WarrenB1

$475 includes the local chapter fees, which you have to pay. It’s completely bogus. I change my mind…the fee should be like under $100 per year in total. But the key question each of you have to ask is what is your reservation price? What if the fee were $1000 per year….$2000 per year. At what price are you outraged. For me it is $475.
I worked in ER and now work in IB. Obviously, the CFA isn’t as useful in IB. In any case, once you reach a certain level the CFA is irrelevant IMO.
Thinking of $475 as a percentage of salary is illogical…thinking in terms of percentages is a common satisficing method. What you should do is cost-benefit analysis. I’m forcing my firm to pay these fees when instead they could be paying me more money….theoretically. Should the CFA Institute and NYSSA just keep charging you as high as you are willing to pay? Aren’t they not for profit organizations? What are they spending all this money on and why so much? If they cut their expenses, would it even matter? Why all the bureacracy?
I don’t choose fund managers based on whether they passed the CFA. I don’t choose equity analysts by CFA. I may hire a junior person based on the CFA. But once you are beyond the junior level, the CFA doesn’t matter anymore IMO.