Financial advisor salary and jobs in Charlotte

Charlotte advisor pay is bunched closer to the middle than state or US pay. Half of advisors on payrolls earned between $74,740¹ and $136,260¹. That lower quarter line is higher than North Carolina's $63,190² and the US figure of $72,440³, while the top tenth starts at $222,260¹, well below North Carolina ($287,290²) and the US ($357,020³). The bottom tenth is about the same in all three.

$0$100,000$200,000$300,000$400,000

Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC

One in ten earn less than

$49,760¹

One in four earn less than

$74,740¹

Median

$99,440¹

One in four earn more than

$136,260¹

One in ten earn more than

$222,260¹

North Carolina

One in ten earn less than

$48,790²

One in four earn less than

$63,190²

Median

$96,880²

One in four earn more than

$153,970²

One in ten earn more than

$287,290²

United States

One in ten earn less than

$50,190³

One in four earn less than

$72,440³

Median

$105,070³

One in four earn more than

$176,790³

One in ten earn more than

$357,020³

Show the table behind the chart

Personal financial advisors, annual wage, BLS May 2025, all employers

Personal financial advisors, annual wage, BLS May 2025, all employers	Charlotte metro1	North Carolina2	United States3
One in ten earned less than	$49,7601	$48,7902	$50,1903
One in four earned less than	$74,7401	$63,1902	$72,4403
Median	$99,4401	$96,8802	$105,0703
One in four earned more than	$136,2601	$153,9702	$176,7903
One in ten earned more than	$222,2601	$287,2902	$357,0203
Mean	$144,4501	$143,7402	$156,6703

Why do salary sites show different numbers for Charlotte?

Each one measures something different from the BLS survey.

• Job postings. Some sites average a few dozen local ads collected over several years, often base pay plus an estimate of commission. When they call Charlotte "the same as the national average", they are comparing posting averages, not survey data.
• Self-reported pay. Figures that users type in come from whoever chooses to submit them, with no survey method.
• Percentiles read as experience. Some sites label the BLS bottom tenth "starting" pay and the lower quarter "junior" pay, but BLS ranks every advisor by pay, whatever their years in the job. Entry, junior and senior tiers on other sites come from job ads.
• Old government tables. Some North Carolina salary pages still show BLS metro data from May 2019, with a different advisor count and median. May 2025 is the current release, and BLS does not encourage reading two releases as a trend.
• The old top-code. Before May 2025, BLS did not publish wages above $239,200⁷, so older tables leave the top of the range blank.
• Mean called average. A mean quoted as typical pay runs well above the median.

OEWS samples employers across the whole metro, in both states, and estimates every advisor on their payrolls, which is why it is the figure on this page.

BLS counted 4,850¹ personal financial advisors, 9,890¹ securities sales agents and 6,800¹ insurance sales agents on payrolls in the metro in May 2025. This page lists no job openings or employers. What BLS does show is how concentrated each job is, and all three are more common here than nationally. Securities sales agents, who sell investments for brokerage firms, have a location quotient of 2.31¹, higher even than advisors at 2.08¹.

Personal financial advisors

2.08

Securities sales agents

2.31

Insurance sales agents

1.63

US share

Show the table behind the chart

Location quotient by occupation, Charlotte metro, May 2025 (US share = 1)

Figure	Value
Location quotient, Personal financial advisors, Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC, May 2025	2.081
Location quotient, Securities sales agents, Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC, May 2025	2.311
Location quotient, Insurance sales agents, Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC, May 2025	1.631

Show the table behind the chart

Occupation, BLS May 2025, all employers

Occupation, BLS May 2025, all employers	Charlotte employed	Per thousand jobs	Location quotient	Charlotte median	One in ten earned less than	One in ten earned more than	US median
Personal financial advisors (13-2052)	4,8501	3.5671	2.081	$99,4401	$49,7601	$222,2601	$105,0703
Securities, commodities and financial services sales agents (41-3031)	9,8901	7.2801	2.311	$81,3701	$50,2701	$206,2401	$78,6603
Insurance sales agents (41-3021)	6,8001	5.0081	1.631	$62,4901	$37,3901	$154,7201	$62,2803

The metro has about 2¹ securities sales agents for every advisor, against 1.8³ nationally. A separate BLS payroll survey shows the industry behind those jobs, with 128,800⁸ jobs in finance, insurance and real estate in August 2026. That is 9.1%⁸ of all payroll jobs in the metro, against 6.2%^9,10 in North Carolina and 5.8%^11,12 nationally.

If you work in one of those jobs now, you may already hold a license advisors use, such as the Series 7 or a state insurance license. The banker to advisor guide covers the move from a bank branch or brokerage support role, the insurance agent to advisor guide covers what your insurance license already counts for, and which licenses advisors need shows how the licenses fit together.

Will there be more financial advisor jobs in Charlotte?

No government projection exists for the metro. BLS projects US advisor jobs to grow 1%¹³ from 2025 to 2035, with about 17,100¹³ openings a year, most of them to replace advisors who change jobs or retire. Pages and AI answers that still show 17.1%¹⁴ growth are quoting the replaced 2023 to 2033 projection. The state labor agencies' latest projections, for 2024 to 2034, expect 14.6%¹⁵ growth in North Carolina and 15.8%¹⁶ in South Carolina.

They cover different years from the national figure, so the two are not a like-for-like comparison. No projection is a promise of openings in Charlotte or for any one person. BLS also says AI tools for financial advice may moderate demand for advisors, while many people are expected to keep relying on human advisors for complex advice.

Prices in the Charlotte metro were 2.7%⁵ below the US average in 2024, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That is closer to the US average than North Carolina (5.7%⁶ below) or South Carolina (6.3%⁶ below), close to Raleigh and Durham, and higher than Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Columbia and Greenville.

Charlotte metro

2.7% lower

North Carolina

5.7% lower

South Carolina

6.3% lower

These are price levels only. This page does not adjust pay for them, and the price year (2024) differs from the pay year (May 2025).

No city or county license exists. The exams are national, and a state registers you once your firm files for it. The usual order is four steps.

What is local to Charlotte is that two states sit inside one commute. Both states use the same exam to give advice (Series 65, or Series 7 plus Series 66¹⁷), accept the same designations in its place (CFP® certification, ChFC, PFS, CFA, CIC¹⁸) and accept the Series 63 as the state law exam to sell securities. They differ in the places below.

The North Carolina rows come from the North Carolina Securities Division and from NASAA's IAR CE map, which tracks which states require representative continuing education. The South Carolina fees are the state amounts in the FINRA and IARD fee schedules dated August 6, 2026²⁷, so check each regulator before you file, and the regulator and continuing education rule come from the South Carolina Securities Division.

Which state registers you?

It depends on your role, not your home address.

Registered as both an agent and a representative in both states, the state fees on the FINRA and IARD schedules dated August 6, 2026²⁷ come to $365^21-24 in the first year, against $200^21-23 in North Carolina alone, before FINRA and exam fees, study materials and prep courses. Some employers pay these and some do not, so ask.

North Carolina law also bars an agent from registering with more than one brokerage firm at a time unless the firms are under common ownership or control or the state allows it by rule or order, under the state's registration statute (G.S. 78A-36³²). Life and health insurance is licensed by each state's insurance department, so selling to clients in both states takes a license from each.

The North Carolina guide lists every North Carolina step, fee and waiver. South Carolina's rules are on the South Carolina Securities Division site. For exam prep, Advisor Train covers the SIE, Series 7, Series 63, Series 65 and Series 66.

What is the first year like for a new financial advisor?

Day to day, BLS describes the job as meeting clients to talk through their goals, explaining investment options and their risks, recommending investments and checking accounts to see whether changes are needed. New advisors do this under supervision, since BLS says they work under senior advisors and learn to build a client network, training that usually lasts more than a year³⁴.

Some career changers start instead in a support seat such as paraplanner, a role that gathers client documents and drafts the plans a lead advisor delivers. The second career guide walks through that first year, and the roadmap builder puts the exams in order for your current job and timeline.

Charlotte has the most advisors of any Carolinas metro with a published count, but not the highest concentration or the highest pay. Raleigh-Cary has fewer than half as many advisors and a higher median of $104,780¹. Durham-Chapel Hill has a higher location quotient with a much lower median. The South Carolina metros sit well below the US share of advisor jobs, which matters if you live on that side of the line and are deciding where to work.

Error (RSE) is the relative standard error BLS publishes for each employment count. The higher it is, the less certain the count, so treat the Columbia and Greenville counts as rough. Price levels use the US average as the base, set at one hundred. BLS did not release an advisor count for Charleston-North Charleston (Not released¹), so it is left out. The smaller North Carolina metros BLS publishes are on the North Carolina guide.

• Self-employed advisors are not counted. OEWS covers wage and salary workers only. Nationally, the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook counts 299,400¹³ advisor jobs in 2025 including the self-employed, against 266,800³ in OEWS. BLS publishes no metro count that includes them.
• These are survey estimates. The Charlotte advisor count has a relative standard error of 12.6%¹, so a standard confidence range we built from that error puts the true count somewhere around 3,650¹ to 6,050¹. The securities and insurance agent counts are tighter, at 3.6%¹ and 5.2%¹.
• One metro, two states. BLS defines the metro as Anson, Cabarrus, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Rowan and Union counties in North Carolina and Chester, Lancaster and York counties in South Carolina⁴. It publishes one set of figures for the whole area and none for Mecklenburg County or the South Carolina side alone, so the metro figures are not North Carolina figures.
• No comparisons over time. BLS does not encourage using OEWS as a time series, so this page does not compare May 2025 with older releases.
• Two surveys, two counts. The finance, insurance and real estate job count comes from the BLS payroll survey of industries, not from OEWS, so it does not add to the occupation counts above.
• Projections are a different series. State and national job projections start from their own 2024 or 2025 base counts, so they do not match the OEWS counts on this page.
• Pay is not adjusted for prices. Wages and price levels come from different agencies and different years.

The data and sources page explains how OEWS, the Occupational Outlook Handbook and Census counts differ.