Written Assignment Unit 4
In my analysis of the case study about the Harry Markham's Loyalty Dilemma. I will
present it, I will also talk about the method that I will use with critical thinking and describe
how I will use it in my presentation for this case study. And recommend a solution for this
problem that has been a problem for Markham, the firm he works for and the pension funds.
In the beginning I will present a summary of the issue that it is being given to us. I the
beginning of 2012 Harry Markham was preparing for a meeting with the board of trustees of
a state pension fund. After he had earned his Master of Finance in 2004, he started working
for an Investment Consulting Associates (ICA), which was a firm giving investment advices
to pensions funds. Harry was very concerned about the public sector pensions fund liabilities
were being valued. He knew that if he used the liabilities using the valuation and financial
analysis principles he learned in his Master of Finance, the numbers would had be twice as
high, from what the fund were presenting. He then wanted to change those numbers, but the
company he worked for and the pension funds didn’t care to change them since they were
being captured from the Government Accounting Standards Board. So, he was wondering
how he was supposed to give his financial advice when he knew that trustees were working
from financials that he knew were grossly misleading. At the end everything came down to
loyalty and the dilemma that was born from them like, loyalty to his firm, Loyalty to the
board of trustees that hired his firm, and the loyalty to the pensioners themselves. As
Markham believed was called for by the CFA Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional
Conduct.
I will choose to as my critical thinking strategy the questions who, where, what, when,
why, how. Because there are a lot of questions you can ask just from those 5 basics. Those
words if you answer them you can have a complete situation report about the whole problem.
With the question who for example you are able to understand like who would it be harmful
to his decision the pension fund, the firm him or the pensioners. Also the decision that
Markham will have to take about the financial position of the pension funds. The when
question that is a very important one too, to cover the date 2012 and the time he is going to
take meeting presenting the situation of the pending funds, and the time that he is thinking
over his dilemma. What it is the problem that has appeared in for harry, and what he is
thinking about solving it. On the question of where his decision will take him after he would
had decided to do. Why it is the question the question we must ask, why that it is problem
that ended up to Harry’s dilemma, if he will support his company, or the public board of
trustees, or the people that being paying the public pensions, with this financial scandal that
had appeared. And last question is how, he can approach this safely for the benefit of all the
groups of people that will get influenced with his decision.
