Matthew and Claudia Edwards One of your longstanding clients, Matthew Edwards, has called to arrange an appointment

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Matthew and Claudia Edwards One of your longstanding clients, Matthew Edwards, has called to arrange an appointment for you to see his mother Claudia (age 78). Matthew's father passed away a little over six months ago and his estate has now been finalised with all assets transferring into Claudia's name. Matthew's father John always looked after their own finances and invested primarily through direct shares. Mathew has emailed you a portfolio listing all the shareholdings now in Claudia's name, as well as details of all the cash holdings. The cash and shares add up to just over $2 million, based on the current share prices. Mathew was going to attend the meeting with his mother but has been caught up at work and is now unable to make it. He calls you and says to meet with his mother anyway, as it is her money, and she is quite capable of making her own decisions. You commence your meeting with Claudia by providing her your FSG and passing on information about your practice and the advice you can give. Claudia just nods while you speak, and you ask her if she understands what you have outlined. Claudia replies, 'some of it — but it doesn't really matter, as you always look after Matthew, and he says you will look after me'. While you are not entirely convinced that Claudia understands everything you have said, you are confident that she has the legal capacity to make her own decisions, so you decide to continue with your initial meeting. You begin the fact-finding process and ask Claudia a range of questions to understand her current situation, goals and objectives. She says that Matthew should have provided the details of the investments, and aside from that, she just wants 'things to continue as they were before John passed away'. John always told Claudia they had enough money to see them through their life and had things set up to provide a regular amount into the bank account for them to spend, and Claudia is happy for this arrangement to continue. She admits that she has never been part of the decision making financially, mainly because she was not interested and just let her husband deal with things. Now she is on her own, she just wants things to continue and says that as long as Matthew agrees with what you recommend, she will be happy with that, and she will sign whatever needs to be signed.

(a) Discuss some risks that may arise from Claudia's apparent minimal knowledge of (or experience with) investing and overall disinterest in the financial planning process. In your response, identify and discuss at least one ethical barrier that is possibly impacting Claudia and at least one ethical barrier that is possibly impacting yourself (the adviser)

(b) Identify at least three (3) relevant standards under the Financial Planners and Advisers Code of Ethics 2019 that have arisen for consideration based on the approach or actions that Claudia has displayed, and explain your concerns, with reference to the standards.

(c) Based on your meeting with Claudia, identify and describe two (2) different appropriate ethical frameworks that could be used to deal with this client interaction/situation. Note to students: the ethical frameworks to choose from are the Consequentialist, Duty or Virtue