How Investment Firms Can Navigate CFA Specialized Pathways

CFA^® candidates, who have moved on to Level III, are near the end of the long and challenging journey towards achieving the CFA charter. Starting with the 2025 exams, CFA Institute announced a major change to the CFA Program. Level III candidates will now need to select one of three ‘Specialized Pathways’ at registration:

1. Portfolio Management

2. Private Wealth

3. Private Markets

In addition to the traditional Portfolio Management pathway, candidates will have two additional pathways from which to choose. The additions of the Private Wealth and Private Markets pathways offer new and exciting opportunities for CFA candidates.

Retention is a Priority

CFA charterholders are highly talented professionals and retaining them should be a priority. Your organization has likely been supporting CFA candidates in a number of ways throughout their journey, including exam fee reimbursement, exam prep cost reimbursement, flexible work hours, and candidate mentoring.

With the CFA charter in sight, finding meaningful ways to keep Level III candidates engaged and loyal to your firm is paramount to retaining them. As the CFA candidates in your organization consider which specialized pathway to pursue, your organization has an opportunity to offer insight and guidance.

Proactively Initiate Conversations About CFA Specialized Pathways

We recommend that you proactively initiate conversations with candidates about the specialized pathways. It demonstrates that you value your candidates. When done with forethought and purpose, these discussions can benefit both the candidate and your organization. When having those discussions, here are a few things to consider.

Job Role and Specialized Pathway Alignment

A good place to start is for your candidates to understand the types of roles associated with each pathway. Here’s a high-level list of some of the more prominent job roles for each pathway.

Your CFA Candidates’ Interest Come First

When selecting a CFA specialized pathway, the primary consideration should rightly be an alignment of the selected pathway with the candidate’s personal and career interests. Nevertheless, many candidates will likely turn to colleagues or their management team for advice.

Being prepared to have candid discussions about the pathways, and associated career opportunities in the organization, as well as trends and opportunities in the broader industry, can be a real benefit to your candidates. Having a strategy in place to guide these discussions will be a real benefit to the organization.

As part of any discussion, encourage your Level III candidates to perform their own research on each pathway. Have them perform due diligence, such as reviewing the topics and content covered in each pathway, to make sure they make the best choices for them!

Map CFA Specialized Pathways to Target Positions in Your Firm

Career advancement and personal growth are among the top motivators for pursuing the CFA charter. Proactively holding honest discussions about real advancement opportunities for CFA candidates will help keep these valuable employees engaged. Taking this a step further, demonstrating how a specialized pathway maps to target positions in your organization can better help with their retention.

Understand Your Current Skill Mix and the Future Direction of Your Firm

Understanding the current skill mix and turnover rate of highly skilled finance employees in your organization, coupled with the future direction of your firm, can provide you with insights that help guide discussions with your CFA candidates about the specialized pathways and opportunities in your firm.

• Does your firm need skill sets associated with a particular pathway?

• Does your firm’s business strategy require an increase in skills aligned with a particular specialized pathway?

For example, a firm that anticipates growth in its private client wealth management and monetization planning business may want to guide some of the CFA candidates in its organization to the Private Wealth pathway to support the projected growth.

Prepare with the CFA Industry Leader

For over 35 years Kaplan Schweser has helped more than 700,000 candidates prepare for the CFA exams. CFA candidates who prep with Kaplan Schweser are more likely to pass than those who prep with other providers.*

To learn how Kaplan Schweser can successfully help your CFA candidates pass the CFA exams contact your National Account Director today.

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