← All SIE guides · 5 minute read · Reviewed August 2026
Series 7 vs Series 66: what each is for
They are not competitors; they are teammates. The Series 7 is FINRA's license to SELL securities. The Series 66 is the NASAA state exam that lets the same person also give ADVICE as an investment adviser representative. The standard brokerage advisor takes both, usually back to back, because a modern advisor both transacts and advises. Here is what each one is, and the order that makes sense.
Side by side
| Series 7 | Series 66 | |
|---|---|---|
| Run by | FINRA | NASAA (FINRA administers) |
| What it licenses | Selling nearly all securities as a registered representative | Registering as both securities agent and investment adviser rep, once paired with a Series 7 |
| Questions | 125 scored, 3 h 45 min | 100 scored |
| Passing score | 72 | 73 |
| Fee | $395 | $177 |
| Sponsor to sit it | Yes, plus a passed SIE | No |
Checked on finra.org and nasaa.org, August 2026.
How they differ in the chair
The 7 is the bigger project: 91 of its 125 questions come from product knowledge and recommendations, heavy on options math and municipal structure. The 66 is smaller but reads harder per question: dense Uniform Securities Act wording, registration triggers, exclusions and exemptions, and fiduciary rules, the kind of exam where two answers look right until you notice one word. People routinely describe the 7 as a marathon and the 66 as a minefield.
Which first?
Most firms run the 7 first, then the 66 within a few weeks, and that order works: the 66 assumes investment knowledge the 7 just forced you to learn, so the incremental study for the 66 is mostly its law layer. You can legally sit the 66 first (no sponsor needed), but it does not confer anything until a Series 7 joins it, so solo-first only makes sense if you are stockpiling exams before a job. If advice-only is your actual goal, the Series 65 path skips the 7 entirely.
The bottom line
Take the 7 to sell, add the 66 to advise, in that order for most people. Passline is building free prep for both, the Series 7 first: your free account is the waitlist, and it works for the 66 the day that one lands too.