What licenses do financial advisors need?

Each row is one kind of work, with the exams it takes and the step that lets you start.

These are exam fees as FINRA listed them in October 2026^3-6, and they can change. FINRA also charges $125¹² for a first Form U4 and $33¹³ for each electronic fingerprint submission, and states charge their own registration fees. Ask a firm whether it pays these fees or passes them on to you. The licensing cost and time tool adds the fees for your state.

The Series 66 costs $157^5-7 less in exam fees than the Series 63 and 65 together, in one sitting instead of two. It counts only alongside the SIE and Series 7, so it helps only people registering on both sides.

Pick the work you want to do, the state you will work in and anything you already hold. The tool returns the exams you still need in order, which ones need a sponsor, the exam fees and the registration step that follows.

• ToolsLicense path finderPick what you want to do and see the exams you need, in order, and which of them need a firm to sponsor you.

To fit these exams around your current job and a start date, use the roadmap builder.

Of the entry exams, only the Series 6 and Series 7.

FINRA requires candidates for those exams to be associated with and sponsored by a member firm. For the Series 63, 65 and 66, NASAA answers the sponsor question "No." If no firm is sponsoring you, you open those enrollment windows yourself through FINRA's Test Enrollment Services System, and the SIE needs no firm at all. How career changers get a firm to sponsor them is covered in how to get a firm to sponsor your Series 7.

How long is each exam, and what does it cost?

The NASAA exams also carry a few unscored questions that do not count toward your result. For practice, Advisor Train groups the securities representative exams and the investment adviser representative exams in order.

Many pages call the Series exams "licenses." FINRA and NASAA do not, and the difference decides when you can start working.

Insurance runs on its own track. State insurance regulators license producers directly, with no FINRA filing.

Sponsorship sets the order.

The exams that need no firm can be taken whenever you are ready, including before any firm hires you. The Series 6 or 7 comes once a firm sponsors you. Each pass also starts a clock, shown in the next table, so a pass taken too early can expire before a firm registers you.

To sell securities

To advise for a fee

To do both

Take the SIE, get sponsored for the Series 7, then add the Series 66. Registering as an agent gives you Series 63 credit, and registering as an IAR gives you Series 65 credit.

To start with insurance

Get your state producer license first. Take the SIE whenever you like, then add the Series 6 (or Series 7) and the Series 63 once a broker-dealer sponsors you.

Two of these shape the order for a career changer. Passing the SIE years before you look for a sponsored job can waste it, and a Series 65 taken alone needs a firm to register you before the two-year rule runs out. How long it takes to become a financial advisor turns these clocks into a timeline.

No. NASAA says "most states" require the Series 63, the state law exam for securities agents, which is not every state. The state rules themselves, as read October 2026, show the exceptions.

For IARs, every one of these states accepts the Series 65, and every one accepts the Series 66 with the SIE and Series 7. Fees, renewal and continuing education rules for each state are in the state guides.

Only if you will sell insurance.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) says anyone who sells, solicits or negotiates insurance must be licensed as a producer, and your state insurance department issues the license. Under the NAIC model act, which states adapt into their own laws, you are licensed by line of authority, such as life (which covers annuities), accident and health or sickness, and variable life and variable annuity products.

Variable annuities and variable life sit on both sides of the line. FINRA says they are regulated by state insurance commissioners and, as securities, by the SEC and FINRA. Selling them takes a securities registration (the SIE with the Series 6 or 7, plus the Series 63 where the state requires it) and an insurance license for variable products, which the NAIC model act lists as its own line of authority.

Your home state issues your resident license. Selling to people in other states takes a nonresident license in each one, a process NAIC says federal law has sought to streamline through reciprocity.

• Continuing education. FINRA Rule 1240 requires every registered person to complete the Regulatory Element each year. IARs in states that have adopted NASAA's model rule need 12 credits a year³⁵.
• Adding a registration. A registered representative who later wants to advise for a fee adds the Series 65 or 66. An IAR who wants to sell securities adds the SIE, then the Series 7 with a sponsoring broker-dealer, then the Series 63 where the state requires it. The two exams are compared side by side in Series 7 vs Series 65. The differences between the two kinds of firm are in broker-dealer vs RIA careers.
• CFP® certification. A voluntary credential from CFP Board, not a license. It takes education, the CFP® exam (170³⁶ questions), 6,000³⁷ hours of experience or 4,000³⁷ on the apprenticeship pathway, and an ethics commitment. NASAA says most states accept it, along with the ChFC, CFA, PFS and CIMA designations, in place of the Series 65 exam. The details are in CFP® certification requirements.

• Series 7 vs Series 65Which one your work needs, which comes first, and when you need both.
• CFP® certification requirementsEducation, exam, experience and ethics, and where the credential fits.
• Form U4 and background checksWhat the registration form asks and what can stop a registration.