mouse123

The essense of finance (to me at least) is “investment/portfolio management” and the CFA exams are the most thourough in covering and testing the subject. I would not personally consider someone without it qualified to manage institutional money (or mine), and if a portfolio manager does not have the designation my question would be “why not?”. I value the designation because it sets a minimum level of knowledge every money manager should have and the difficulty of the exam provides some type of barrier to entry. If someone wants to argue that a MBA program is “better” at providing the academic training/background or someone has the experience and track record to prove competancy to manage money, than passing the CFA exams should be an easy token on top of that.