Many banks, bank-holding companies, boutique financial advisory firms, insurance companies and other financial services require their representatives to take the Series 6 examination.
Once you pass the Series 6 and the attendant state law exam (Series 63), your sponsor (employer) will register you with the SEC and FINRA as a Limited Representative.
While this does not confer the extensive responsibilities of a General Securities Representative (Series 7), nevertheless it does include the type of financial products that most financial service professionals offer to their clients: mutual funds, variable insurance and variable annuity contracts.
The variable insurance and annuity products require that you also pass an insurance exam to be licensed with your State Insurance Commission.
In general the Series 6 examination is easier to pass than the Series 7. It consists of 100 multiple choice questions, which must be completed in 2 hours and 15 minutes.
- Read the study material. I recommend the Series 7 manual and practice exams from Securities Training Corp. at http://stcusa.com
- Plan to spend at least 20 hours a week for 4 to 6 weeks absorbing and understanding this material. If devoting this much time is unappealing for you, you may want to reconsider a career in financial services.
- Take the practice exams. Score 85% or better on the final, closed-book quizzes. This should give you what Warren Buffett calls "a margin of safety" for passing the actual Series 7 test.
If you still find difficulty passing the Series 7, contact me at
Best of luck! Gordon Mitchell Series 7 Tutor
