CFA Institute Soft Dollar Standards

• Soft Dollar
• Commissions generated by
• external brokerage operations
• internal brokerage operations
• CFA Institute Soft Dollar Standards
• Voluntary, though firms that wish to claim compliance with the Standards must follow them completely.
• Client Brokerage
• Can be used to pay for a mixed-use research with the coveat that the research must be reasonable, justifiable, and documentable, and that the client brokerage is only used to pay for the portion of the research that will be used in the investment decision-making process.
• While research paid for by client brokerage should directly benefit the client, it does not have to do so immediately.