Seeking Opinions on How to Pass to the Series 65 Exam I am hoping readers of this blog would be able to provide some feedback on their experiences with the Series 65 exam. As a little background, many of our firm’s clients are managers who will be state registered investment [...]

Series 63, Series 65 and Series 66 Changed as of January 1, 2010 In an earlier post, we discussed that the passing grades for the Series 65 and 66 have increased.  Below is further information from the Securities Training Corporation on the changes to the securities exams in 2010. **** [...]

IA Exams Pass Rates Expected to Plummet The North American Securities Administrators Association (“NASAA”) recently announced that the two central investment advisor exams (the Series 65 and the Series 66) will become even more difficult.  Starting January 1, 2010 candidates will need to attain a score of 72% in order [...]

Hedge Fund Transparency Act of 2009 Overview This article provides an overview of the major provisions of the Hedge Fund Transparency Act of 2009.  There are two major things that the HFTA does: (1) increases regulation of hedge funds under the Investment Company Act and (2) requires hedge funds to [...]

Questions and discussions from Hedge Fund Law Blog readers I get quite a few questions from readers and usually I am able to answer these questions via email within a couple of days.  If you have any questions, comments or simply want more information on starting a hedge fund, please [...]

I received a couple of comments regarding my posts on the Series 65 exam and the Series 66 exam which I would like to share with the community.  Both comments were made by Chuck Lowenstein, a Senior Editor – Securities at Kaplan Financial Education. Regarding the post Differences between the [...]

Hedge fund managers who must register as investment advisor representatives with the SEC (through notice filings) or the state securities commission will need to have the proper FINRA exam licenses.  Generally this means that the hedge fund manager will need to have passed the Series 65 exam within two years [...]

Many hedge fund managers come from brokerage firms or other investment advisory firms and may, accordingly, have some of the FINRA licenses like a Series 7 or a Series 65.  However, most managers have not registered an as investment advisor and do not understand the process.  This guide is designed [...]

Many registered investment advisors are happy once a registration has gone through. The individual, or firm, has gone through all of the following: Receiving entitlement to the IARD system Passing the Series 65 exam (tips on the series 65 exam) Completing both the investment advisory firm’s Form ADV and Form [...]

Question: What licenses do you need to start or manage a hedge fund? Answer: This is a question that comes up quite often. Many people wonder whether they need a series 7 license or the series 65 license or the series 3 to manage a hedge fund. First, a potential [...]