In the Schewer books, one ethics question refers to Fair Dealing.
It says it’s ok to offer more detailed research reports to higher fee-paying clients but releasing reports to higher fee-paying clients first is not ok?
Can someone walk me through the rationale of this please? Why is it ok to offer different depths of research but not different timing of reports to different fee-paying clients? The answer explains that we can offer different services to clients, but different levels of service must not disadvantage clients. By offering more detailed reports to higher fee paying clients, you should be violating this Standard according to this explanation.
You can give different levels of service (which is providing more detailed reports for an additional cost), but you can’t provide reports to one party earlier than another. The clients paying more would then have the advantage to act on the information first, hence a fair dealing issue.
I had the same question as well. Thanks for clearing that up.
So in other words, you can release a more detailed report to clients that are paying extra, and at the same time release the basic version of the report to other clients - as long as they are done at the same time?
You got it, because you are in theory releasing the same data. Someone not paying as much, but who has good insight might be able to perform a more detailed analysis themselves; therefore, not wanting to pay extra. Good luck on Saturday!