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Role hub · Personal Financial Advisors

Financial Advisor: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Oct 24, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of financial advisors earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$105,070
Hourly
$50.51
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

Financial Advisors advise clients on financial plans using knowledge of tax and investment strategies, securities, insurance, pension plans, and real estate. The median pay is $105,070 a year ($50.51 an hour) (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is a bachelor's degree (58% of workers surveyed by O*NET).

Median pay
$105,070
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
266,800
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 4 of 5
considerable preparation
Most common education
Bachelor's Degree
58% of workers

Data Government data groups this job as Personal Financial Advisors (O*NET-SOC 13-2052.00). Figures on this page are for that occupation.

Explore the role

Every page for Financial Advisors

SalaryFinancial Advisor salary

Pay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.

Open →How to becomeFinancial Advisor how to become

Education, training and the skills to build first.

Open →ResumeFinancial Advisor resume

Keywords, bullet formulas and the skills to prove.

Open →Interview questionsFinancial Advisor interview questions

Questions with what they test, plus practice mode.

Open →Career changeFinancial Advisor career change

Where these skills transfer, with skill match and pay change.

Open →Free toolCheck your resume

Parsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.

Open →
The work

What financial advisors do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Interview clients to determine their current income, expenses, insurance coverage, tax status, financial objectives, risk tolerance, or other information needed to develop a financial plan.
  2. Analyze financial information obtained from clients to determine strategies for meeting clients' financial objectives.
  3. Answer clients' questions about the purposes and details of financial plans and strategies.
  4. Review clients' accounts and plans regularly to determine whether life changes, economic changes, environmental concerns, or financial performance indicate a need for plan reassessment.
  5. Manage client portfolios, keeping client plans up-to-date.
  6. Recommend to clients strategies in cash management, insurance coverage, investment planning, or other areas to help them achieve their financial goals.
  7. Recommend financial products, such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or insurance.
  8. Implement financial planning recommendations, or refer clients to someone who can assist them with plan implementation.
Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

Reading ComprehensioncoreActive ListeningcoreSpeakingcoreWritingCritical ThinkingSocial PerceptivenessService OrientationComplex Problem SolvingJudgment and Decision Making

Knowledge areas: Customer and Personal Service, Economics and Accounting, English Language, Mathematics, Psychology.

Tools and technology

Software financial advisors use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • ASI Client Acquisition SolutionFinancial analysis software
  • Advent AxysFinancial analysis software
  • AdviceAmerica AdvisorVisionFinancial analysis software
  • Advisory World ICEFinancial analysis software
  • Asset allocation softwareFinancial analysis software
  • Brentmark Stock Option Risk AnalyzerFinancial analysis software
  • Cheshire Financial Planning SuiteFinancial analysis software
  • ComplianceMAXCompliance software
  • Cygnus IncomeMaxFinancial analysis software
  • EISI NaviPlanFinancial analysis software
  • Education planning softwareFinancial analysis software
  • Estate Capitol Needs AnalysisFinancial analysis software

Also called: Personal Financial Advisor, Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Financial Consultant, Financial Counselor, Financial Life Planner, Financial Planner.

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the correlation between the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level, subtract the average across all occupations, and correlate the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 or below means unrelated. Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).