CFA Level 1

waspy88

waspy88

waspy88

Associate
Joined
9 Sep 2008
Posts
1,578
Location
United Pingdom
Since the market is rather rough, I am thinking the best way to distinguish myself from other employees of the financial services is to obtain a CFA.

From looking around on-line the prices for just the registration and examination are rather pricey, so I wanted to know if can be done for under £2,000?

Thanks in advance for any tips you may have.
 
If you already work in FS then ask your employer to sponsor you. From what I remember you can take these exams over any period so you don't have to pay out the 2k or whatever in one go.

It also depends on what area of FS you work in. I work as an analyst in a very large platform provider and don't have any formal FS qualifications. If your working for an FA or want to be an FA then as soon as RDR goes live you will need FSA approved qualifications so you need to be aware of this too.

On another note FS services is going through fundamental changes at the moment; most of the larger companies are restructuring, i.e. making shed loads of people redundant as they move away from providing old school life and pension products and move towards wrap so again you need to make sure that any qualification your going to go for will be relevant in the future world.
 
waspy88 said:
Since the market is rather rough, I am thinking the best way to distinguish myself from other employees of the financial services is to obtain a CFA.

From looking around on-line the prices for just the registration and examination are rather pricey, so I wanted to know if can be done for under £2,000?

Thanks in advance for any tips you may have.
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I'm sure you can 'borrow' the material if needed - though tbh... even if it is 2 grand I don't think that should make any difference as to whether you chose to do it. The main consideration is simply whether you have enough time to study for it. I've not done it personally though a few colleagues are part way through - the financial stuff isn't massively hard, there is some statistics (though only really 1st year undergrad type stuff), fair bit of accounting and some ethics. None of it looks particularly complicated/hard though it seems to be more then quantity of stuff you need to cover so the main consideration should probably be have you got enough free time to put in the hours to study for it. One of my mates failed the ethics section of his level 2 paper - it is simply something he didn't put the time into studying (and he's french so some slightly ambiguous questions will be a bit tougher for him).
 
Thanks for the tips guys.

dazzerd, you raise a very fair point regarding the stuff that is covered in the current CFA. The product lines my company used to participate in are slowly being trimmed off to meet new products for when UCITS IV and Solvency II come into practice in the coming months / years. I know the fundamentals of the CFA would be the same, but legislation and syllabus for 2011 / 2012 is going to be drastically different to what we have available now.

Based on both posts, and time considerations I think it would be prudent for me just to focus on the IMC for now, its recognized by the CFA.

I have asked my company to see if they sponsor, and the only people they sponsor are people who are front office VPs.

Do you two know of any other qualifications in the industry that hold more weight than the CFA for the current climate?
 
CFA is the qualification most people go for in financial services. Having done level 1, its not particularly hard, but some things to bear in mind:

1. CFA materials are very wordy and written more as a reference text than study aids.
2. It's a big time commitment. They suggest 250 hours, but remember this is time to learn + revise, not just revise, so its not as scary as you might think.
3. Question practice is key, and multiple choice does NOT make it easy.
4. The exams are very time pressured, so again, practice, practice, practice.

In terms of costs, the exam + CFA materials are about 700 quid. I personally don't think classes add much value, but would recommend something like the Kaplan Schweser packages (about 400 quid) which have shorter books that are easier to get through and lots of sample questions. With these you can split the costs and share the books. So you can definitely do it for under a grand in my opinion.
 
I give a big thumbs up to people who do CFA, i think my 3 hours of my ACCA exams are long in one day but CFA have to sit 6 hours :(

Also, i dont understand why you have to wait 1 full year to sit a re-take?
 
I imagine the once a year sitting is because:

- Most people distance learn so getting in 300 hours of preparation is difficult
- Writing set after set of exams would be difficult given how secretive they are about publishing questions etc
- smallish organisation/student body wouldn't make it viable vs ICAEW etc
- They put a large emphasis on the grading process/level of moderation and involvement of CFA charter holders to ensure standards are maintained.

My biggest complaint is saturday exams.....
 
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