Referral Program Terms

Effective September 15, 2026. These terms apply to referrals made on or after that date.

How the referral program works

Share your code with a colleague. If they enroll in an IBF designation program and use it, they take $400 off their tuition. Fourteen days after their enrollment clears, we send you a $400 discount code for your own next designation.

That is the whole program. There is no points system, no ledger, and nothing to track.

1. What the savings are

The person you refer gets $400 off the tuition for any of the eight IBF designation programs.

You get a one-use $400 discount code good toward your own next designation program.

Both are discounts on a purchase. Neither one is cash, and neither is a balance you can withdraw.

2. Who can refer

Anyone with a My IBF Connect account: members, graduates, and currently enrolled candidates. Candidates become eligible once they have passed at least one exam.

IBF employees and contractors cannot participate.

3. One code per order

A code applies to one order and does not combine with other codes or offers. If you hold more than one, use whichever one you want. They cannot be stacked, and a code cannot be split across two orders.

The referral discount applies to standard tuition and is not combinable with promotional pricing. When promotional pricing is active, the greater discount applies.

4. Who counts as a referral

The person you refer has to be new to IBF. That means they are not currently enrolled, have not enrolled before, and have not been in contact with our enrollment team in the last 30 days.

You cannot refer yourself, and you cannot use your own code.

If we cannot tell whether a referral is new, we hold your discount code and someone from Student Services looks at it within five business days. Your colleague keeps their $400 either way.

5. How many

Five referrals per twelve months, so at most $2,000 in discount codes to you in any twelve-month period. When you reach five and the twelve months roll over, contact Student Services and we will issue a fresh code within five business days.

6. Timing

Your discount code is issued 14 days after your colleague's enrollment, once the refund window has closed. If they cancel and are refunded inside those 14 days, no code is issued.

If your colleague's enrollment is refunded after we have already issued your code, we can void it as long as you have not used it yet. If you have already used it, we leave it alone.

Your code is good for 12 months from the day we issue it. We email a reminder 60 days before it expires.

The code you share with colleagues does not expire. Use it whenever it comes up.

7. Limits on the codes

Codes are tied to the person they are issued to. They cannot be sold, given away, or transferred. They have no cash value, and they apply to designation program tuition only, not to membership dues.

8. What we do with your colleague's details

When you send a referral we create a record for the person you referred, so the savings land on the right order and the referral is recorded against your name.

We may follow up with them, and here is the limit we hold ourselves to. The email you send does the work. If they get in touch, we help them. If we hear nothing, Student Services may call once, twice at the outside. We are not going to badger someone you vouched for, and we are not adding them to a marketing list.

If you would rather we did not contact them at all, say so when you send the referral or call (800) 848-2029.

We handle their information the same way we handle everyone else's. Our privacy policy covers what we keep and what we do with it.

The person you referred can have that record deleted whenever they want. They can reply to any email we send them and say so, or call (800) 848-2029, and Student Services removes it. Deleting the record does not affect the $400 if they have already enrolled and used the code.

9. Things to check on your end

Referral savings may be subject to your firm's gift and outside activity policies. Check with your compliance department if unsure.

Two more, depending on how you work:

If you hold an insurance license, do not present the referral offer alongside the sale of an insurance product. Several states treat anything of value offered in connection with an insurance transaction as rebating, and this program is not worth the question.

Our share tools are private on purpose: email, text, and copy-link. If you choose to post your code publicly instead, FTC endorsement rules require you to say that you receive a discount when someone uses it.

10. Abuse

We can hold or cancel a code, and decline a referral, if it looks like the program is being worked rather than used. Posting a code somewhere public, referring people who were already talking to us, and running referrals through addresses that trace back to you all qualify.

11. Changes

We can change or end this program whenever we need to. Referrals already enrolled and codes already issued are honored under the terms that applied when they were issued, except where section 10 applies.

Questions

Call (800) 848-2029 or email Student Services.