Financial Planning - Case Study Example

The ethical standards also require the financial planners to get acknowledgement from their clients for deploying funds in the high risk investment avenues. In cases of conflict of interest, the financial planners are required to regard their professional duty of giving priority to the interest of their client. Finally, the high standards of practice require the financial planners to provide unbiased financial advises to their clients for protecting their interests. The financial planning done by the planners of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia falls under the FPA code of professional and ethical practice.

However, the issues that led to the inquiry by the Senate against the scandal in the Commonwealth Bank’s financial planning activities exposed the activities of the financial planners of CBA. . ivities of CBA financial planners that came to light after the global financial crisis included misallocation of superannuation funds in the investment areas that is considered to be highly risky as a result of which the retired employees lost a major part of their superannuation fund. This is a specific example of CBA breaching the FPA code of conduct and ethics as the investments in high risks avenues was done by CBA without the consent of the retired employees and the clients.

Apart from deploying funds into high risk management avenues without the prior permission of the holder, several associated issues related to forgery of signatures, and mysterious missing of documents came to light. Thus, the financial planners of CBA resorted to unethical practices which are against the professional norms. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia concealed that information from their clients who were not even informed of the activities of the financial planners. Question 1 b The financial planning scandal of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia demonstrated the conflict of interest between the clients of the bank and the activities of the financial planners of the Commonwealth Bank and the management.

The financial planners under the management of the Bank were engaged into unethical professional practices of undertaking high risks on investments with the funds of the investors who were their clients. Although a logical reasoning by the financial planners would explain the investments were risky, they were engaged into unfair practices by taking a chance to increase the return of the bank with the help of public money (McKeown, 2012, p.39). The interest of CBA was to maximize the return on investment made by them with the use of public funds.

The interest of the bank never