Retirement, ERISA, Special Accounts, Estate Planning and Trading
Series 66 strategy questions test retirement accounts, ERISA, education and health accounts, ownership, beneficiary designations, trusts, trading terms, and market roles.
How to study the Series 66
Treat the Series 66 as a dual-capacity exam: know the product, profile the client, then identify whether the person is acting as agent, adviser, or IAR.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Traditional, Roth, Solo 401(k), qualified, nonqualified, 529, Coverdell, UTMA, UGMA, HSA, and FSA accounts have different tax and use rules.
Exam cue: Identify account purpose and tax treatment before recommending.
Concept 2
ERISA fiduciary issues, investment policy statements, prohibited transactions, QDROs, trusts, wills, donor advised funds, POD, TOD, and beneficiary designations affect advice.
Exam cue: For estate planning, name ownership, control, and beneficiary path.
Concept 3
Trading terminology includes bids, offers, quotes, market, limit, stop, short, cash, margin, principal, agency, payment for order flow, and market roles.
Exam cue: Classify the order or market role before judging trading costs.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Treating all retirement withdrawals the same.
Guardrail: Avoid answers that blur capacity, skip disclosure, ignore custody, or give unlimited administrator power.
Ignoring ERISA fiduciary limits.
Guardrail: Avoid answers that blur capacity, skip disclosure, ignore custody, or give unlimited administrator power.
Confusing principal and agency trades.
Guardrail: Avoid answers that blur capacity, skip disclosure, ignore custody, or give unlimited administrator power.
Memory anchors
Traditional IRA
Traditional IRA tax treatment often centers on deductibility and taxable distributions.
Roth IRA
Roth contributions are after-tax and qualified distributions can be tax free.
529 Plan
A 529 plan is designed for qualified education expenses.
UTMA/UGMA
UTMA and UGMA accounts hold assets for minors under a custodian.
ERISA
ERISA imposes fiduciary and plan standards for covered retirement plans.
TOD
Transfer on death registration transfers assets to named beneficiaries outside probate.
Trust
A trust separates legal control from beneficial ownership.
Market Order
A market order seeks prompt execution at the best available price.
Limit Order
A limit order sets a maximum buy price or minimum sale price.
Payment for Order Flow
Payment for order flow is compensation for routing customer orders.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
A client asks how qualified distributions from a Roth IRA are generally taxed. Which statement is accurate?
A client asks how contributions to a traditional (deductible) IRA and the later distributions are generally taxed. Which statement is accurate?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
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