is it a violation to use CFA candidate after the name. i.e. John Brown, CFA level III candidate?
It depends…
No, it is not a violation if the person has signed up for the level III exam.
However, it is a violation if the person passed level II but has not signed up for level III yet.
I believe it is a violation to use it on stationary like business cards, etc
Are you sure? I would think this is a violation, as it should always be John Brown, CFA or John Brown is a Level 3 CFA candidate
It looks like a violation t me, because it implies a partial designation. As per CFAI, "There is no partial designation for successfully completing any level of the CFA Program. One may merely state, “I have completed Level I of the CFA Program”
Nevertheless, there are plenty of Linkdin profiles who use CFA candidate L-X after their names…
I believe if someone is using CFA, Level X candidate; there should be a date associated with it like “CFA Level 3 Candidate (June 2016)” since this is clearly stating that one is signed up for the exam and is planning to sit.
Not on a business card. Never on a business card. If the CFAI asks this, I hope to GOD that it’s a “test” question…because I have never seen an example like this.
But you can order/print Business Cards after you find out that you pass Level 3; you just can’t distribute them until you are actually awarded the Charter. This was in one of the Schweser PM tests from Vol. 1.