Passing the Series 65 Exam

I am an independent agent under Transamerica, they sponsor their agents for such exams. If your interested to know more let me know.
 
To further you need a sponsor from a Broker Dealer. A series 7 isn't required to obtain sponsorship for a 6 and 63.

Due to the fact that I just went through the process myself, you should consider going straight to the 7 vs. the 6. A Lot of overlapping material covered to get the 6 just to do it all over again to get the 7.

Yep, might as well get the 7 since you will already be studying.

When I first got securities licensed in 1998, the guy who was "encouraging" me to get it done advised on just getting the 6/63 and 65. Said I didn't need the 7. Wish I would have had someone else to run that by. In the grand scheme of things I don't believe it hurt me any, but I would have preferred to have the 7 from the get go.

And here I stand today considering dropping the securities license and maybe just keeping the 65 and being done with the broker dealer. I just have a decent trail business that I hate to walk away from. And I have a really good BD. They aren't hard to work with. Although they have recently started requiring that they first review any index annuity sale resulting from the liquidation of securities. They don't take any of the commission, but I have to send them the paperwork to review and approve prior to me submitting it to the insurance company. I don't do a ton of index annuity business, but I hate to think they would reject a sale and then I have to go back and tell my client that they won't allow it. I'm sure the client wouldn't be too thrilled about that.
 
Yep, might as well get the 7 since you will already be studying.

When I first got securities licensed in 1998, the guy who was "encouraging" me to get it done advised on just getting the 6/63 and 65. Said I didn't need the 7. Wish I would have had someone else to run that by. In the grand scheme of things I don't believe it hurt me any, but I would have preferred to have the 7 from the get go.

And here I stand today considering dropping the securities license and maybe just keeping the 65 and being done with the broker dealer. I just have a decent trail business that I hate to walk away from. And I have a really good BD. They aren't hard to work with. Although they have recently started requiring that they first review any index annuity sale resulting from the liquidation of securities. They don't take any of the commission, but I have to send them the paperwork to review and approve prior to me submitting it to the insurance company. I don't do a ton of index annuity business, but I hate to think they would reject a sale and then I have to go back and tell my client that they won't allow it. I'm sure the client wouldn't be too thrilled about that.


Can you not just convert them over to institutional shares inside a wrap account? At least the ones that are far enough along that they are well in the money from a load standpoint.... so you run hybrid for 4-5 years until you get everyone converted over to wrap accounts and institutional shares. Im not super experienced on the BD side of things so Im not sure how guys are dealing with that changeover. But that seems to be the logical thing to do. Lots of RIAs have consultants on staff to help guys like you with the process to RIA only. Reach out to a few and talk to them.
 
Can you not just convert them over to institutional shares inside a wrap account? At least the ones that are far enough along that they are well in the money from a load standpoint.... so you run hybrid for 4-5 years until you get everyone converted over to wrap accounts and institutional shares. Im not super experienced on the BD side of things so Im not sure how guys are dealing with that changeover. But that seems to be the logical thing to do. Lots of RIAs have consultants on staff to help guys like you with the process to RIA only. Reach out to a few and talk to them.

I have some in wrap accounts already, but I also have a decent amount in VA's (in the past I have used VA's to provide the income guarantee those clients wanted). Those are the ones I'd lose.
 
I have some in wrap accounts already, but I also have a decent amount in VA's (in the past I have used VA's to provide the income guarantee those clients wanted). Those are the ones I'd lose.

Ah. Yeah VAs with income riders could be a sticking point. Would the numbers work to move a good many of them over to Jefferson National? Id think account values would be in line with GLWB values these days, or at least close to it. I know it all depends on the individual policy though.. and the ones that are taking income already would likely be lost. Tough situation to be in. If it gets too bad maybe just find a new BD with a looser leash... lol.
 
Ah. Yeah VAs with income riders could be a sticking point. Would the numbers work to move a good many of them over to Jefferson National? Id think account values would be in line with GLWB values these days, or at least close to it. I know it all depends on the individual policy though.. and the ones that are taking income already would likely be lost. Tough situation to be in. If it gets too bad maybe just find a new BD with a looser leash... lol.

Anything sold in 07-08 (ones coming out of surrender on the longer end) are pretty tough to move. The marketplace was hyper-competive then and with the markets at all time highs, plenty of products had 7% compounding roll ups the built on those initial deposits. Plenty of those are still underwater.

The ones taking income can often be moved to an FIA if they were written recently (last 5 years L or C shares).

There are a few FIA products that seem to be built for this purpose (max immediate income without annuitizing).

Then again those trails look a lot less appealing if you're draining the account...
 
Ah. Yeah VAs with income riders could be a sticking point. Would the numbers work to move a good many of them over to Jefferson National? Id think account values would be in line with GLWB values these days, or at least close to it. I know it all depends on the individual policy though.. and the ones that are taking income already would likely be lost. Tough situation to be in. If it gets too bad maybe just find a new BD with a looser leash... lol.

Does the JN product have an income feature? I didn't think it did, but admit I haven't reviewed it in quite some time. I wouldn't use a VA for anything other than the guaranteed income feature.

My current BD has had a pretty loose leash up until recently and still is fairly loose in regard to index annuities compared to most. No insurance business has to go through them so there is no haircut. They have recently added the requirement of wanting to review the transaction and give approval.

I've been thinking about letting go of my securities license for some time, but just haven't gotten to the next step of really putting pencil to paper and seeing how things would work if I set up my own RIA (I really don't do enough securities business to warrant this I don't think) or just come up under an existing RIA.
 
To set up your own RIA, the minimum AUM would be around 5 million to make it worthwhile. Otherwise find RIA and work under them. You could always set up your RIA and never custody clients assets and just charge fee only for portfolio allocation however, it is hard to do fee business for asset management and commission based planning at the same time for insurance and index annuities.
 
Any recommendations on the study program to use to take the Series 65 and, of course, pass it? Testeachers and ExamZone both seem to be okay?
 
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