Question

Lisa Hajak, CFA, specialized in research on real estate companies at Cornerstone Country Bank for the past twenty years. Hajak recently started her own investment research firm, Hajak Investment Advisory. One of her former clients at Cornerstone asks Hajak to update a research report she wrote on a real estate company when she was at Cornerstone. Hajak updates the report, which she had copied to her personal computer without the bank’s knowledge, and replaces references to the bank with her new firm, Hajak Investment Advisory. Hajak also incorporates the conclusions of a real estate study conducted by the Realtors Association that appeared in the Wall Street Journal. She references the Journal as her source in her report. She provides the revised report free of charge along with a cover letter for the bank’s client to become a client of her firm. Concerning the reissued research report, Hajak least likely violated the CFA Institute Standards of Professional Conduct because she: solicited the bank’s client. did not obtain consent to use the bank report. did not cite the actual source of the real estate study.

Answer 1

solicited the bank’s client.

Step-by-step explanation:

In order for Lisa to have committed solicitation and violated Standard VI(a), she must have actively searched for the bank's former client. The text states that a former client of the bank hired her, but it gives no indication that Lisa went after him. Also, Lisa is no longer working for the bank, if any of the bank's clients looks for her, she isn't doing anything wrong.