ASPA Question

[stevena]

Does anyone know if the ASPA QKA designation is considered a "lesser" designation than the QPA? I got the QKA instead of the QPA becasue I dont work with DB plans at all. However, coworkers consider it a lesser designation.

I thought they were the same, only focused in different directions....

[Tom Poje]

I'm not wild about the term 'lesser', but for lack of something better I guess that would be true.

All QPA's are QKA's, but not all QKA's are QPA's (unless I don't remember the difference between the two)

I have known some QKAs who I would say are a lot smarter than QPAs - if you are talking non DB stuff.

Who would you rather have process a 401k - a genius QKA or an average QPA?

If it helps, I jokingly say that the QPA's today are 'softies' compared to when I took the tests.

Shoot, we used to get penalized for wrong answers. Plus we had to know a bunch of 'extra' stuff that has been eliminated by much of the pension simplification over the last few years.

[R. Butler]

Shoot, we used to get penalized for wrong answers. Plus we had to know a bunch of 'extra' stuff that has been eliminated by much of the pension simplification over the last few years.

Ya, ya, ya and my grandparents used to have to walk to school both ways in 10 feet of snow.

Unless its recently changed QKA's have to pass the Daily Val exam & QPAs don't. But lets be honest, the only thing they can really do to make that exam easier is to actually reference the page number & paragraph where the answer can be found in the question.

[stevena]

Hmmm...guess I was wrong. I thought the QKA was equivalent to the QPA

I wish I could get another designation from ASPA that would not include DB stuff. Oh well

[Tom Poje]

Mr. Butler:

And your grandparents probably had to do trudge through that snow in Hawaii!

............

Things have come quite far on the tests. We used to get copies of the test, and you could go back over the questions. That was kind of nice. But I still recall finding the answer to one question in a footnote of a some pension book. Just be glad they don't do that anymore!

All kidding aside, be proud of your designation. Obviously now you have to earn continuing ed credit to maintain that designation.

[R. Butler]

Stevena,

Its only 1 exam, you can do it. I'm taking it this fall; I'm lazy, if I can do it, anybody can.

I have a few other other designations & I must say that I do get more out of the contiuing ed that pertains to ASPA than I do for the other stuff.

[doombuggy]

I have to say this ~ you are now honored with the designation, and can funnel more money into ASPA to keep it.

[Blinky the 3-eyed Fish]

At our office the QPA's shun the QKA's for their lesser designation. The MSPA's shun everybody and sit in their office. The CPC's ask if we can just all get along.

[david rigby]

In our office, the EA's are the ones who make the decisions.