Lisa Hajak, CFA, specialized in research on real estate companies at Cornerstone Country Bank for20 years. Hajak recently started her own investment research firm, Hajak Investment Advisory. Oneof 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 toher personal computer without the bank's knowledge, and replaces references to the bank with hernew firm, Hajak Investment Advisory. Hajak also incorporates the conclusions of a real estate studyconducted by the Realtors Association that appeared in the Wall Street Journal. She cites the WallStreet Journal as her source in her report. She provides the revised report free of charge along with acover 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:
Soliciting the bank's client did not violate Standard IV(A): Loyalty because the manager is no longer an employee of the bank and there is no indication she obtained the client information from bank sources. But Hajak has violated Standard V(C): Record Retention because when she left the bank, she took the property of the bank without express permission to do so. In addition, she violated Standard I(C): Misrepresentation by creating research materials without attribution, which is demonstrated when she adds to the new report a real estate study she saw in the Wall Street Journal and only references the Journal. In all instances, a member or candidate must cite the actual source of the information. If she does not obtain the report and review the information, the manager runs the risk of relying on secondhand information that may misstate facts. Best practice would be either to obtain the complete study from its original author and cite only that author or to use the information provided by the intermediary and cite both sources.