NASAA state exams

NASAA — the North American Securities Administrators Association, the state securities regulators — develops three exams, and FINRA administers them. The Series 63 is the state-law exam for broker-dealer agents; the Series 65 is the Uniform Investment Adviser Law Examination for investment adviser representatives; the Series 66 combines the two for candidates who will do both jobs. This family page holds the Series 65 and 66; the Series 63 is listed with the FINRA Series exams because it is almost always taken alongside the Series 6 or 7.

The choice between 65 and 66 turns on the Series 7. The Series 65 stands alone: no prerequisite, no co-requisite, no sponsor required, so it is the exam for fee-only advisers and for anyone entering advice without a broker-dealer. The Series 66 is paired with the Series 7 — it drops the product knowledge the 7 already tests and covers state law for both agents and adviser representatives — so it only makes sense if you hold or are taking the 7.

NASAA also sets the rules around the exams: the waiting periods after a failed attempt, the test-centre-only delivery of the Series 63, and the continuing-education requirement for investment adviser representatives, which splits annual credits between ethics and products-and-practice content.

Because these are state-law exams, passing one is the exam half of a state registration, not the whole of it. The state securities regulator still registers you — as an agent of a broker-dealer for the Series 63, as an investment adviser representative for the 65 or 66 — on the firm's or adviser's filing, and each state applies its own examination waivers for candidates who hold certain professional designations or who were registered recently enough. The exam pages note the waiver categories NASAA recognises; the state decides whether to grant them.