How to become a financial advisor in Florida

Your goal decides your exams and which agency registers you, and many advisors end up on more than one row. FINRA, the regulator of brokerage firms, runs the SIE, Series 6 and Series 7. The Series 65 and 66 are exams of NASAA, the association of state securities regulators.

The license path finder shows the exams in order for your goal, the cost and time tool prices your own path, and the roadmap builder puts the steps in order for your situation. Insurance is the one path in Florida you can carry all the way to a license on your own, through the course, the state exam and the application, though it is valid only once an insurer appoints you. The second career guide and the insurance agent guide cover what the move looks like from another job.

Florida does not issue a separate securities license. What people call a Florida securities license is your registration with the OFR as an agent or investment adviser representative, which your firm files after you pass the exams. Some top search results describe registering an advisory firm, with firm fees. These steps are for you as a person, in the order a career changer can take them, and the first two need no firm.

If your adviser firm is registered with the SEC and you work from a place of business in Florida, you still register with the OFR as a representative, for the same $50¹ fee (Section 517.12(3)). If you start your own advisory firm, a registered investment adviser or RIA, the firm registers too, and each Florida branch office is notice filed on Form BR for $100⁶ a year. Larger firms register with the SEC instead, as the broker-dealer and RIA guide explains. The OFR's apply for a license page is the official source for each filing.

Yes, if you will sell life, health or annuity products. Variable annuities take both this license and a securities registration, because they are securities as well as insurance (FINRA on annuities). The license is the resident health and life license, class 2-15, from the Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Insurance Agent and Agency Services⁸, and it covers life insurance, health insurance and annuities, including variable annuities. You must be at least 18⁹ and a Florida resident without a resident license in another state.

Exam exemptions. The department exempts people who hold a CLU designation, people with a degree that includes at least 9⁹ credit hours of insurance study, and people moving to Florida with a resident license from their old state held at least 1⁹ year, if they apply within 90⁹ days of becoming a resident.

As read on the department's pages in October 2026, the application, license ID and exam together cost $99¹⁰, or $151.50^10,27 with fingerprints, before the course, which providers price. The department's health and life license requirements and exam page are the official sources, and the licenses overview explains how advisors use this license.

BLS counted 21,490¹¹ personal financial advisors on Florida payrolls in May 2025, with a median wage of $100,970¹¹. One in ten earned less than $48,950¹¹ and one in ten more than $395,370¹¹, and the middle half earned between $65,120¹¹ and $206,290¹¹. The US median was $105,070¹², with a middle half of $72,440¹² to $176,790¹². These are survey figures for all employers from the BLS May 2025 Florida estimates, and they leave out the self-employed. The different "average" salaries some sites and AI answers show come from job postings, self-reported pay or BLS tables as old as May 2019, not from this survey.

Florida has 2.2¹¹ advisor jobs per thousand jobs against 1.7^11,29 for the US, a location quotient of 1.26¹¹, so advisors are more concentrated here than in the US as a whole. Securities sales agents (1.36¹¹) and insurance agents (1.55¹¹) are also above the US share.

Are financial advisors in demand in Florida?

The two official projections differ. FloridaCommerce, the state labor agency, projects advisor jobs in Florida to grow 13.8%³⁰ from 2026 to 2034, with about 2,140³⁰ openings a year. The latest BLS national projection, for 2025 to 2035, is growth of 1%³¹, slower than the average for all occupations, with about 17,100³¹ openings a year, mostly to replace advisors who change jobs or retire. The two cover different years and come from different agencies, so read them as a direction, not a precise gap. A projection is an estimate of total jobs, not a promise of a job or of pay for any one person. Pages and AI answers that still show 17.1%³² growth are quoting the 2023 to 2033 projection, which BLS has replaced.

Will AI replace financial advisors? BLS says AI tools for financial advice may moderate demand for advisors, while many people are expected to keep relying on human advisors for complex and specialized advice. Is financial advisor a good career? looks at what this means for newcomers, and the career map shows BLS job and pay figures for every state and metro.

Which Florida metros have the most advisors?

The Miami metro alone has about 39%^11,29 of Florida advisor jobs, and Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville together about 74%^11,29. Miami, Sarasota and Naples run well above the state rate, while Orlando sits below the US rate. Some salary answers for Sarasota still quote a May 2019 annual mean. The May 2025 median for North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota is $82,100²⁹, and a mean runs above typical pay, as the notes below explain.

BLS withholds Palm Bay advisor wages, so any Palm Bay advisor wage you see elsewhere did not come from this survey. The Cape Coral-Fort Myers count has a relative standard error of 29.7%²⁹, so treat it as a rough estimate. Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, Punta Gorda, Sebring and Sebastian-Vero Beach have the same problem and are left out. Metro and state figures are separate estimates, so the metros do not add up to the state.