I have been working in L&H reinsurance and pending my last (SA exam) this Sept. I am looking to move to capital transactions and M&A team within my organisation where CFA qualification is very strongly recommended and well regarded, so I may take on that path at some stage. Wanted to know if there are any exemptions for actuaries to any of the CFA exams?
Nope, there are no exemptions from CFA. You are looking at min. 3 years of studying to get the designation. Level 1 is offered twice a year but Level 2 and 3 only once a year.
I'm considering taking the exams from next year. It looks like it can be done in 1.5 years between first and last exam (assuming you take level 1 in December), and if you consider the fact that Level 1 won't require much work if you still remember all the relevant content from actuarial exams, you can complete the qualification in much less than 3 years. This is of course ignoring the "work experience" requirements. Unfortunately, exemptions are not offered. If anybody else is considering both CFA and actuarial exams and hasn't yet started, it could well be worth doing it the other way round or simultaneously. If you do the CFA exams you will be granted exemptions from 5(?) of the actuarial exams.
