Most of you know my personal story of the CFA Charter and how I never, ever use it.
Basically, I was planning on going into some kind of institutional role or corporate development after I finished the tests. I was living in San Antonio at the time.
Fast forward a few years, and I work in BFE, Texas, where there is no institutional portfolio management, and the corporate development gigs are few and far between. And even then, you have to know somebody to get in. Plus, at this point, I’ve got kind a of a niche going, where I plan to do more personal financial planning and less corporate work or portfolio management. I plan to do a lot of retirement and estate and philanthropic planning–none of which was covered in the CFA Curriculum. Nonetheless, I decided to hold onto my CFA Charter because it gave me a Series 65 exemption.
A couple of months ago, the AICPA was offering a discount on its PFS (Personal Financial Specialist) exam. (It’s virtually the same curriculum as the CFP, but without having to put up with the CFP Board’s stupidity.) The test is normally $400, but they offered it for $30, since it was the 30-year anniversary of the exam.
I studied for about two days, then I took the exam. Lo and behold, I got the e-mail yesterday that I passed the exam.
Since the PFS also allows a Series 65 exemption, and since nobody in Midland has any clue what a CFA is or what they do, I’m debating on just giving it up. If someday in the future I decide that I need it again, I can simply start paying for it again. (When you’re in business for yourself, and you may have zero revenue in Nov-Dec-Jan, you have to think about whether or not you want to pay $275 for the letters. Hopefully in a few years I’ll be making IHIHM-type money, and I won’t have this problem.)
If the charter does you no good, no reason to keep it active. I don’t know if there’s an official process for letting it go inactive while still being able to reactivate it in good standing, or if you just don’t pay your dues again until it becomes useful for you. I would be sure to reactivate it if you become terminally ill, or just really, really old, so you can have the letters on your tombstone.
^From what I can tell, you can let it go by simply not paying your dues.
And if you decide that you want to reactivate it, you just have to start paying dues again. You don’t have to take another test or pay any additional fees.
This kinda surprises me. I figured everybody would be like “I’m setting up a trust so that I can continue to fund my CFA fees for 100 years after I die, with the remainder to go to CFA Institute” or something.
Greenie, you’re married right? I dropped the charter after I got engaged. Couldn’t handle the temptation from all the panty dropping after they find out you got the charter.
I would just bite a bullet and keep paying. It might help gaining credibility with prospective clients (though CPA is prob more useful for that). How much is it btw?
can’t you just pay the ~150 and forgo the local society membership? lots of people do that. I’m sure whatever CXX designation will have annual dues close to that figure and give the same exemption. If you keep both just write them off as a business expense. Really not a big deal Greenie, stop agonizing on this and flip the Rolodex for client meetings
