The Series 26 (Investment Company and Variable Contracts Products Principal) exam has 110 scored questions (plus 10 unscored), a 70% passing score, and a 165-minute limit. The fee is $200, and it requires sponsorship plus the SIE and a Series 6 or 7. It's the principal license of the insurance and bank channels — supervising reps who sell mutual funds, variable annuities, and variable life.
The Series 26 qualifies you as an Investment Company and Variable Contracts Products Principal — the supervisor counterpart to the Series 6. If the Series 6 licenses the field rep selling funds and variable contracts, the Series 26 licenses the person responsible for that rep: approving accounts, reviewing communications and sales practices, overseeing training and registration, and owning compliance for the packaged-products business. It's the standard management credential at insurance broker-dealers, bank programs, and fund distributors.
Its scope mirrors its product set. A Series 26 principal supervises investment company and variable contract business only — not general securities, trading, or underwriting. Managers whose teams sell individual stocks and bonds need the Series 24 instead (or the Series 9/10 for branch sales supervision), which is the main decision point for people weighing principal exams.
| Scored questions | 110 (plus 10 unscored pretest) |
| Time limit | 2 hours 45 minutes (165 minutes) |
| Format | Multiple choice, four options |
| Passing score | 70% |
| Fee | $200 (non-refundable) |
| Prerequisites | Sponsorship + SIE + Series 6 or Series 7 |
| Delivery | Prometric center or online proctored |
The exam is organized around the principal's three broad job dimensions — personnel, the supervisory system itself, and day-to-day sales oversight:
The regulatory center of gravity is exactly where enforcement lives in this channel: share-class suitability, switching and exchange abuse, and communications review. Expect scenario questions where a rep's proposal is almost compliant and your job is to spot the supervisory obligation it triggers.
FINRA doesn't publish a pass rate, and the Series 26 has a reputation as approachable — which is precisely how it catches people. Candidates are typically experienced managers who know the products cold, then discover the exam isn't about products: it's about procedures. What trips them is the precision layer — which communications need principal approval before use versus after, what a branch inspection cycle requires, which day-counts govern complaint reporting — plus judgment questions where the firm's real-world shortcut is exactly the wrong answer.
Plan on 40–70 hours over 4–6 weeks. Weight it toward supervisory procedure and communications rules rather than product review, and get timed practice in: 165 minutes across 120 questions rewards a steady pace and punishes second-guessing on lookalike rules.
Like all FINRA principal exams, the Series 26 is won on differentiated recall — keeping dozens of similar obligations distinct under time pressure. Re-reading procedures makes them familiar; only retrieval practice makes them separable. Testing yourself before you feel ready, spacing reviews so rules resurface right before you'd forget them, and immediately re-learning every miss is the study pattern that matches how the exam actually asks.
Trelos is built entirely around those techniques. It teaches each rule, drills it the way FINRA words it, and schedules your reviews so the supervisory detail sticks — weighted toward the communications and sales-practice material where the Series 26 is decided.
Start the Series 26 on Trelos — freeNo credit card. Feel the retention engine work in your first session.Your firm completes the principal registration and you can take on formal supervisory duties over the investment company and variable products business. Principals whose responsibilities grow beyond packaged products — general securities teams, trading, or firm-level compliance — step up to the Series 24, which is the most common next exam after the 26.