Some Thoughts on the CFA Charter Requirements

Question

Recently there was a discussion on the CFA Candidates LinkedIn page started by a woman who has young children and who was asking other people how they set aside time to study, as she was finding it very hard. That got me thinking about what I had read on the CFA Institute website regarding the work experience requirements for the charter.

http://www.cfainstitute.org/community/membership/process/Pages/work_experience.aspx

These words in particular (bolds mine):
For each position submitted, at least 50% of your time should be spent directly involved with making investment decisions or producing a work or work product that informs or adds value to those decisions. Work must be full time and can be earned before, during, or after you’ve passed the CFA Program. Managing your own investments does not qualify.

Now I don't have children and I work full-time, but lots of my female colleagues with young children work part-time. It struck me that if they were to attempt to get the CFA charter, the requirement for work to be full-time would be a bit of an obstacle, or at least it would cause a significant delay unless they had already worked full-time for four years in the right job before starting a family.

Of course, other kinds of part-time employees would be affected too -- fathers, people with elder care responsibilities, people with health issues, etc. I don't know if any surveys have been conducted on the backgrounds of exam candidates and eventual charterholders.

On the other hand, there must a be a reason why CFA Institute has this condition. I wonder if my fellow community members have any insights and knowledge they could share on this matter?

Zee Tan · Answer

Maybe the point is that the CFA Institute is a society for full-time investment professionals...?

I get your point, but I think viewing from a society perspective - here's the CFA Institute's mission and vision:

Mission Statement
To lead the investment profession globally by promoting the highest standards of ethics, education, and professional excellence for the ultimate benefit of society.

Vision
We aspire to a CFA Institute that:
Serves all finance professionals seeking education, knowledge, professional development, connection, or inspiration.
Leads the investment profession’s thinking in the areas of ethics, capital market integrity, and excellence of practice.

Based on that I can see how CFA Institute prefers to keep it full-time only.

MattyJ · Answer

Good point. I always assumed that it was to avoid situations where someone might be working one day a week for four years...obviously this shouldn't count as it would be less than a year of full time employment.