Financial advisor salary and jobs in San Francisco

The San Francisco median is about 23%^1,2 above California's and 53%^1,3 above the US median. Every point BLS publishes for this metro, from the bottom tenth to the top tenth, is above both the California and US figures. At the low end, one in ten advisors here earned less than $76,900¹, against $67,690² for California and $50,190³ for the US. Pay for all jobs and prices are also higher in this metro, as the next note and the prices section show.

These are survey figures, not a forecast. They cover advisors at every stage of the career and leave out the self-employed, so none of them is a starting wage or what any one advisor earns. BLS counted 7,130¹ advisors on payrolls in the metro, about 22%^1,2 of California's total, and the job is more concentrated here than in any other California metro. Job posting averages and older BLS tables with different figures still circulate online, and the section on why figures differ explains the gap.

• The spread is wide. A quarter of advisors here earned less than $105,850¹ and a quarter more than $293,030¹. BLS wage figures include commissions and production bonuses, so pay tied to sales is in these numbers and can differ widely between advisors.
• Against local pay, the gap is close to the national one. The median for all jobs in this metro was $74,260¹, so the advisor median is about 2.2¹ times the all-jobs median. Nationally the same ratio is about 2.1³ ($105,070³ against $50,980³). The higher dollar figures sit in a region where pay across all jobs is high.

It includes Oakland but not San Jose. BLS follows the federal metro area definitions, under which the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro's principal cities are San Francisco, Oakland, Fremont, Berkeley, San Mateo, Livermore, San Ramon, Redwood City, Pleasanton, Walnut Creek, South San Francisco, San Rafael⁷.

"San Francisco" in this data means five counties, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties⁸. Oakland, Berkeley and Fremont are inside it. San Jose and the rest of Santa Clara County are a separate BLS metro with their own figures.

• Oakland and the East Bay are included. BLS publishes this metro as one area. The federal definitions split it into three metro divisions, and California's Employment Development Department (EDD) publishes figures for each, shown below. None of them is the city of San Francisco alone.
• San Jose and Silicon Valley are not included. The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro is San Benito and Santa Clara counties⁸, where BLS counted 1,530¹ advisors with a median of $136,820¹ in May 2025. The nearby metros table has its full figures.
• There is no single Bay Area figure. The two metros sit in the same federal combined statistical area, but BLS publishes advisor figures for each metro separately. This page does not add them, because they are two separate survey estimates.
• Napa, Sonoma, Solano and Santa Cruz are separate. Each of those counties forms its own metro too.

Most of the metro's advisor jobs are in San Francisco and San Mateo counties, by EDD's division figures.

EDD publishes these division figures from the same employer survey on California's open data site. They are survey figures for all employers too, with a later reference date than the BLS May 2025 figures above, so the medians do not match the metro median exactly.

California's EDD projects advisor jobs in all three divisions to grow from 2023 to 2033, fastest in San Francisco and San Mateo counties, while BLS projects slow growth for the job nationally. EDD's long-term projections are below. Openings count new jobs plus jobs that open up when people leave the workforce, such as to retire, or move to other work.

These are state projections, not BLS figures. They start from a different employment base than the OEWS survey, so their counts do not match the tables above, and they describe the occupation as a whole. A projection is an estimate, not a promise of a job or of pay for any one person.

Nationally, BLS projects advisor jobs to grow 1%¹¹ from 2025 to 2035, slower than the average for all occupations. Much higher national growth rates that still appear online come from earlier projection rounds.

The same job shows up online with very different San Francisco figures, and the gap comes from method, not from pay changing.

The BLS figure on this page comes from a survey of employers of every size across the five counties, and it reports the spread from the bottom tenth to the top tenth of wages.

Securities sales agents in the metro had a median of $102,290¹ and insurance sales agents $95,640¹ in May 2025, according to BLS. Securities sales agents outnumber personal financial advisors in this metro, while insurance agents are less common here than in the US as a whole. These are separate BLS occupations from personal financial advisor, with different duties and licenses, and some advisors also hold securities or insurance licenses.

A location quotient above one means the job makes up a bigger share of local employment than it does nationally. Securities sales agents work at broker-dealers (firms that buy and sell securities for clients), banks and other financial companies.

Those who sell securities pass exams run by FINRA, the regulator for brokerage firms, and need a sponsoring firm to take the Series 7. Insurance agents need a state insurance license. If you already work in insurance, the insurance agent to advisor guide covers which licenses carry over, and the career map shows how these roles connect.

Day to day, BLS describes the job as meeting clients to talk through their financial goals, explaining investment options and their risks, recommending or selecting investments, and checking accounts to see whether changes are needed. New advisors usually start under supervision.

BLS says they work under senior advisors and learn to build a client network, training that usually lasts more than a year¹³. Entry roles include associate financial advisor, client service associate and paraplanner, who gathers client documents and drafts the plans a lead advisor delivers. Jobs at a financial advisory firm explains each seat.

If you still work in another field, the first exams can come before you leave. FINRA lets anyone take the SIE, the entry securities exam, without a firm, for $100¹⁴ as read October 2026^14-17, and a pass stays valid for 4¹⁴ years. The Series 65, the NASAA exam for giving investment advice, needs no sponsor either, while the Series 7 needs a firm to sponsor you. The roadmap builder puts the exams in order for your situation, and the second career guide covers what changes when you switch fields.

BEA puts overall prices in this metro 15.6%⁵ above the US average in 2024. Housing prices are about 93.5%⁵ above US housing prices, the largest gap of the categories shown here. These are price levels, not a measure of what any wage buys.

California as a whole sits at 110.72⁶ on the same scale.

California's rules apply across the metro, and the California guide has every step and fee. To give investment advice for a fee, you pass the Series 65, or Series 7 plus Series 66¹⁹, and an investment adviser firm registers you with the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI)²⁰ as an investment adviser representative, for a $50²¹ state fee as read October 2026^14-17,22-30 and 12³¹ continuing education credits a year once registered.

To sell securities as well, you add the SIE and the Series 7 through a sponsoring firm plus the Series 63, or pair the Series 7 with the Series 66 to cover both roles. Selling life and health insurance takes a separate license from the California Department of Insurance³². DFPI has an office at One Sansome Street, Suite 600, San Francisco³³, but your firm files your registration on Form U4 online through FINRA's CRD system, not in person. For exam prep, Advisor Train covers the Series 65, the Series 65 and 66 guide explains the difference, and the licenses overview explains which exam fits which role.

San Francisco has more advisors than any neighbor and the highest median. San Jose has the higher top tenth, though its count is smaller and less precise.

"Small sample" marks a relative standard error, BLS's measure of how precise a survey estimate is, above one in five (22.8%¹ for Santa Rosa-Petaluma, 23.2%¹ for Stockton-Lodi), so treat those counts as rough. The San Jose count carries a 17.7%¹ error. The metros hub lists every metro page as it publishes.

• Self-employed advisors are not counted. OEWS covers people on payroll only. Nationally, the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook counts 299,400¹¹ advisor jobs in 2025 including the self-employed, against 266,800³ in OEWS. The local total is higher than the figure here for the same reason.
• These are survey estimates. The relative standard error is 12.6%¹ on the San Francisco advisor count and 4.7%¹ on its mean wage. For securities sales agents the count error is 4.6%¹, and for insurance agents 10.6%¹.
• No year to year comparisons. BLS says OEWS data are less useful for looking at changes over time, so older San Francisco figures are older data, not evidence that pay or jobs moved.
• Prices are not pay. The BEA figures describe price levels. They are not used to adjust any wage on this page.

The data and sources page explains how OEWS differs from the other advisor counts you may see.