The investment industry is truly booming nowadays, but with the excess growth comes more danger. Since the market is so large, there are a lot of people who just want to make a profit – whilst that is completely reasonable, some opt for not ethical ways to achieve that goal. This kind of behavior is bad for both sides of the party, whilst one is being tricked into buying something faulty, the lying broker gets his image tainted! So here are 6 useful tips on how to avoid illegal and unethical brokerage practices!
1. Know the legalities
So if you want to do something the right way, it’s best that you become familiar with it first before jumping into it. There are a lot of laws and regulations when it comes to investing and being a broker, so you need to get familiar with them. If you want to be a legal, ethical broker, you’ll need to know how things work correctly in order to do so. Practicing this kind of career is intricate, you always want to be more informed and to be up-to-date with everything, so keep that in mind when getting involved with the investment industry!
2. Be honest
This might seem pretty straightforward, but being honest is extremely important when being a broker. You have no idea how many brokers lie and trick their clients into bad deals, just so they can quickly sell something and make money. Whilst the urge to be a successful broker is understandable, your success shouldn’t be built on lies! Not only will you let down your clients, who decided to trust you and work with you, but you will also simultaneously lose credibility, and your image will become tainted as a linear and a trickster!
3. Give explanations, even if not needed
Some clients are new to the game, some are veterans – you never know how well someone is educated on investing, so you want to take the right approach and treat them like they are absolute beginners. Give them declarations and explain things well, give them the option to ask you if they have more concerns – building a connection with the client is important if you want to make a solid career as a broker that’s built on trust and honesty! Overly explaining things and giving out details won’t bother anyone, but on the other hand, leaving out key factors is unethical and should never be done!
4. Explain the risk factor
Never sugar coat things, even if they are only slightly risky! Your clients deserve nothing but the truth about the situation, so explaining to them if there are some risks involved, is a must. Some clients are not even aware of the differences, but there is a risk pyramid that consists of low, medium, and high risk, their investment should be somewhere on that scale. Your job as a trusted broker is to explain where they stand! Dealing with such an important asset as money should be taken seriously, so instead of sugar coating things, give the client the truth cold turkey!
5. Explain the market
The market is always changing, growing, evolving, and with all of that, new clients can get easily sucked into different scams and bad deals. Some people are joining the investment industry out of curiosity, whilst some want to be serious about it – but beginners are often misinformed and left to fend for themselves. Most people have no idea how capable brokers actually are, and are unfamiliar with terms such as churning the market and similar. Brokers have a lot of power over new inventors and clients, so they have a lot of responsibility to explain how the market works!
6. Be in the investor’s shoes
Probably the best way to avoid doing unethical things is to imagine someone else doing the same to you or your loved ones! If you want to be cheated and tricked, go ahead and apply the same behavior to your own clients – but learn how to live with yourself afterward. Lying is never a good idea, not in your personal life, and in your professional life as well, so try to avoid doing so. Even if you need to make money, it’s best that you stick to legal sources and earn that money the right way!
At the end of the day being a broker is hard, there is a certain level of stress that never leaves, and the urge to earn more and chase success is hard to combat. But you should never skip your core values and act in an unethical manner, even if it means earning less – your time will come, and you’ll be successful, but you have to do it the right way!
