Series 6 Customer Screening and Documentation practice questions
2 of the 50 scored Series 6 questions come from Customer Screening and Documentation (~3% of the exam). Free CertFuel-authored sample questions, common mistakes, and the glossary terms you need to know. Keep practicing for free in the Series 6 course with practice exams and Smart Study. Free access includes up to five sessions total, shared between those two tools for this course. The full course is paid.
Customer Screening and Documentation is part of Function 2: Opens Accounts, one of the four FINRA Series 6 functional areas. This topic carries roughly 3% of the exam (2 of the 50 scored questions). The full function weight is 16% (8 scored questions).
Series 6 questions on the Customer Identification Program (CIP), anti-money-laundering (AML) procedures, taxpayer identification, and PEP screening.
More practice in the course: Keep practicing for free in the Series 6 course with practice exams and Smart Study. Free access includes up to five sessions total, shared between those two tools for this course. The full course is paid.
These are the exam traps that pull the highest miss rates from Series 6 candidates on Customer Screening and Documentation questions:
- Forgetting the 4 minimum CIP data elements (name, DOB, residential address, taxpayer ID)
- Treating a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) threshold as the same as the Currency Transaction Report (CTR) threshold
- Skipping the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) screen at account opening
8 hand-checked Series 6 sample questions on Customer Screening and Documentation, sampled from the CertFuel practice bank. Click any answer choice to reveal the explanation and the "why it matters" note. Every question is multiple choice (A/B/C/D, one correct answer) and matches the format of the real FINRA exam.
A customer closed a long-standing brokerage account one year ago. Under CIP, the firm must continue to retain the customer's identifying information for an additional:
Correct answer: C. The account closed one year ago, and CIP requires 5 years of retention after the account is closed. Four additional years of retention are required.
Why not the others?
- A (1 year): 1-year retention is insufficient. CIP identifying information must be retained for 5 years after the account is closed.
- B (2 years): 2-year retention applies to certain other categories (for example, easily-accessible portions of some records). CIP identifying information must be retained for 5 years post-close.
- D (5 years): Five more years would total six years from closing, which exceeds the CIP requirement. The account has already been closed for one year, so four additional years remain.
CIP retention from account close. This pattern shows up repeatedly on the Series 6, and recognizing it cold is what separates first-try passes from retests.
A registered representative's spouse has a brokerage account at another broker-dealer. The registered representative has discretion over the account but no beneficial interest. The outside-account rule:
Correct answer: B. The outside-account rule reaches any account in which the associated person has a beneficial interest or over which they have discretion or authority. Discretion over a spouse's account is within scope.
Why not the others?
- A (Does not apply, because the registered representative does not own the account): Ownership is not the only trigger. The rule reaches any account in which the associated person has a beneficial interest OR over which they have discretion or authority.
- C (Applies only if the account holds more than $25,000): No asset threshold applies. Discretion alone triggers the rule.
- D (Applies only after the registered representative has been associated for 5 years): Tenure does not affect the rule. It applies from day one of association.
Scope of outside-account rule (spouse account). This pattern shows up repeatedly on the Series 6, and recognizing it cold is what separates first-try passes from retests.
When a customer's activity appears suspicious, the rep's correct course of action is to:
Correct answer: B. The rep's job when a red flag surfaces is to escalate internally to the firm's designated AML compliance officer or principal, not to confront the customer, not to investigate independently, and not to warn the customer. The AML officer decides whether to file a SAR.
Why not the others?
- A (Conduct an independent investigation and document findings before telling the firm): Independent investigation is not the rep's role. Reps escalate to the AML officer; the AML officer decides.
- C (Warn the customer so they can correct the behavior): Warning the customer is tipping off, a federal violation.
- D (Close the customer's account without explanation): Unilateral account closure is not the escalation path and may itself be inappropriate. The rep escalates internally.
Escalation, not investigation/confrontation. This pattern shows up repeatedly on the Series 6, and recognizing it cold is what separates first-try passes from retests.
The legal basis for a broker-dealer's anti-money-laundering program is:
Correct answer: C. The Bank Secrecy Act requires every broker-dealer to have an AML program. FinCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) is the Treasury bureau that administers the Bank Secrecy Act.
Why not the others?
- A (Sarbanes-Oxley): Sarbanes-Oxley deals with corporate governance and auditor oversight, not AML program requirements.
- B (The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act): Gramm-Leach-Bliley is the statutory basis for Regulation S-P (privacy), not AML programs.
- D (The Investment Advisers Act of 1940): The Investment Advisers Act governs investment adviser regulation, not broker-dealer AML programs.
BSA / FinCEN basis for AML. This pattern shows up repeatedly on the Series 6, and recognizing it cold is what separates first-try passes from retests.
A customer wants to revoke a Power of Attorney previously granted to an adult child. The revocation is effective when:
Correct answer: C. The principal may revoke a POA at any time by written notice to the agent and the firm. The revocation becomes effective when received and logged by the firm.
Why not the others?
- A (The customer's next trade is executed): Trade execution is not a revocation mechanism. The customer must give written notice.
- B (The agent voluntarily agrees to step down): Agent consent is not required for revocation. The principal may revoke at any time.
- D (6 months after the request is made): There is no 6-month waiting period for revocation. Revocation is effective when the firm receives and logs the notice.
Revocation mechanics. This pattern shows up repeatedly on the Series 6, and recognizing it cold is what separates first-try passes from retests.
Nonpublic personal information (NPI), as protected by Regulation S-P, includes all of the following except:
Correct answer: C. Publicly filed financial information about an issuer is, by definition, public. NPI is limited to publicly unavailable financial information about the customer.
Why not the others?
- A (The customer's account balances): Account balances are classic NPI provided by the customer and derived from the account relationship.
- B (The customer's transaction history): Transaction history is NPI because it is information derived from the customer relationship.
- D (The customer's Social Security Number): A Social Security Number is a core NPI item the customer provides.
Scope of NPI. This pattern shows up repeatedly on the Series 6, and recognizing it cold is what separates first-try passes from retests.
A Limited (Trading) POA is on file for a customer's account, and the agent calls the broker-dealer to request a wire transfer of $50,000 from the account to the agent's personal bank account. The registered representative should:
Correct answer: B. A Limited (Trading) POA authorizes the agent to trade but does not authorize withdrawals. A wire transfer to the agent's personal account is a withdrawal, which is outside the Limited POA's scope.
Why not the others?
- A (Process the wire transfer because the agent has valid authority to act on the account): A Limited (Trading) POA does not authorize withdrawals. The agent's authority is limited to buying and selling securities.
- C (Ask the agent to sign a revocable release form and then process the transfer): No informal release form extends a Limited POA's scope. A proper escalation in authority would require a Full POA or a customer-signed transfer request.
- D (Process the transfer if the agent is the principal's spouse): The agent's relationship to the principal does not change the scope of a Limited POA. Withdrawal authority requires a Full POA, regardless of who the agent is.
Limited POA cannot authorize withdrawals. This pattern shows up repeatedly on the Series 6, and recognizing it cold is what separates first-try passes from retests.
An associated person of a member firm argues that CIP should not apply when a long-time customer simply opens a second account at the same firm. Which of the following is most accurate?
Correct answer: B. CIP calls for forming a reasonable belief about identity before opening the account. A firm may rely on prior verifications of the same customer when that information remains reasonable, avoiding duplicate verification of unchanged data.
Why not the others?
- A (The associated person is correct; CIP applies only at the firm's first contact with a customer, not to subsequent accounts): CIP is tied to account opening. While the firm may rely on existing identity information, the rule is about forming a reasonable belief about the customer's identity when opening an account.
- C (A full new CIP process, from scratch, is required every time the same customer opens a new account): The firm may reuse prior identity work for the same customer to the extent it remains reasonable; re-doing every step from scratch for an existing customer is not required.
- D (CIP applies only to institutional customers, so an individual second account is exempt): CIP applies to individual accounts as well as institutional accounts. There is no individual-account exemption.
CIP practical application to repeat customers. This pattern shows up repeatedly on the Series 6, and recognizing it cold is what separates first-try passes from retests.
The 4 glossary terms most likely to appear on Series 6 Customer Screening and Documentation questions. Click any term for the full definition, example, and testing pattern.
Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
Federal regulatory framework established by the Bank Secrecy Act (1970) and USA PATRIOT Act (2001) requiring financial institutions to detec...
Know Your Customer (KYC)
The fundamental regulatory requirement for investment advisers and broker-dealers to gather and maintain essential information about each cl...
Form U4
Form U4 (Uniform Application for Securities Industry Registration or Transfer) is the form a sponsoring firm files to register an individual...
CRD (Central Registration Depository)
The Central Registration Depository (CRD) is the online registration and licensing system operated by FINRA in cooperation with the North Am...
Other topics in Function 2: Opens Accounts (16% of the exam, 8 scored questions). Practice each one to round out the function:
Looking for everything? Head to the Series 6 practice questions hub for all 13 topics, or take the 55-question full practice test.
More practice in the course: Keep practicing for free in the Series 6 course with practice exams and Smart Study. Free access includes up to five sessions total, shared between those two tools for this course. The full course is paid.