Sijoittajan tietämisvelvollisuus - osa II
Avainsanat:
velvoiteoikeus, sijoitusneuvonta, tiedonantovelvollisuus, vakuutus, rahoitusvälineAbstrakti
lnvestor's duty to know and understand - Part II
The author discusses how an investor's investment experience or lack of experience affects his/her duty to know about investing and investment products, i.e., whether the investor must acquire information beforehand. Some guidelines can be drawn: As a starting point, regardless of his/her experience, an investor has to know that an investment always involves risk. However, this is a demanding requirement: From an investor's point of view, the important questions usually are, how big the risk is and what elements does the risk comprise. If an investor has prior investing experience on a comparable investment product, he/she is presumed to know the risks and features of the product regardless of whether the product provider has provided all the information on the product. Even if the disclosed information is misleading, the investor should not blindly rely on it; his/her due diligence duties regarding the given införmation may be emphasized. Even if the information is false, the investor can usually trust this information. If the investor has previous experience of investing and the product provider has fulfilled his/her disclosure duties, the investor is expected to be able to understand the information - or at !east ask additional questions to the product provider in unclear situations. Generally, the investor is also responsible for perusing the information provided to him/her. However, this is not always the case, as demonstrated by the Finnish Supreme Court in case 2015:93.
lt is reasonable to assume that a person's general knowledge includes the fact that equity investment may result in loss of capital. lt should also be known, regarding bonds, that if the issuer of the bond defaults, the bond may have to be written off. However, if an investment product is more complex, e.g. a structured product, an inexperienced investor cannot be expected to know about the product without any given material. Therefore, the clarity and simplicity of the disclosure to the investor is a benefit for all investors as the product provider's obligation to provide information is still the starting point for investor protection.
