Series 7

Passing the Series 7 — in combination with the Securities Industry Essentials examination — results in registration as a General Securities Representative under FINRA Rule 1220(b)(2) — the most comprehensive representative-level registration available and the foundational credential for a career as a full-service registered representative at a FINRA member broker-dealer firm. 

The examination is universally recognised in the securities industry as the standard credential demonstrating professional competency to conduct the full range of securities business with the investing public, and it is the qualification for which this Financial Regulation Courses dictionary has been comprehensively developed.

The Role the Series 7 Qualifies — The General Securities Representative

The General Securities Representative is the securities industry professional who serves as the primary point of contact between a broker-dealer firm and its customers — soliciting accounts, gathering customer financial information to assess investment suitability, recommending securities appropriate to each customer's profile, executing transactions, maintaining account records, processing customer instructions, and conducting all the customer-facing activities that constitute the retail and institutional securities business of a FINRA member firm.

The word general in General Securities Representative is the defining characteristic — it means the holder's authorised product scope is unrestricted across securities product categories. Unlike the Series 6 — which limits the holder to packaged investment products including mutual funds and variable annuities — or the Series 57 — which limits the holder to proprietary trading and market making activities — the Series 7 authorises the full spectrum of securities activities without product restriction. A Series 7 registered representative may recommend and execute transactions in individual stocks, individual bonds, government securities, municipal securities, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds both on offering and in the secondary market, variable annuities, variable life insurance, direct participation programme interests, and listed equity and index options.

The Regulatory Framework — FINRA Rule 1220(b)(2)

The General Securities Representative registration is established and governed by FINRA Rule 1220(b)(2), which specifies the examination requirements and the scope of permitted activities for this registration category. FINRA Rule 1210 — the general individual registration rule — specifies the eligibility requirements including the requirement that the candidate be associated with and sponsored by a FINRA member firm and the requirement that the Securities Industry Essentials examination be passed as a corequisite.

Every individual who engages in the solicitation, purchase, or sale of securities products on behalf of a FINRA member broker-dealer must hold the appropriate representative-level registration before conducting those activities. No individual may transact securities business with customers without first passing the required qualification examinations and completing the registration process through Form U4 filing with the Central Registration Depository system.

Eligibility Requirements — Firm Sponsorship Required

Unlike the NASAA-developed state law examinations — the Series 63, Series 65, and Series 66 — which can be taken without firm sponsorship and without passing the SIE as a prerequisite, the Series 7 requires active association with and sponsorship by a FINRA member firm or other applicable SRO member firm as an absolute condition of eligibility. No individual may sit for the Series 7 without firm sponsorship — the employing or prospective employing broker-dealer must file a Form U4 through the CRD system requesting that the candidate's testing window be opened before the candidate can schedule the examination.

The Securities Industry Essentials examination is a corequisite — candidates must pass both the SIE and the Series 7 to obtain the General Securities Representative registration. The two examinations may be taken in either order — a candidate may pass the SIE first and then sit for the Series 7, or may pass the Series 7 first and then sit for the SIE — but both must be passed and both results must be valid at the time registration is requested. The SIE result is valid for four years — meaning a candidate who passed the SIE may wait up to four years before passing the Series 7 without needing to retake the SIE. The Series 7 result lapses after two years of separation from any FINRA member firm — an individual who leaves the industry without re-associating with a member firm within two years must retake the Series 7 to resume registration.

The Examination Format

The Series 7 examination consists of one hundred and twenty-five scored multiple-choice questions — all questions are scored, with no unscored pretest questions unlike many other FINRA qualification examinations. Candidates have three hours and forty-five minutes to complete the examination. The passing score is seventy-two percent — ninety of one hundred and twenty-five questions must be answered correctly. The examination is administered through Prometric testing centres across the United States.

The absence of unscored pretest questions in the Series 7 — in contrast to the SIE and other FINRA examinations that contain five to ten unscored questions — means that every single question on the Series 7 counts toward the final score and contributes to the pass or fail determination. Candidates should approach every question with full effort and commitment rather than assuming some questions may not count.

The Four Major Job Functions — The Content Architecture

FINRA organises the Series 7 examination content around four major job functions — the actual tasks and responsibilities that a general securities representative performs in daily practice. This job-function architecture ensures that the examination tests applied professional knowledge rather than abstract conceptual understanding — the examination is designed to assess whether a candidate can competently perform the actual work of a registered representative, not merely whether they have memorised regulatory provisions in isolation.

Function One — Seeks Business for the Broker-Dealer from Customers and Potential Customers — accounts for nine percent of the examination — eleven questions. This function covers the regulatory framework governing how registered representatives may prospect for new customers, communicate with potential customers, and describe their firm's services and products. It includes the rules governing communications with the public under FINRA Rule 2210 — the distinction between retail communications, correspondence, and institutional communications, the review and approval requirements for each category, the prohibition on misleading or unbalanced communications, and the specific rules applicable to advertising investment company products, variable products, and options. It also covers the regulatory obligations applicable to social media and electronic communications, the anti-money laundering awareness obligations applicable to identifying suspicious patterns in new client acquisition, and the Bank Secrecy Act's customer identification programme requirements.

Function Two — Opens Accounts after Obtaining and Evaluating Customers' Financial Profile and Investment Objectives — accounts for eleven percent of the examination — fourteen questions. This function covers the account opening process and the comprehensive Know Your Customer obligations that every registered representative must discharge before making any recommendation. It includes the FINRA Rule 4512 customer account information requirements — name, address, date of birth, tax identification number, employment, annual income, net worth, investment objectives, and investment experience — and the FINRA Rule 2090 Know Your Customer obligation to obtain and retain essential facts about each customer throughout the account relationship. It covers the types of accounts available — individual cash and margin accounts, joint accounts with their survivorship and tenancy in common structures, retirement accounts including IRAs and employer-sponsored plans, custodial accounts under the Uniform Gifts to Minors Act and Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, trust accounts, corporate accounts, partnership accounts, and discretionary accounts. It includes the specific documentation requirements for each account type, the options account approval requirements of FINRA Rule 2360 and the Options Disclosure Document delivery requirement under Exchange Act Rule 9b-1, and the regulatory framework governing discretionary account authorisation and trading.

Function Three — Provides Customers with Information about Investments, Makes Recommendations, Transfers Assets, and Maintains Appropriate Records — accounts for the largest portion of the examination at seventy-three percent — ninety-one questions. This is the substantive product knowledge and suitability core of the Series 7 examination — the section that tests whether a candidate understands the securities products they will be recommending and executing, the regulatory framework governing each product category, and the suitability and best interest obligations applicable to every customer recommendation. This function encompasses the full breadth of securities products covered by the Series 7 including equities — common stock, preferred stock, rights, warrants; debt securities — corporate bonds, government securities, agency securities, municipal bonds, zero coupon bonds, mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities, convertible bonds; options — the complete options framework including puts and calls, all four basic positions, the options Greeks, multi-leg strategies including spreads, straddles, strangles, covered calls, and protective puts; investment company products — mutual funds with their fee structures and breakpoints, closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds, unit investment trusts; variable products — variable annuities and variable life insurance; direct participation programmes — real estate limited partnerships, oil and gas programmes, equipment leasing programmes; and retirement accounts — IRAs, qualified plans, Roth IRAs. Within each product category, candidates must understand the product's characteristics, its tax treatment, the regulatory framework governing its offering and distribution, and the investment considerations relevant to making suitable recommendations under FINRA Rule 2111 and Regulation Best Interest. This function also covers portfolio analysis concepts including diversification, Modern Portfolio Theory, risk measures including alpha, beta, standard deviation, and Sharpe ratio, economic analysis, and fundamental and technical analysis.

Function Four — Obtains and Verifies Customers' Purchase and Sale Instructions and Agreements, Processes, Completes, and Confirms Transactions — accounts for seven percent of the examination — nine questions. This function covers the operational mechanics of executing and confirming customer transactions — including the types of orders and their execution mechanics covered in the Order Types entry of this dictionary, the settlement cycle and the T plus one standard effective May 28, 2024 under SEC Rule 15c6-1, the confirmation requirements for securities transactions under FINRA Rule 2232 and Regulation S-X, the margin account mechanics under Regulation T and FINRA Rule 4210, the short selling framework of Regulation SHO, the books and records requirements of Exchange Act Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4, and the customer complaint handling and arbitration framework.

The Series 7 as the Foundation of This Dictionary

The Financial Regulation Courses dictionary — for which this entry is written — is specifically calibrated to the Series 7 and related examinations. Every entry in the dictionary has been developed to provide the institutional-quality educational content necessary for Series 7 examination success — grounded in the primary regulatory sources, court cases, accounting standards, and statutory frameworks that the Series 7 tests directly and indirectly.

The Series 7 examination tests not merely definitions but the applied understanding of how regulatory provisions, product characteristics, market mechanics, and conduct standards interact in the real-world practice of a registered representative. Preparing for the Series 7 effectively requires understanding why rules exist and how they apply to specific scenarios — not merely memorising the text of regulatory provisions. The dictionary's approach of embedding regulatory citations in analytical prose, providing worked examples, and connecting concepts to examination application reflects this applied examination philosophy.

The Series 7 and State Registration — The Series 63 and Series 66 Relationship

The Series 7 provides federal FINRA registration as a General Securities Representative — authorising the holder to conduct securities business as a broker-dealer agent under the federal regulatory framework of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and FINRA's rules. But the Series 7 alone does not satisfy state securities registration requirements — most states additionally require that registered representatives pass the Series 63 or an equivalent state law examination before soliciting securities transactions with investors residing in that state.

The typical full-registration pathway for a registered representative at a national firm is the SIE plus the Series 7 for federal FINRA registration, plus the Series 63 for state securities agent registration in most states. A representative who also provides investment advice for compensation — functioning as both a broker-dealer agent and an investment adviser representative — needs the Series 65 or Series 66 in addition to the Series 7 to satisfy both state registration requirements.

The Series 7 and the Investment Adviser Framework

Passing the Series 7 and obtaining General Securities Representative registration provides federal FINRA broker-dealer registration — it does not by itself constitute registration as an investment adviser or investment adviser representative. A Series 7 holder who charges clients a separate fee for investment advice — creating an investment advisory relationship rather than a broker-dealer transaction relationship — must separately register as an investment adviser representative under state law and comply with the fiduciary standards applicable to registered investment advisers under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

However, the August 2020 amendments to the SEC's accredited investor definition under Regulation D added the Series 7 licence holder — when held in good standing — as a qualifying basis for accredited investor status, recognising that the Series 7 demonstrates professional securities knowledge sufficient to evaluate private placement investment opportunities without the investor protection framework of registration — the same knowledge-based recognition that NASAA's professional designation waivers for the Series 65 reflect.

Retake Rules and Examination Validity

A candidate who fails the Series 7 may retake it after a thirty-day waiting period following the first and second failed attempts. After a third failed attempt, the candidate must wait one hundred and eighty days before sitting for the examination again. Each subsequent failure following the third also requires a one hundred and eighty day waiting period. There is no lifetime limit on the number of times the Series 7 may be attempted.

As noted above, the Series 7 result is valid for an unlimited period while the candidate remains associated with a FINRA member firm — there is no expiration of the examination result during active employment. Upon separation from all FINRA member firms, the two-year lapse clock begins — if the candidate does not re-associate with a member firm within two years, the Series 7 result lapses and the examination must be retaken. FINRA's Maintaining Qualifications Programme — for candidates who have been continuously registered for at least one year immediately prior to their termination — allows separated individuals to maintain the validity of their Series 7 result for up to five additional years beyond the standard two-year lapse period by completing continuing education requirements through FINRA's FinPro system.

Examination Relevance and Key Takeaways

The Series 7 is referenced throughout every examination in the securities licensing framework — it is the foundational qualification for the securities industry and the examination this dictionary is comprehensively designed to support.

The key points to retain are these.

The Series 7 — General Securities Representative Qualification Examination — is administered by FINRA and qualifies individuals as General Securities Representatives under FINRA Rule 1220(b)(2) — the broadest representative-level registration authorising solicitation, purchase, and sale of all securities products including corporate securities, municipal securities, investment company products, variable annuities, direct participation programmes, options, government securities, and exchange-traded funds. Eligibility requires active association with and sponsorship by a FINRA member firm — firm sponsorship is a mandatory condition, distinguishing the Series 7 from state law examinations that do not require sponsorship. The SIE is a corequisite — both must be passed to obtain the General Securities Representative registration; they may be taken in either order.

The examination consists of one hundred and twenty-five scored questions — all scored, no unscored pretest questions — over three hours and forty-five minutes. Passing score is seventy-two percent — ninety correct answers out of one hundred and twenty-five. The four major job functions are Seeks Business — nine percent; Opens Accounts — eleven percent; Provides Information and Makes Recommendations — seventy-three percent; Processes Transactions — seven percent. The seventy-three percent allocated to Function Three reflects the examination's primary emphasis on product knowledge and the suitability and best interest framework governing customer recommendations. The Series 7 result lapses after two years of separation from all FINRA member firms — FINRA's Maintaining Qualifications Programme can extend validity for up to five additional years for qualifying separated individuals. The Series 7 provides federal FINRA registration only — state securities agent registration requires the Series 63 or equivalent in most states, and state investment adviser representative registration requires the Series 65 or Series 66.