LICENSING &CERTIFICATION
Investment actions
  1. 1. Know-your-client (KYC) & Suitability
  2. Calculators and Scratch Paper
  3. The Relationship the Rules Describe
  4. Clients Who Live Somewhere Else
  5. What KYC Has to Cover
  6. Tolerance, Capacity and Need
  7. Business Structures and Why They Change the Answer
  8. Writing It Down, and Having the Client Confirm It
  9. The Trusted Contact Person, and the Temporary Hold
  10. Who Owns KYC, and How Current It Has to Be
  11. What the Client File Holds
  12. Account Appropriateness
  13. The Account Types You Have to Compare
  14. What the Account-opening File Needs
  15. The Relationship Disclosure Document
  16. Keeping Confidential Information Contained
  17. The Welcome Package
  18. Product Due Diligence and Knowing the Product
  19. The Suitability Determination
  20. Unsolicited and Unsuitable Instructions
  21. Investment Actions
  22. Why Appropriateness and Suitability Are Separate Tests
  23. Monitoring, Triggering Events and Change
  24. Conflicts of Interest
  25. Outside Activities
  26. Personal Financial Dealings with Clients
  27. Standards of Conduct
  28. A Client, Worked End to End
  29. Twelve Ways to Lose Marks on This Element
  30. Fifteen Terms to Own
  31. One Item From CIRO's Practice Exam

Retail Securities • Chapter 1

Know-Your-Client (KYC) & suitability

Investment actions

Suitability is not only about buying. The syllabus names five investment actions, and each can carry a suitability question.

ActionThe question it raises
PurchasingDoes this fit the client's objectives, horizon and risk profile
SellingIs the timing right for the client, and what does the sale do to the plan
HoldingIs doing nothing still the right decision for this client
DepositingDoes the arriving asset fit, and does it change the portfolio's risk
Exchanging or transferringWhat is the cost and consequence of moving this asset, or switching series

Holding is the one candidates forget. A position that was suitable in 2022 can be unsuitable in 2026 because the client changed, the product changed, or the market changed. Doing nothing is a decision, and the record should show it was a considered one.

PreviousNext: Why appropriateness and suitability are separate tests
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