The Series 65 (Uniform Investment Adviser Law) exam has 130 scored questions (plus 10 unscored), a fixed 92-of-130 passing score (about 70%), and a 180-minute limit. The fee is $187, and it needs no sponsor and no prerequisite exam. It qualifies you as an Investment Adviser Representative — and it's the one securities exam you can waive with certain designations like the CFP or CFA.
The Series 65 exam — officially the Uniform Investment Adviser Law Examination — is a NASAA exam administered by FINRA. It qualifies you to work as an Investment Adviser Representative (IAR): someone who gives investment advice or manages portfolios for a fee, under a fiduciary duty to act in the client's best interest. That's the key distinction from the product-selling exams. The Series 7 licenses you to sell securities for commission; the Series 63 covers state law for those broker-dealer agents. The Series 65 is the advice side — the exam behind launching a registered investment adviser (RIA) firm or joining one.
Two features make the Series 65 unusual. First, it's fully self-service: unlike the Series 7, it needs no firm sponsorship and no prerequisite — you can enroll and sit for it before you have a job, which is why career changers and aspiring RIAs take it early. Second, it's the only securities exam NASAA lets you waive if you already hold certain professional designations (more on that below).
| Scored questions | 130 (plus 10 unscored pretest) |
| Time limit | 180 minutes (3 hours) |
| Format | Multiple choice, four options (A–D) |
| Passing score | 92 of 130 correct (fixed count, about 70%) |
| Fee | $187 (non-refundable) |
| Eligibility | No sponsor required; no prerequisite exam |
| Delivery | Prometric center (online only for accommodations) |
| Administered by | FINRA, on behalf of NASAA |
Note the passing standard: NASAA is explicit that you need a fixed 92 correct answers, not a 70% average across sections. Your score report breaks down performance by area, but only the total of 92 determines pass or fail — so a strong section can't rescue a weak one if the raw count falls short.
NASAA weights the Series 65 across four areas. Unlike the pure-law Series 63, the Series 65 is broad — it blends economics, investment products, portfolio theory, and law:
| Content area | Weight | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| I. Economic Factors & Business Information | 15% | 20 |
| II. Investment Vehicle Characteristics | 25% | 32 |
| III. Client Investment Recommendations & Strategies | 30% | 39 |
| IV. Laws, Regulations & Guidelines (incl. Prohibition on Unethical Business Practices) | 30% | 39 |
The two biggest areas — client recommendations and law/ethics — together are 60% of the exam. But the first two areas are where candidates get surprised: they include real quantitative content, from time value of money and standard deviation to Sharpe ratios and bond duration. The 2023 update also added modern topics like digital assets, ESG criteria, and SPACs. The practical implication: you can't specialize your way through the Series 65. The fixed 92-of-130 threshold rewards broad, even coverage.
Yes — and this is genuinely unique. The Series 65 is the only securities exam NASAA allows you to skip if you already hold a qualifying professional designation in good standing. The designations most states recognize are:
NASAA updated its list in May 2024, adding the CIMA (Certified Investment Management Analyst) — the first new designation in more than two decades. Two important caveats: a waiver skips the exam only, not state registration (you still file Form U4, pass a background check, and pay state fees), and each state adopts the model rule on its own timeline — especially for the newer CIMA. Always confirm with your state securities regulator before relying on a waiver. Note too that a plain CPA or MBA does not waive the exam.
The Series 65 is considered moderately difficult, and the difficulty is breadth rather than depth. You're tested on economics, a wide catalog of products, portfolio theory with genuine calculations, and a large body of securities law and ethics — all in one 130-question sitting. NASAA doesn't publish an official pass rate, so treat any specific percentage you see elsewhere with skepticism. What's certain is the structural challenge: with a fixed 92-correct threshold and no section you can safely skip, the exam punishes uneven preparation more than it punishes any single hard topic.
Plan on roughly 50–100 hours over four to eight weeks. If the quantitative material (time value of money, standard deviation, ratios) or the law is unfamiliar, budget toward the upper end. Because the content surface is so wide, how you study matters as much as the hours: spreading review evenly across all four areas and returning to each repeatedly beats front-loading the parts you already like.
The Series 65 failure pattern comes from its breadth. Candidates over-study the topics they enjoy, under-study the rest, and arrive on exam day strong in two areas and short of the 92-correct line overall. Reading the material once builds recognition; the exam demands recall across the whole surface, weeks after you first saw each concept. That gap is a solved problem in cognitive science. The techniques that close it are retrieval practice (testing yourself before you feel ready), spaced repetition (revisiting each concept right as it's about to fade), and immediately re-teaching the questions you miss — especially the confident misses.
Trelos is built entirely around those techniques. Instead of a wall of videos across a huge syllabus, it teaches each concept, drills it with exam-style questions, and schedules your reviews so every one of the four Series 65 areas stays fresh — not just the ones you gravitate to. It's a complete prep engine designed to take you to Series 65 exam-ready on your phone, and you can feel the difference on the first session.
Start the Series 65 on Trelos — freeNo credit card. Feel the retention engine work in your first session.You'll get a pass/fail result immediately. Passing the Series 65 satisfies the exam requirement to register as an IAR, but you still complete state registration through Form U4, and in adopting states you'll owe annual IAR continuing education. Your exam credit doesn't expire while you stay registered; if you leave the industry, NASAA's Exam Validity Extension Program can keep it valid for up to five years through annual CE. One useful side effect: holding the Series 65 in good standing as a licensed IAR also lets you qualify as an accredited investor under the SEC's 2020 rule. If your path instead runs through a broker-dealer, the combined Series 63-plus-adviser route is the Series 66, which pairs with the Series 7.