General obligations
The advisor’s professional activities must be practiced with competence and integrity to inspire respect and trust in the public. The advisor must always behave with dignity, discretion, objectivity, and moderation. The ethical rules that apply to business development, including advertising and solicitation, strive to maintain the image and credibility of the profession.
Practicing the profession begins well before building relationships with clients. It is common to promote one’s products and services to attract clients. To do so, the advisor can use various means (phone, videoconference, email, website, etc.) and different types of written or verbal statements and tools such as business cards, website, profile on a social network such as Facebook or LinkedIn, blog, telemarketing tactics, illustrations, advertising, explanatory brochure, stationery, trademark, banner, slogan, symbol, or other means.
The methods used by the advisor to develop their business must meet certain guidelines to ensure they remain honest. These are outlined in the Business Development section. The golden rule in terms of representation is that statements or materials should not be incomplete, erroneous, deceptive, or misleading.
Please keep in mind that if the mode of communication is outsourced to a third party, the advisor is still responsible for meeting their obligations in terms of the representations made.