Agenda

About the Series 6 Rep Level Exam

The Series 6 Rep Level exam is broken down into four parts (by job function). These topics include:

• Seeks Business for the Broker-dealer from Customers and Potential Customers
• Opens Accounts After Obtaining and Evaluating Customers’ Financial Profile and Investment Objectives
• Provides Customers with Information About Investments, Makes Suitable Recommendations, Transfers Assets and Maintains Appropriate Records
• Obtains and Verifies Customers’ Purchase and Sales Instructions; Processes, Completes and Confirms Transactions

What’s Covered By This Course

Seeks Business for the Broker-Dealer from Customers and Potential Customers

• Standards and required approvals of public communications
• Types of communications (e.g., retail, institutional, correspondence)
• Seminars, lectures and other group forum requirements
• Prospectus requirements (e.g., timeliness of information, preliminary prospectus (red herring), final prospectus
• Process for bringing new issues to market (e.g., due diligence, registration statement, preliminary prospectus, final prospectus, underwriting agreement, selling group agreement, blue-sky laws and procedures)
• Official statements, preliminary official statements (POS), notice of sale for municipal securities
• Regulation D offerings
• Intrastate offering and securities transactions exempted from registration, including Section 3(a)(11) of the Securities Act of 1933 thereunder

Opens Accounts After Obtaining and Evaluating Customers’ Financial Profile and Investment Objectives

• Types of accounts (e.g., prime brokerage, advisory or fee-based)
• Account registration types (e.g., tenants in common (TIC), community property, sole proprietorship, partnership, unincorporated associations)
• Requirements for opening customer accounts
• Retirement plans and other tax advantaged accounts
• Wealth events (e.g., inheritance)
• Account registration changes and internal transfers
• Customer screening (e.g., customer identification program (CIP), know your customer (KYC), domestic or foreign residency and/or citizenship, corporate insiders, employees of broker-dealers or self-regulatory organizations (SROs))
• Information security and privacy regulations (e.g., initial privacy disclosures to customers, opt-out notices, disclosure limitations, exceptions)
• Account authorizations (e.g., power of attorney (POA), trust documents, corporate resolutions, trading authority, discretionary account documents)
• Essential facts regarding customers and customer relationships
• Financial factors relevant to assessing a customer's investment profile
• Investment objectives (e.g., preservation of capital, income, growth, speculation)
• Reasonable-basis suitability, customer-specific suitability and quantitative suitability
• Investment strategies and recommendations to hold
• Required review, approvals and documentation for account opening and maintenance
• Physical receipt, delivery and safeguarding of cash or cash equivalents, checks and securities
• Circumstances for refusing or restricting activity in an account or closing accounts

Provides Customers with Information About Investments, Makes Suitable Recommendations, Transfers Assets and Maintains Appropriate Records

• Customer-specific factors that generally affect the section of products (i.e., customer's investment profile, including the customer's risk tolerance, investment time horizon and investment objectives, liquidity needs)
• Portfolio of account analysis and its application to product selection (e.g., diversification, concentration, volatility, potential tax ramifications)
• Portfolio theory (e.g., alpha and beta considerations, Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM))
• Fundamental analysis of financial statements and types of financial statements included in an annual report, importance of footnotes, material risk disclosures and key terms (e.g., assets, liabilities, capital, cash flow, income)
• Balance sheet and methods of inventory valuation: last-in, first-out (LIFO), first-in, first-out (FIFO) and methods of depreciation
• Types of underlying securities
• Tax treatment
• Packaged products
• Investment companies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), unit investment trusts (UITs)
• Variable life insurance and annuity contracts
• General characteristics of municipal fund securities
• Purpose and characteristics of specific types of municipal fund securities
• Required disclosures on specific transactions (e.g., material aspects of investments, statement of additional information, material events, control relationships)
• Types of investment risk (e.g., call, systematic and nonsystematic, reinvestment, timing)
• Types of investment returns (e.g., tax-exempt interest, return of capital)
• Costs and fees associated with investments (e.g., markups, commissions, net transactions, share classes, non-discretionary fee-based accounts, surrender charges, 12b-1 fees, mortality and expense charges in variable products, soft dollar arrangements)
• Tax considerations (e.g., unification of gift and estate taxes, lifetime exclusion, annual gift limit, taxation of securities received as a gift, inheritance or securities)
• Market analysis considerations (e.g., market sentiment, market indices, market momentum, available funds)
• Customer confirmations and statements, including components, timing, mailings to third parties, and exceptions
• Account value, profits and losses, realized and unrealized
• Customer account records (e.g., updating for change of address, sending required notifications, investment objectives)
• Books and records retention requirements
• Account closure procedures

Obtains and Verifies Customers’ Purchase and Sales Instructions; Processes, Completes and Confirms Transactions

• Orders, offerings, and transactions in customer accounts
• Trade execution activities
• Best execution obligations
• Delivery requirements and settlement of transactions
• Information required on an order ticket (e.g., symbol, account number, price)
• Use of automated execution systems
• Erroneous reports, errors, cancels and rebills
• Requirements for addressing customer complaints and consequences of improper handling of complaints
• Methods of formal resolution (e.g., arbitration, mediation, litigation)
• Form U4 reporting requirements