What is the median salary for a financial advisor?
The most widely cited benchmark is the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program, which tracks the occupation 'personal financial advisors' (code 13-2052). In its Occupational Outlook Handbook, BLS reports that the median annual wage for the occupation was $105,070 in May 2025, or $50.51 an hour. Half of advisors in the survey earned more and half earned less.
The spread is wide. BLS says the lowest 10% earned less than $50,190 and the highest 10% earned more than $357,020 in May 2025. BLS counted 299,400 personal financial advisor jobs in 2025.
This guide summarizes published data and reporting. It is general information, not career, tax or financial advice.
What does the BLS data include and leave out?
OEWS wages are straight-time gross pay. According to the BLS technical notes and state labor agencies that publish the same definitions, they include base pay and production-based incentive pay such as commissions and production bonuses, but exclude premium pay such as overtime and shift differentials, as well as nonproduction bonuses. For a commission-paid broker, production-based pay generally counts; a discretionary year-end bonus may not.
The bigger gap is who is counted. The OEWS survey covers wage and salary workers at employers and does not include the self-employed or owners and partners in unincorporated firms, according to BLS. Independent advisors who operate as sole proprietors and partners who own their RIAs are therefore outside the sample, and they are often among the highest earners in the business. The BLS median is best read as a figure for employed advisors, from bank and call-center advisors to wirehouse brokers.
Which industries pay financial advisors the most?
Among the industries that employ the most personal financial advisors, BLS reported these May 2025 median wages: securities, commodity contracts and other financial investments, $120,870; professional, scientific and technical services, $99,320; credit intermediation and related activities, which includes banks, $96,010; and insurance carriers, $84,500.
The pattern reflects how advisors are paid in each setting. Brokerage and investment firms pay largely on production, so experienced advisors with large books can earn far more than the median. Banks and insurers more often pay salaries plus incentives, with less upside.
How much do advisors make at wirehouses, independent firms and RIAs?
Industry surveys that include business owners show higher figures than BLS. The CFP Board's 2026 compensation study, released June 4, 2026, surveyed 1,624 financial planners from mid-January to mid-March 2026 and found median 2025 total compensation of $195,000. By channel, the study reported medians of $226,500 at independent broker-dealers, $213,760 at wirehouses and brokerages, $206,000 at banks, $181,500 at hybrid RIAs and $175,000 at RIAs.
The study also found that CFP professionals earn about 11% more than other financial planners after adjusting for experience, firm size and services offered, and that planners with 20 or more years of experience had median compensation of $360,000. Survey results reflect the planners who responded and are not directly comparable with the BLS figures, which use a different population and definition of pay.
How do payout grids determine advisor pay?
Most brokerage advisors are paid through a payout grid: the firm credits the advisor with the revenue they generate, called production, and pays back a percentage that rises with production tiers. At Morgan Stanley, payout rates range from 28% for the lowest producers to 55.5% for the highest, Financial Planning reported in September 2026. Merrill's standard grid pays 34% to 51%, AdvisorHub reported in September 2025, and UBS added a 60% rate for advisors or teams producing $20 million or more in its 2026 plan.
Grids also include rules that cut pay on small accounts and reward growth. Merrill pays nothing on households under $250,000 and, for 2026, a reduced 20% rate on households between $250,000 and $500,000, according to AdvisorHub. Part of wirehouse pay is deferred and vests over several years.
Independent broker-dealers pay a much larger share. LPL Financial reported a payout rate of 87.44% for the three months ended June 30, 2026 in its SEC filing. Independent advisors cover offices, staff and technology out of that payout, so take-home pay is lower than the headline rate suggests. Our guide to payout grids covers the 2026 and 2027 plan changes in detail.
How are RIA advisors paid?
Registered investment advisers usually charge clients an advisory fee, often a percentage of assets, and pay employee advisors a salary plus a bonus or a share of revenue. Owners also take the firm's profit after expenses, which is why owner-advisors at successful RIAs can out-earn employees on any grid.
Ownership also builds equity that can be sold, a component of pay that wage surveys do not capture. Our guide to how RIAs are valued explains how firms price that equity.
What else affects how much an advisor earns?
Production is the main driver. Because pay at brokerages and many RIAs is tied to revenue, an advisor's income tracks the size of their client base, the fees they charge and market levels, which move asset-based fees up or down.
Moving firms can add a large one-time component. Recruiting packages are often quoted as a percentage of trailing-12-month revenue and paid as forgivable loans; a Diamond report covered by Wealth Solutions Report in October 2026 put packages for desirable wirehouse teams at about 350% to 425% of trailing revenue. That money is typically forgiven over many years and is taxed as it is forgiven, as our guide to forgivable loans explains.