Labeling the financial advisor profession and the wealth management industry as “Wall Street” as a shorthand is largely a misnomer, at least geographically speaking.
That’s because the business is playing out in every area of the country, and the U.S. cities and towns with the biggest growth of median annual advisor income — a proxy for their firm’s rise in yearly revenue — are far from New York’s Financial District. In the ranking below based on an analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by advisor lead generation and client matchmaking service SmartAsset, the off-Wall Street metropolitan areas of Spartanburg, South Carolina; Monroe, Louisiana; and Boise, Idaho took the top three spots.
Industry experts are quick to point out that the Labor data isn’t as precise with its definition of “personal financial advisors” as the firm- and name-specific numbers supplied through regulatory registrations. However, those sets include little to no information about compensation, which is key to industry business metrics, the fight for top advisor talent and M&A deals. And dealmakers whose job entails the identification of new geographic markets say every U.S. area can foster profitable advisory practices.
Westlake, Ohio-based registered investment advisory firm Prosperity Capital Advisors spans more than 60 offices across the country, CEO Jason Smith noted. Last month, Greenleaf Book Group published Smith’s latest book, “The Rainmaker Multiplier: How to Create a Self-Sustaining, Scalable Financial Planning Business.” Some may think that advisors in New York and California will generate the biggest revenue and income, but “that’s just not the case,” Smith said. Success comes down to “the entrepreneur that is leading that firm,” he said.
“They’re able to surround themselves with people who can handle everything that needs to be handled within a firm or within a business,” Smith added. “It’s all about whether that firm owner is really focused on people, focused on process and then, ultimately, that’s going to give you the platform and the ability to grow.”
Bearing those caveats in mind, the SmartAsset study presented data that advisors and wealth management firms could use “to steer their own business, hiring, marketing and lead generation strategies,” according to its author, SmartAsset Director of Economic Analysis Jaclyn DeJohn, who also recently examined the role of colors in industry branding in a piece for Financial Planning. Geographic data presents some noise, depending on how Labor’s definition may have captured more or less advisors in a given area between this and last year, and no shortage of murkiness about any conclusions to be drawn.
“The vast differences among local economies in the United States mean some metro areas and states offer more and better opportunities for financial advisors looking to grow their businesses,” DeJohn wrote. “And with increasing remote capabilities, some advisors may be able to take advantage of the opportunities in some communities while living elsewhere.”
Besides the listing below, here are some of the other interesting takeaways from the study:
At 42%, Lafayette, Louisiana, sustained the largest decrease in median advisor income, followed by Winchester, Virginia-West Virginia (37%), and Tulsa, Oklahoma (36%).Three towns in Arizona — Sierra Vista-Douglas ($48,220), Yuma ($48,780) and Lake Havasu City-Kingman ($49,160) — had the lowest median advisor pay in 2024. But that’s probably because the Labor data counted at least 15% more advisors in each metro area last year.Advisors in Boise ($167,940), Barnstable Town, Massachusetts ($135,000), Pittsfield, Massachusetts ($132,170), Utica-Rome, New York ($129,930) and Winston-Salem, North Carolina ($129,570) earned the highest median income last year.Statewide data was only available for 43 states, but advisor income climbed the most in Idaho (44%), Michigan (40%) and Kansas (29%) and was the highest overall in New York ($167,970), Idaho ($136,440) and California ($128,650). At $67,210, Utah had the lowest annual advisor earnings, followed by Oklahoma at $73,020, which had the biggest drop from the prior year of any state at 29%.
Scroll down the slideshow to see the 20 metropolitan areas where advisors reeled in the largest increases in median income in 2024. For a look at the rankings for the prior year, click here. To view a ranking of the states that netted the biggest gains in the number of certified financial planners last year, follow this link.
Note: The below rankings are based on a report by SmartAsset called “Where Financial Advisor Income Grew Most – 2025 Study.” The study crunched the numbers for 219 towns and cities examined in the data on the “personal financial advisor” profession from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for the last two years and ranked each place by the percentage increase in median income between 2023 and 2024.
