Implementing Our Code of Ethics in a Difficult Time

Use phone calls, e-mail messages and online meetings to carry out this important task.

By Frank Bearden, PH.D., CLU, ChFC

Hopefully by the time this column is available, the spread of COVID-19 will be diminishing. However, at a time when face-to-face communication is difficult and sometimes produces uneasiness in clients and other advisors, how are we to implement our code of ethics?

Here are a few activities we can carry out to honor our code of ethics and our clients.

Initially, consider the second obligation of the code: To work diligently to satisfy the needs of my clients by acting in their best interest.

This obligation involves maintaining contact with clients, letting them know we are sensitive to their financial security. How could we do this when office or home appointments may not be possible? Consider conducting appointments online. Vendors such as Zoom provide a means to see, speak and interact with individuals and groups for a very low cost. You can schedule appointments by email and then conduct meetings with clients regarding financial matters and concerns online. You can convey your active interest in client interests and be able to realize client reactions through their facial expressions, voices and stated responses.

I have been fortunate in being able to participate in these types of meetings for several years due to my work with financial planning graduate students. If you have not conducted online meetings before, when you do, you will find that the relationship and professional benefits for you and your clients will be impressive. And, your clients will appreciate your sustaining interests in their well-being.

Other Tools Of Communication

Let’s also remember two other obvious tools of communication we have to communicate with clients and other people regarding their best interests: the phone and email. A key benefit of using our phones is immediate communication while email provides a record of your communication for you and your clients. Of course, the use of regular mail via the U.S. Postal Service and other vendors should be used when needed to support the second and other obligations of the code.

A key benefit of using the phone is immediate communication, while email provides a record of your communication.

Now consider the third obligation: To present, accurately and honestly, all facts essential to my clients’ financial decisions.

You may wonder how you can convey “all facts” for your clients’ financial decisions in an online meeting. Clients often want to review and consider any paperwork related to financial recommendations. This information can be emailed to clients before the online meeting to give them an opportunity to consider it and then discuss it during the meeting. Signature requirements for insurance, investments and other financial products will vary based on the organization involved.

Now consider the fourth obligation: To render timely and proper service to my clients and ultimately their beneficiaries.

Each of the above means of communication can and should be used in a timely and professional manner to provide the service we commit to our clients and to their beneficiaries.

These means and any other means of communication that may be available enable us to carry out our code of ethics. COVID-19 has not required that activities and services to our clients stop, but rather that the means we use to implement the obligations has changed in some ways.

Frank C. Bearden, Ph.D., CLU, ChFC, is with Frank C. Bearden, LLC. Contact him at fbearden@outlook.com or at 210-724-1958.