What Is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)? Definition, Exams

What Is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)?

By Adam Levy – Updated Oct 8, 2025 at 3:38 AM

Key Points

CFA designation requires passing three sequential exams with a high failure rate.
CFAs typically work in corporate finance roles and higher education is not mandatory.
Candidates should prepare for 300 hours per exam and manage significant exam fees.

Chartered financial analyst is a designation offered to investment and financial professionals after completing a series of exams through the CFA Institute. Candidates must pass three levels of exams in sequential order, all of which have a high failure rate. If someone holds a CFA charter, they can put those three letters after their name to show they’ve built a strong foundation in advanced investment analysis and portfolio management.

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a graphic defining the term cfa — Image source: The Motley Fool

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About the Author

Adam Levy is a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst covering technology, consumer, and financial stocks and how policy, economic, and consumer trends shape personal finance, Social Security and retirement savings. Before The Motley Fool, Adam was a financial advisor at Edward Jones. He studied finance and electrical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

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