guidance is provided through the Standards of Practice Handbook, not through the Professional Conduct Program. The PCP's function is investigation and discipline, not advisory.
C. Regulatory engagement seems like a plausible function for a professional body. CFA Institute does engage in advocacy, but the Professional Conduct Program specifically is the disciplinary body, not an advocacy function.

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Question 9Above the exam

A candidate memorizes the seven Standards of Professional Conduct but treats the six components of the Code of Ethics as background color not worth learning in detail. On exam day, a vignette describes a CFA member acting with 'diligence and a reasonable basis' on a research report. The provision being tested is most likely found in:

How sure are you?

Correct: B. The Code of Ethics states broad ethical principles members commit to (such as acting with competence and diligence); the Standards of Professional Conduct translate those principles into specific, enforceable rules. 'Diligence and a reasonable basis' for research is the specific rule found in Standard V(A), not a Code-level generality. Recognizing which of the two levels a fact pattern is testing is itself part of what the exam checks.
A. The Code of Ethics states the general principle of competence and diligence, but the SPECIFIC, enforceable rule about a reasonable and adequate basis for recommendations lives in a numbered Standard, V(A), not in the Code's broad language alone.
C. The Code and the Standards do not overlap completely: the Code is six short, aspirational principles, while the seven Standards (with their many sub-sections) are the specific, detailed rules that operationalize those principles. Treating them as interchangeable misses exactly the structural distinction this LOS tests.

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Question 10Above the exam

Two candidates each violate a rule during the exam registration process. Candidate X is found to have used a study aid that reproduces actual exam questions from a prior administration. Candidate Y is found to have exceeded the permitted break time by walking around the room. Under the CFA Institute Professional Conduct Program, the most likely outcome is that:

How sure are you?

Correct: B. The Professional Conduct Program's enforcement process weighs the severity of a violation, and conduct that undermines the integrity of the CFA exam itself (obtaining or using actual exam content, a direct Standard VII(A) violation) is treated far more seriously than a minor administrative infraction like exceeding a break. The PCP does have jurisdiction over candidates, not only members, which is exactly why this distinction matters on the exam.
A. The PCP's enforcement process is not a flat, one-size-fits-all system; the severity and nature of a violation drives how seriously it is investigated and sanctioned. Compromising exam integrity is materially different from a minor administrative rule breach.
C. The Professional Conduct Program explicitly covers CANDIDATES in the CFA Program, not only members and charterholders; agreeing to the Code and Standards is a condition of registering for the exam in the first place.

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