The Chartered Financial Analyst exam, or CFA exam, qualifies the successful examinee to join around 170,000 other CFAs whom the CFA Institute charters to participate competently in the investment management profession. The investment management industry is a competitive industry with participants having varied skill sets and commitments. A CFA charter, as the CFA Institute calls its professional credential, confirms that you have the knowledge and professionalism for competent and ethical investment management. Your CFA credential also serves as an entry point to employment with investment firms and your marketing tool to attract desirable corporate, nonprofit, family, and individual clients. You know the value of your investment management job and the career prospects of the CFA credential. Don't lose that value to CFA exam misconduct charges or other irregularities. Retain national discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to defend and defeat those charges.
Who Takes the CFA Exam?
Professionals with backgrounds in finance, accounting, economics, and business take the CFA exam. They do so to use the CFA credential with their name and qualify for senior and executive investment management, risk management, and asset management positions. The CFA Institute describes its CFA charter or CFA credential as a “program,” meaning that its value goes beyond its certification purposes to include its educational component. You don't just take the CFA exam to call yourself a CFA for employment and marketing purposes. You also complete the CFA program and take the exam to learn about investment management. Thus, the CFA Institute's website touts that “[w]hether you are a practicing investment professional, a student, switching careers or looking to start a career in this field, the CFA Program offers a way to move forward and achieve your professional goals.” The CFA Institute also promotes the CFA program to students, encouraging students to begin the program and take the first level of the CFA exam while still in school. Retain national discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento if the CFA Institute delays or refuses your CFA credential because of misconduct allegations or other irregularities.
CFA Charter Versus Securities License
The CFA charter or CFA credential is not a securities license. The CFA designation is a gold standard across the investment industry worldwide. But do not confuse the CFA exam with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's Series 7 exam licensure which qualifies the holder to sell specific securities. The CFA credential will not qualify you as a general securities representative or so-called stockbroker. The Series 7 exam is the entry-level exam for securities representatives who buy, sell, and trade securities for their clients. The CFA credential is not an entry exam. Instead, the CFA credential certifies knowledge, skills, and ethical commitments in investment analysis and management. Passing the CFA exam's three levels may require three-hundred hours of study for each level, whereas passing the Series 7 exam takes a small fraction of that study commitment. The CFA program is thus more like earning a master's degree than merely passing an entry-level test. The CFA exam's pass rate is generally below fifty percent, whereas anecdotal reports place the Series 7 exam's pass rate closer to seventy percent. Both a Series 7 license and CFA credential can have substantial value to their holders. But they differ in their use and nature. The CFA designation is a significant investment management credential. The Series 7 license permits securities trades.
Who Develops and Administers the CFA Exam?
The Chartered Financial Analysts Institute, or CFA Institute, develops the CFA exam and administers the CFA exam at Prometric testing centers. The CFA Institute is a private professional credentialing organization founded in the late 1940s. The first CFA candidates sat for the first CFA exam in the early 1960s. The CFA Institute also has a long history and deep involvement in investment industry codes and standards. The CFA Institute has had significant success worldwide in promoting its Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) and other codes and standards. But its CFA credential is its proverbial bread and butter, the great value in standardization that the CFA Institute has offered the investment management industry. Retain national discipline defense attorney Joseph D. Lento if you need skilled representation to overcome your CFA Institute obstacle to receive your valuable CFA credential.
What Is the CFA Exam's Content and Format?
The CFA exam requires passing three levels in succession. You must pass Level I to sit for Level II, and you must pass Level II to sit for Level III. Level I is 180 multiple-choice questions split across two 135-minute sessions, while Level II is 88 vignette-supported multiple-choice questions across two 132-minute sessions, and Level III is a mix of vignette-supported essay and multiple-choice questions. Level I covers ethics and professional standards and portfolio management and analysis. Levels II and III cover quantitative methods, economics, corporate issuers, equity investments, fixed income, derivatives, alternative investments, and wealth planning. The CFA exam is a challenge. Don't let misconduct allegations spoil that challenge.
CFA Exam Misconduct
The CFA Institute publishes CFA Exam Misconduct and Rules Violations information on its website. That information defines sanctionable misconduct as “any activity or conduct that compromises or attempts to compromise the reputation, integrity, validity, or security of the CFA exam.” While the CFA Institute lists misconduct examples, other activities not on the list can also lead to misconduct charges. The CFA Institute clarifies that misconduct can occur “during enrollment or registration, as well as before, during, and after the administration of the CFA exam.” Retain national discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to defend and defeat your CFA exam misconduct charges or overcome other irregularities delaying your CFA charter.
CFA Exam Misconduct Violations Outside the Exam
The CFA Institute's CFA Exam Misconduct and Rules Violations information lists several actions outside the exam center, either before or after the exam, that can constitute misconduct worthy of sanctions. Those examples include: disclosing exam content; asking others to disclose to you exam content; using unauthorized exam questions to prepare for the exam; copying, reselling, distributing, or otherwise misusing CFA exam codes or discounts; falsifying or misrepresenting information on enrollment or registration applications, or requests for accommodation, scholarship, or deferral; falsifying your identity or impersonating another individual to obtain or attempt to obtain registration or to gain access to the exam; creating multiple accounts to obtain or attempt to obtain registration while suspended, prohibited or failing to meet professional conduct admission criteria; obtaining or attempting to obtain exam results before published release; and altering exam results or misrepresenting passing or failing the exam.
CFA Exam Misconduct Violations Inside the Exam
The CFA Institute's CFA Exam Misconduct and Rules Violations information lists many actions inside the exam center during the exam that can constitute misconduct worthy of sanctions. Those examples include: looking at another candidate's monitor, desk, or written work for exam answers; concealing or attempting to conceal exam-related information or materials; receiving assistance on the exam or providing aid to another candidate; accessing, possessing, or using information related to exam content during the exam or on unscheduled breaks; communicating with fellow candidates or other persons during the exam; failing to follow the directions of testing personnel; failing to act with integrity and respect when dealing with testing personnel or other candidates; failing to silence electronic devices; accessing or possessing prohibited calculators, phones, listening devices, cameras, headsets, wearable technology, or other remote communication or photograph device; failing to clear calculator memory before the exam and when instructed; creating a disturbance; leaving the test center or entering other areas of the building on unscheduled breaks; removing exam information and notes from the testing room; and using your desk, hand, or any other surface, other than what is provided to you by the test center, as scratch paper.
CFA Exam Misconduct Detection
The CFA Institute's CFA Exam Misconduct and Rules Violations information incorporates the Institute's Rules of Procedures for Exam-Related Conduct. Those Rules of Procedure designate a Professional Conduct office to investigate exam rules violations. The Rules of Procedure state that suspected rule violations come to Professional Conduct's attention “through many sources including witness/proctor reports, grading of exams, third-party complaints, publicly available information, and review of the candidate's testing experience and exam file.” Prometric testing center staff are key to making on-site misconduct observations and collecting and preserving evidence of those observations. Prometric testing centers also video and audio record testing to monitor, investigate, and document suspected misconduct. Professional Conduct receives and analyzes that information while investigating reports of alleged off-site violations.
CFA Exam Misconduct Adjudication Procedures
The CFA Institute's CFA Exam Misconduct and Rules Violations information incorporates the Institute's Rules of Procedures for Exam-Related Conduct. Those Rules of Procedure designate a Disciplinary Review Committee to enforce the CFA Institute's exam rules and procedures. The Disciplinary Review Committee has other substantial authority as to already-credentialed CFA members. But deciding whether examinees have engaged in misconduct is a part of the Committee's charge. The Rules of Procedure provide that any violation of an exam rule is grounds for sanction. Where Professional Conduct receives credible information related to a suspected violation, it notifies the examinee of the allegations. Professional Conduct's investigation may include soliciting information from the examinee. Professional Conduct may resolve misconduct allegations informally with an Early Resolution Agreement. Otherwise, credible allegations proceed to a statement of charges followed by a hearing before an appointed Hearing Panel. The Hearing Panel only accepts written submissions. It takes no live testimony at the hearing. The Hearing Panel's decision may include all available sanctions. An examinee found to have committed misconduct may petition for reinstatement before a Reinstatement Panel. If you face CFA exam misconduct charges, retain national discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you deploy these procedures to their best strategic effect. With skilled and effective representation, you may be able to defeat all charges.
CFA Exam Misconduct Consequences
The CFA Institute's CFA Exam Misconduct and Rules Violations information states that sanctions for exam misconduct may include “voiding of your exam results and suspension or termination of your candidacy in the CFA Program.” If the CFA Institute's exam misconduct procedures lead to a finding that you committed exam misconduct, you may not get to sit again for the CFA exam, and you may lose your CFA exam score. You may never obtain CFA credentialing. While that loss may not sound substantial, depending on your professional circumstances, carefully manage the potential collateral consequences. Exam misconduct allegations can carry high costs. They could lead to job and career loss or damage, and damage to your reputation and professional and personal relationships. Retain national discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to avoid the potential severe consequences of CFA exam misconduct findings.
CFA Misconduct Appeals and Alternative Special Relief
Investment managers seeking CFA credentialing may have other avenues for relief if they have already suffered an exam misconduct finding and sanction. As indicated above, the CFA Institute's Rules of Procedures for Exam-Related Conduct authorize a petition for reinstatement instead of any express appeal. A reinstatement petition can work like an appeal as it goes before a different review panel from the panel initially finding misconduct and imposing the sanction. Retain national discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento for your petition for reinstatement. Certifying organizations often have general counsel, outside retained counsel, or other oversight officials to correct procedural errors and substantive wrongs. Attorney advisor Lento's national network and reputation have enabled him to negotiate alternative special relief and reinstatement for many students and professionals facing misconduct charges and suffering sanctions. Retain and consult attorney advisor Lento even if you have exhausted all other procedures without relief. Your CFA credentialing is worth pursuing and preserving.
Premier CFA Exam Misconduct Defense Attorney Advisor
National discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento has helped hundreds of students and professionals overcome exam misconduct and other misconduct issues and irregularities. Attorney advisor Lento is available to review your CFA credentialing issue. You can trust attorney advisor Lento with your future. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now to retain attorney advisor Lento and the Lento Law Firm's defense team.
