Accredited Financial Analyst (AFA) Review
Our take: The Accredited Financial Analyst (AFA) certification seems less like an actual designation, more like a cash machine for the for-profit company that offers it.
There are almost no requirements to receive the designation, other than to fork over some money for it. The sponsoring organization, the Global Academy of Finance and Management, offers more than 14 designations. There seems to be no requirement for unique education specific to the AFA designation, or even an exam.
If your financial advisor touts this designation, you might want to ask, “Dude. Why?”
Accredited Financial Analyst (AFA)
Offered by: Global Academy of Finance and Management
Website: https://www.gafm.com/page/AFA
Overall summary
Here’s a summary of how the AFA designation stacks up on our criteria.
Feature |
Accredited Financial Analyst (AFA)
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Overall | |
Nonprofit | |
Independent accreditation | |
Exam required | |
Number of questions | |
Continuing Education requirement | |
Background check | |
Ethics requirement | |
Fiduciary requirement | |
Consumer complaint forum | |
Check credential status |
Compare financial advisor certifications
Check out how advisor certifications stack up against each other.
Feature |
Accredited Financial Analyst (AFA)
|
Accredited Wealth Management Advisor (AWMA)
|
Certified Financial Planner (CFP)
|
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
|
Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC)
|
Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP)
|
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Overall | ||||||
Nonprofit | ||||||
Independent accreditation | ||||||
Exam required | ||||||
Number of questions | ||||||
Continuing Education requirement | ||||||
Background check | ||||||
Ethics requirement | ||||||
Fiduciary requirement | ||||||
Consumer complaint forum | ||||||
Check credential status |
Which certification is best for a financial analyst?
The best certification for a financial analyst is the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. The CFA requires advisors to have 4,000 hours, or about 2 years, of work experience in a related field, plus pass three exams totaling more than 300 questions. The average pass rate on those exams? Less than 50%. It’s such a challenging credential that earning it signifies a financial advisor who’s smart, experienced and willing to work hard. The CFA is considered probably the best certification for financial analysts.
Methodology
To generate star ratings for financial advisor certifications, investor.com ranks the certification on each of 10 criteria. Below are the questions we sought to answer for each certification. We then applied a weighted score for each response, leading to an overall star rating for each certification.
- Is the organization that offers the certification nonprofit or for-profit?
- Is the certification accredited by an independent, third-party organization?
- Is an exam required to earn the certification?
- How many questions are on the exam?
- Is a background check required of certificants?
- Is continuing education required to maintain the certification?
- Is there any type of ethics requirement, e.g. certificants must sign a code of ethics?
- Is the certificant required to agree to an explicit fiduciary duty in interactions with clients?
- Can consumers easily submit a complaint against a certificant?
- Can consumers easily check advisors’ certification status online?
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