Consider the following case study and discuss the conduct of the financial advisor based on the principle of professional accountability. You are required to consider:

a$)$ what his clients could expect of him,

b$)$ what he was supposed to do before advising them to invest their money with a particular institution, and

c$)$ what he should or should not have done once the complaints of the investors in Master Invest became public knowledge.

He usually obtained quotes from more than one company when he advised clients on their financial planning, specifically their life coverage. However, when he had to advise on which quote to accept, he usually proposed that they purchase products from a specific insurer as his fee structure with this company was slightly more beneficial than that of the other insurers. When clients wished to place investments, he always tried to find investments that would reward the client with a good return whilst he would earn a reasonable service fee.

Recently, such an investment product was released by a company known as Master Invest, and he started spreading the word amongst his clients, sharing the company's business model and investment philosophy with them. As a result, several of his clients opted to invest with Master Invest. Of late, he has noted that Master Invest has had some bad publicity in the press. Investors complained that they had difficulty withdrawing their money from their investments; some said they had not received any financial statements from the investment house.

He decided to phone an old schoolmate who was now the Marketing Manager for Master Invest and asked him about the articles in the press. He was informed that the company had administrative glitches when transferring client information onto a new computer system and that all the problems had been resolved.

After several months and some more of his clients investing their hard$-$earned savings into Master Invest, it has been announced that Master Invest would be placed under curatorship as they have been engaged in irregular investment practices. All their operations were also suspended.