Preamble

Membership in Kaufman Commercial Insurance is voluntary. By accepting membership, a Certified Professional assumes an obligation of self-discipline above and beyond the requirements of laws and regulations.

These Principles of the Code of Professional Conduct of Kaufman Commercial Insurance express the profession’s recognition of its responsibilities to the public, to clients, and to colleagues. They guide members in the performance of their professional responsibilities and express the basic tenets of ethical and professional conduct. The Principles call for an unswerving commitment to honorable behavior, even when it might mean a loss of personal advantage.

Article I – Responsibilities

In carrying out their responsibilities as professionals, members should exercise sensitive professional and moral judgments in all their activities.

Certified Professionals perform an essential role in society. Consistent with that role, members of Kaufman Commercial Insurance have responsibilities to all those who use their professional services. Members also have a continuing responsibility to cooperate with each other to improve the public’s confidence and carry out the profession’s special responsibilities for self-governance. The collective efforts of all members are required to maintain and enhance the traditions of the profession.

Article II – The Public Interest

Members should accept the obligation to act in a way that will serve the public interest, honor the public trust, and demonstrate commitment to professionalism.

A distinguishing mark of a profession is acceptance of its responsibility to the public. The insurance profession’s public consists of clients, insurance carriers, employers, prospects, the business and financial community, and others who rely on the objectivity and integrity of Certified Professionals to analyze, advise, and implement the security strategies necessary to help our clients and allow the world economy to benefit from this security. This reliance imposes a public interest responsibility on Certified Professionals. The public interest is defined as the collective well-being of the community of people and institutions the Certified Professionals serve.

In discharging their professional responsibilities, members may encounter conflicting pressures from among each of those groups. In resolving those conflicts, members should act with integrity, guided by the precept that when members fulfill their responsibility to the public, clients’ and employers’ interests are best served.

Those who rely on Certified Professionals expect them to discharge their responsibilities with integrity, objectivity, due professional care, and a genuine interest in serving the public. They are expected to provide quality services, enter into business arrangements, and offer a range of services—all in a manner that demonstrates a level of professionalism consistent with these Principles of the Code of Professional Conduct.

All who accept membership in Kaufman Commercial Insurance commit themselves to honor the public trust. In return for the faith that the public places in them, members should seek continually to demonstrate their dedication to professional excellence.

Article III – Integrity

To maintain and broaden public confidence, members should perform all professional responsibilities with the highest sense of integrity.

Integrity is an element of character fundamental to professional recognition. It is the quality from which the public trust derives and the benchmark against which a member must ultimately test all decisions.

Integrity requires a member to be honest and candid within the constraints of client confidentiality. Service and the public trust should not be subordinated to personal gain and advantage. Integrity can accommodate the inadvertent error and the honest difference of opinion; it cannot accommodate deceit or subordination of principle.

Integrity is measured in terms of what is right and just. In the absence of specific rules, standards, or guidance, or in the face of conflicting opinions, a member should act as they would want to be treated were they the client.

Integrity also requires a member to observe the principles of objectivity, independence, and due care.

Article IV – Objectivity and Conflicts of Interest

A member should maintain objectivity and be free of conflicts of interest in discharging professional responsibilities. We operate in an environment that has a great potential for conflicts of interest. We are compensated primarily on commission as well as to a lesser extent a fee-for-services basis. We must learn to operate on an objective basis at all times, placing what is right for our client ahead of the commission.

Objectivity is a state of mind, a quality that lends value to a member’s services. It needs to be a distinguishing feature of the profession. Professionals do not provide advice or place coverage based on commission improvement. Do what’s right and just. The principle of objectivity imposes the obligation to be impartial, intellectually honest, and free of conflicts of interest.

For a member, the maintenance of objectivity, service excellence, and independence requires a continuing assessment of client needs, relationships, and responsibility. Above all, do what’s right for the client.

Article V – Due Care

A member should observe the profession’s technical and ethical standards, strive continually to improve competence and the quality of services, and discharge professional responsibility to the best of the member’s ability.

The quest for excellence is the essence of due care. Due care requires a member to discharge professional responsibilities with competence and diligence. It imposes the obligation to perform professional services to the best of a member’s ability with concern for the best interest of those for whom the services are performed and consistent with the profession’s responsibility to all parties: client, employer, and carrier.

Competence is derived from a synthesis of education, training, and experience. It begins with a mastery of the common body of knowledge required for designation as a Certified Professional. The maintenance of competence requires a commitment to learning and professional improvement that must continue throughout a member’s professional life. It is a member’s individual responsibility. In all interactions with clients and carriers, all members should undertake to achieve a level of competence that will assure that the quality of the member’s services meets the high level of professionalism required by these Principles.

Competence represents the attainment and maintenance of a level of understanding and knowledge that enables a professional to render advice that our clients may rely upon.

Members should be diligent in discharging responsibilities to clients, employers, and carriers. Diligence imposes the responsibility to render services promptly and carefully, to be thorough, and to observe applicable technical and ethical standards.

Due care requires a member to plan and supervise adequately any professional activity for which they are responsible.