CFA Level I, II and III · Ethical and Professional Standards
The CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct (2024) has seven groups and 23 Standards. Here is each one in a line, with the study notes and practice that cover it at every level.
Know and follow the strictest applicable law, rule or the Code and Standards, and never knowingly take part in or help a violation.
Keep your professional judgement independent: no gifts, benefits or pressure that could compromise it.
Do not knowingly misrepresent analysis, recommendations, actions or your professional activities, including plagiarism.
No dishonesty, fraud or deceit in professional conduct, and nothing that reflects badly on your integrity or competence.
Have, and keep up, the competence your professional responsibilities require.
Guidance notes: Level III
Do not act, or cause others to act, on material nonpublic information.
Do not distort prices or inflate trading volume to mislead market participants.
Put clients’ interests before your employer’s and your own, and act with reasonable care and prudent judgement.
Treat all clients fairly and objectively when giving analysis or recommendations and when taking investment action.
Understand each client’s objectives and constraints and make sure investments suit them.
Make sure investment performance you present is fair, accurate and complete.
Keep information about current, former and prospective clients confidential, except in the limited cases allowed.
Act for your employer’s benefit and do not harm it or deprive it of your skills.
Do not accept compensation or benefits that compete with your employer’s interests without written consent from all parties.
Make reasonable efforts to ensure the people you supervise comply with laws, rules and the Code and Standards.
Be diligent and thorough, and have a reasonable, adequate basis for every analysis, recommendation or action.
Disclose the services you provide and their costs, explain your investment process and its risks, and separate fact from opinion.
Keep records that support your investment analysis, recommendations and actions.
Avoid conflicts that could impair your independence, or disclose them fully, prominently and in plain language.
Client and employer transactions come before transactions in which you are a beneficial owner.
Disclose any compensation or benefit received or paid for recommending products or services.
Do nothing that compromises the reputation of CFA Institute or the integrity, validity or security of its programs and exams.
Do not misrepresent or exaggerate what CFA Institute membership, the CFA designation or candidacy means.
Ethical and Professional Standards is 10-15% of the topic weight at every level in the current curriculum (Level I 2027 curriculum, Levels II and III). At Level I it is questions on the Code and Standards; at Levels II and III it appears in item sets, and at Level III also in essays.
CFA Institute updated the Code and Standards in 2024, including a new Standard I(E) Competence, a revised V(B) Communication with Clients and Prospective Clients that adds disclosure of the services provided and their costs, and VI(A) renamed Avoid or Disclose Conflicts.
CFA Institute does not publish a minimum score per topic. Ethics questions count like any other, but they test application to a case, so practising scenarios matters more than memorising the wording.
Every ethics question and study page is checked against the official text of the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct and the Standards of Practice Handbook. The summaries on this page are our own plain-English paraphrases.