SVIA Spring Seminar 2026

This session examines how decisions that are technically permissible can still create serious ethical, legal, and reputational risks, and how professionals operating in fiduciary roles must recognize those risks before they escalate. Drawing on one of the most consequential corporate failures in modern financial history, Andrew Fastow, former CFO of Enron, will share a first-person account of how incremental decisions, institutional pressures, and an over-reliance on technical compliance contributed to catastrophic outcomes for shareholders, employees, and retirement plan participants. His perspective is offered as a cautionary case study, and is designed to help attendees understand the limits of auditors and attorneys, how markets and regulators interpret ethically questionable decisions regardless of technical legality, and the practical habits of self-awareness that help professionals identify, price, and manage risk in the gray area.