The Municipal Advisor Representative Qualification Exam (Series 50) is designed to test the minimum standards required of municipal advisor representatives and municipal advisor principals, two new classifications created when the MSRB revised Rule G-3 to meet the requirements of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The exam covers basic knowledge of the internal workings and regulations of the municipal advisory system. The MSRB intends to develop an additional exam for municipal advisor principals, but as of this writing no further information about the principal-level examination has been released.
The Series 50 will initially be rolled out as a pilot exam, and it will be available to anyone who works in a municipal advisory capacity. The pilot exam is designed to help the MSRB evaluate its bank of test questions and determine an appropriate passing score.
There are a few good reasons to volunteer to take the pilot exam. If you pass the pilot exam, you are not required to take the permanent exam. While there is a fee for the pilot exam, if you do not pass, then your fee for the permanent exam will be waived the first time you take it.
Additionally, if you fail the permanent exam, you must wait thirty days before taking it again, and after your third attempt you must wait 180 days before another attempt. However, the pilot exam will not count against these attempts.
And last but not least, a failure on the Series 50 pilot exam will not go on your CRD record.
Test takers will be allotted half an hour for an exam tutorial and four hours for the exam itself. The exam will contain 100-125 questions, which will be drawn at random from the Series 50 question database. You will be notified of your results about three months after taking the exam.
To register for the test, visit Pearson VUE at www.pearsonvue.com/finra or Prometric at www.prometric.com/finra.
Series 50 study materials now available: https://solomonexamprep.com/series50