QFA Qualification Ireland: The 6 Modules, IOB vs LIA vs III, Cost and Time

The QFA (Qualified Financial Adviser) is the Irish designation that lets you advise on, or arrange, five categories of retail financial products under the Central Bank of Ireland’s Minimum Competency Code: life assurance, pensions, savings and investments, housing loans and consumer credit. The route to it is six modules: five exams of 100 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours (Regulation, Life Assurance, Loans, Investment and Pensions) and a case-study capstone. On the pages we read, two bodies run the six-module programme: IOB (the Professional Diploma in Financial Advice, awarded by University College Dublin) and LIA (the Certificate in Professional Financial Advice, awarded by Atlantic Technological University). Completing the programme is the academic step; IOB, for example, says members who complete the six modules then receive an invitation for the designation. LIA says “over 22,000 professionals nationwide” hold the designation. This page sets out what the QFA covers, the six modules, how the providers compare, the published fees, the entry rules, the time it takes and where the shorter APA fits in. Independent — not affiliated with IOB, LIA or III. ProSyllabus is an independent study site and nothing here is official: every format fact, date and fee below is quoted or summarised from the official pages listed at the end of this page, read on 27 October 2026.

IOB programme page and LIA QFA course page, read 27 October 2026.

The Minimum Competency Code (MCC) sets minimum professional standards for people who advise on or arrange retail financial products for consumers. In outline (Section 1.3 of the Code sets out the full conditions), to do that work you must hold a recognised qualification relevant to the function, be a grandfathered person (for mortgage credit, only up to 21 March 2019), be a new entrant in a supervised training process, or come within the Code’s transitional or prescribed-script provisions; MiFID functions also need relevant experience, and qualified persons must meet the CPD requirement. Appendix 4 of the Code lists the recognised qualifications for each of its eight product categories. The Qualified Financial Adviser of the “Institute of Banking School of Professional Finance, LIA and The Insurance Institute of Ireland” is listed for five of them. LIA puts it the same way: the designation “satisfies the Central Bank’s Minimum Competency Code (MCC) requirements for advising on and selling five of the eight categories of retail financial products outlined in the Code.”

People use “QFA” for two things. The qualification is the academic award: IOB’s Professional Diploma in Financial Advice, “a special purpose award and a level 7 qualification on the National Framework of Qualifications” from UCD, or LIA’s Level 7 Certificate in Professional Financial Advice from ATU. The designation is the letters after your name. IOB says that on completing the six modules members “will receive an invitation for the Qualified Financial Adviser Designation”, and that “Continued use of the QFA designation is subject to meeting annual CPD requirements.” The Insurance Institute describes a designation as “your licence to trade”, which can be removed if conditions such as membership and CPD are not met.

IOB adds that the designation “is overseen by the QFA Board, which includes representatives from IOB, the Insurance Institute and LIA.” QQI describes “The 10-level National Framework of Qualifications” and defines special purpose awards as being for “relatively narrow or purpose-specific achievement”. The QFA itself is a professional designation; IOB’s diploma behind it is a Level 7 special purpose award, not a degree. IOB’s own answer to “Is QFA a degree?” is that it is a professional designation and the diploma is an NFQ level 7 qualification.

Both providers teach the same five multiple-choice modules under the same names and end with a case-study capstone, which IOB calls Financial Planning and LIA calls Financial Advice. Each module carries 5 ECTS credits. LIA says its Financial Advice module “must be completed last”. IOB sets an enrolment condition instead: to enrol for Financial Planning you must be “enrolled for, passed or be exempt from” the first five modules.

The MCC lists the QFA under all three bodies, but on the pages we read only IOB and LIA run the six-module programme. The Insurance Institute’s own route for its members into life assurance and pensions points to them: for a CIP holder who wants a Life APA it says “You need to sit QFA Life Assurance and apply through IoB or LIA.” Its arrangement means its members can do this “without needing to hold multiple memberships”. The Institute’s own entry qualification, the Certificate in Insurance Product Advice (APA), covers personal, commercial and health insurance.

The module fees are published. IOB charges “€470 per module, plus an annual study fee of €80”, and says you “must be a current member of IOB, or become a member” (membership year January to December); its membership page prices IOB Member at €130 a calendar year. LIA lists “€370 per module”. For all six modules, our arithmetic gives €2,820 in IOB module fees and €2,220 at LIA, before IOB’s study fee and membership. Neither provider’s page we read gives a price for books beyond the materials included, or a resit fee.

IOB says the programme is part-time and online, that students “typically take two modules per trimester”, and that at this pace it takes “one year (three trimesters)” to complete; its programme page lists the duration as 3 trimesters. LIA has three sittings a year (January, May and September) and spaces its modules across three Saturdays in each sitting, two modules a day. Study pace is flexible. If you are already in a role, the MCC sets a time limit: the maximum period a new entrant may spend in the supervised training process is “four years in total” (the Code allows a pro-rata adjustment for the statutory leave it specifies, on its conditions, for medically certified long-term illness of at least 2 months, and for a career break), and the new entrant must register for “the first available sitting of the relevant examination which the person could reasonably be expected to sit”, then each available sitting after a failure until the qualification is obtained.

The APA (Accredited Product Adviser) is the shorter step. LIA’s APA page says those “who complete QFA Regulation plus one other module, will be awarded the Accredited Product Adviser (APA) designation for that particular retail product”: Regulation + Loans gives APA Loans, Regulation + Investment gives APA Investment, and so on. LIA adds that “Completing additional modules can lead to further APA designations”, and the same modules count towards the full QFA. Our APA vs QFA guide matches each role to the designation it needs.

If you want to practise the multiple-choice format before you register, the ProSyllabus QFA 3-module pack covers Regulation, Loans and Investment with two full mocks of 100 questions in 2 hours, every answer explained with the Consumer Protection Code, Minimum Competency Code or statute it rests on, a score by topic after each mock, and 4 questions free.

IOB says QFA designates sign up to a CPD scheme and complete “15 CPD hours per year”. The MCC sets the floor: at least one hour of CPD a year for each function you carry out, at least one hour on ethics, no carrying surplus hours into the next year, and where a person subject to the 15-hour requirement fails to complete 15 hours of CPD in a year, the shortfall may be made up by the end of the following year, in addition to that year’s requirement, provided there was no other shortfall within the past five years. LIA awards 8 CPD hours on passing each module.

Each provider supplies its own material. LIA lists a textbook (“The exam will be based on the content covered in the textbook”), lecture slides, audio lectures, a study companion, a chapter weighting table giving “the minimum and maximum number of questions that may appear on your exam paper for each chapter”, a tax factsheet and a ‘Take a Test’ facility with “hundreds of sample multiple-choice questions”. IOB says its programmes are “largely delivered and assessed online”. Whatever practice material you use, check that it reflects the Consumer Protection Code 2025, which came into force on 24 March 2026.

To practise all three multiple-choice modules that sit together in January and in IOB’s extra April sitting, see the ProSyllabus QFA 3-module pack.