Financial advisor salary and jobs by state

The typical personal financial advisor on a payroll earned $105,070¹ in May 2025, about 2.1¹ times the $50,980¹ median for all US jobs, according to BLS. Advisor pay also spreads far wider than pay for jobs overall. The line one in ten advisors earned less than sits close to the median for all US jobs.

Pay also differs by the kind of employer. These are the medians for the four industries BLS lists in its handbook pay section for advisors.

BLS says advisors at financial services firms are often paid a salary plus bonuses, while those at investment or planning firms and the self-employed charge a flat fee or earn commissions on the products they sell. None of these figures is broken out by pay setup. How each setup works is in employee, independent and hybrid pay setups.

State medians fall on both sides of the US figure of $105,070¹. Florida ($100,970²) and Texas ($99,160²), two of the largest advisor states, sit just under it, and Illinois ($120,130²) sits above it. BLS published a median for 49³ states (counting Washington, DC). Louisiana and Maine have none.

Which states have the highest median pay for financial advisors?

The five highest published state medians in May 2025 were New York, New Jersey, California, Connecticut and South Dakota³. This is a sort order on a survey figure for everyone in the job, not a guide to where a new advisor would be paid more.

Among the 320⁸ metro areas with a published median, New York-Newark-Jersey City is the highest⁹ at $170,050⁴, ahead of San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont at $160,610⁴. Several big advisor markets sit below the US median, including Charlotte ($99,440⁴), Tampa ($82,580⁴) and Denver ($98,740⁴).

In almost every state, the spread inside the state is wider than the gap between the highest and lowest state medians. In New York the top tenth of advisors earned more than $427,700² and the bottom tenth less than $76,190², which is why every table here shows both ends next to the median.

Living costs differ too. The map shows each state's and metro's price level from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) as a separate 2024 figure and never uses it to adjust a wage. Licensing and registration in your state are in the state guides.

• Source.Every pay figure and payroll job count comes from the BLS OEWS survey, May 2025, released May 15, 2026⁶. BLS builds it from a sample of about 1.1¹⁰ million establishments, collected in 6¹⁰ panels over 3¹⁰ years. Outlook figures and the job count that includes the self-employed come from the BLS Employment Projections for 2025 to 2035.
• Who is counted.Wage and salary workers at nonfarm employers in every industry. The self-employed are not in the survey, and they held 9.7%¹¹ of advisor jobs in 2025.
• What wages include.Commissions, incentive pay and production bonuses are in. Bonuses not tied to production, overtime premiums and benefits are out.
• Gaps.When BLS does not publish an estimate, the map says "Not published" and never fills the gap with a guess.
• Updates.BLS publishes new OEWS estimates every year. The map moves to the next release when it is out and never blends two releases.
• Limits.No pay by years of experience or by firm, because BLS does not publish it. Pay by kind of employer exists only for the US as a whole, because BLS publishes industry figures at the national level only. Metro areas follow BLS boundaries, so a metro can cross state lines. State job projections, which BLS links from the Occupational Outlook Handbook, come from state labor market offices and are not on the map. BLS's own OEWS maps let you pick other occupations.

Personal financial advisors (13-2052) in every state and Washington, DC, from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025. Pay figures cover advisors on payrolls at all employers. Advisors employed counts payroll jobs only and leaves out the self-employed. Per thousand jobs is advisors for every thousand jobs of all kinds in the state. The location quotient compares the state's share of advisor jobs with the US share, so above one means more advisors for its size than the US.

"Not published" means BLS did not release that estimate. The figure in parentheses is the relative standard error (RSE) BLS publishes for that count, shown only where it is high. A high RSE means the count is less precise, so read it as rough.

Every metro area where BLS counts at least 1,000⁸ personal financial advisors on payrolls, 44⁸ in all, largest first. Pay figures cover all employers, and counts leave out the self-employed. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington has a published count but no published pay. The second table adds the smaller metros among the ten most concentrated, and Boston, where BLS published pay but no count. Every other metro area BLS publishes is in the city guides. Source BLS OEWS, May 2025.

Kansas has the most³ financial advisors per thousand jobs of any state with a published count, at 2.888². BLS does not count advisors per resident, so per thousand jobs is the closest measure BLS publishes to per capita.

Among the 46³ states (counting DC) where BLS published a count, these had the most advisors per thousand jobs in May 2025, highest first. Counts are payroll jobs only, so self-employed advisors are not in them.

Connecticut, Massachusetts, Delaware, Montana and Alaska are not ranked because BLS did not publish their advisor counts.

For metro areas, see financial advisor jobs and pay by city.

By total count the order is different. California has 32,200² advisors on payrolls, more than any other state², and the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro has the most⁹ of any metro at 23,980⁴, followed by Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim at 13,980⁴. These rankings are sort orders on a government measure. They show where advisor jobs sit today, not where it is easier to start.

Securities, commodities and financial services sales agents (securities sales agents for short) and insurance sales agents are separate BLS occupations next to advising. The map can switch to either one.

The growth figures are the unrounded BLS projections. The Occupational Outlook Handbook rounds the advisor figure to 1%⁵.

A figure for advisor pay or jobs that does not match this page usually comes from one of these.