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Updated July 23, 2026. Quick answer: There are 16,935 SEC-registered investment adviser firms in the United States as of the July 1, 2026 SEC roster, managing a combined $177.37 trillion in total regulatory assets. The median firm manages $460 million. New York leads by both firm count (2,558) and assets ($38.07 trillion), while Pennsylvania ranks #2 by assets despite ranking #7 by firm count.
All 53 jurisdictions: Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | California | Colorado | Connecticut | Delaware | Florida | Georgia | Hawaii | Idaho | Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | Kansas | Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska | Nevada | New Hampshire | New Jersey | New Mexico | New York | North Carolina | North Dakota | Ohio | Oklahoma | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Puerto Rico | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas | US Virgin Islands | Utah | Vermont | Virginia | Washington DC | Washington State | West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wyoming
US financial advisor statistics at a glance (2026)
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| SEC-registered investment adviser firms | 16,935 |
| Total regulatory AUM | $177.37 trillion |
| Median firm regulatory AUM | $460 million |
| Firms reporting $0 regulatory AUM | 615 |
| US jurisdictions with SEC-registered firms | 53 (50 states + DC, PR, VI) |
What the statistics inform. Firm size and regulatory band shape what a firm charges and who it will take on. What a given rate costs you in dollars, and whether a flat fee would cost less at your balance.
Advisor firms by size (regulatory AUM bands)
| Firm size band | Firms | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $100M | 1,138 | 7.0% |
| $100M-$1B | 9,791 | 60.0% |
| $1B-$10B | 4,026 | 24.7% |
| Over $10B | 1,365 | 8.4% |
Top 15 states by number of advisor firms
| Rank | State | Firms | Total regulatory AUM | Median firm AUM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | 2,558 | $38.07 trillion | $852 million |
| 2 | California | 1,853 | $23.06 trillion | $517 million |
| 3 | Texas | 1,062 | $4.55 trillion | $495 million |
| 4 | Florida | 1,056 | $4.08 trillion | $377 million |
| 5 | Illinois | 674 | $7.94 trillion | $623 million |
| 6 | Massachusetts | 621 | $19.26 trillion | $900 million |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | 556 | $27.18 trillion | $543 million |
| 8 | Connecticut | 500 | $3.42 trillion | $859 million |
| 9 | Ohio | 391 | $1.09 trillion | $394 million |
| 10 | New Jersey | 383 | $6.07 trillion | $490 million |
| 11 | Colorado | 351 | $1.31 trillion | $369 million |
| 12 | Georgia | 326 | $1.50 trillion | $438 million |
| 13 | VA | 298 | $580.0 billion | $443 million |
| 14 | MI | 298 | $562.8 billion | $373 million |
| 15 | NC | 288 | $3.03 trillion | $401 million |
Top 10 states by advisor-managed assets
| Rank | State | Total regulatory AUM | Firms |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | $38.07 trillion | 2,558 |
| 2 | Pennsylvania | $27.18 trillion | 556 |
| 3 | California | $23.06 trillion | 1,853 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | $19.26 trillion | 621 |
| 5 | Illinois | $7.94 trillion | 674 |
| 6 | New Jersey | $6.07 trillion | 383 |
| 7 | Texas | $4.55 trillion | 1,062 |
| 8 | Florida | $4.08 trillion | 1,056 |
| 9 | Missouri | $3.57 trillion | 193 |
| 10 | Connecticut | $3.42 trillion | 500 |
What the concentration means for consumers: more firms in a market generally means more fee competition and more fee-only options – but it also means more marketing noise. Whatever the market, compare quotes in written annual dollars using the Financial Advisor Fee Calculator and sanity-check them against average wealth management fees or, at higher asset levels, private wealth management fees.
Comparing advisors in this market?
Firm counts tell you how crowded the market is – fees tell you what it costs. Get every quote in written annual dollars before an intro call.
Cite this page: Clear Money Guide, “US Financial Advisor Statistics 2026,” computed from the SEC Investment Adviser public roster (report date July 1, 2026). Free to cite with a link to this page.
Methodology
Figures are computed from the official SEC Investment Adviser firm roster (FOIA download, report date July 1, 2026), deduplicated by CRD number (zero duplicates found). “Regulatory AUM” is Form ADV Item 5.F.(2)(c) – total regulatory assets under management; 615 firms reporting $0 RAUM are excluded from AUM statistics. State assignment uses each firm’s main-office address; SEC-registered firms only (state-registered advisers are not included). Every figure was independently recomputed by a second automated reviewer before publication. Full details: how Clear Money Guide computes its numbers. This page was materially reviewed on July 23, 2026, and is educational – not personalized financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. See our Editorial Policy, Corrections, Affiliate Disclosure, and Disclaimer.
More statute-cited tables: Probate cost by state and small-estate limits by state, built under the same verification methodology.
Advisor fee statistics (2026)
- $2,000–$2,500 a year at $250,000; $8,750–$10,000 at $1,000,000; $24,000–$26,000 at $3,000,000 — measured median annual advisory cost, computed from the Form ADV Part 2A fee disclosures of 176 sampled SEC-registered advisers, weighted back to the 9,234-firm July 1, 2026 SEC frame. These are intervals, not midpoints: where a firm discloses a fee range, both ends are carried through. Source: our own 2026 advisor fee benchmark, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21741167.
- 28.4% — the share of sampled firms publishing a fee a $250,000 household can actually work out. Of the rest, 18.9% set an account minimum above that balance, 16.8% publish only an “up to” ceiling with no floor, and 25.7% write the fee too vaguely to compute — 61.4% priced out or unpriceable in total. Same benchmark, same DOI.
- $10,000 per year — what a 1.00% AUM fee costs on a $1,000,000 portfolio ($25,000 on $2.5 million; $50,000 on $5 million), before fund and platform costs. This is arithmetic on a stated rate, not a measured statistic.
- The quote formats you will be shown — hourly, flat annual, monthly retainer, project fee and AUM percentage, each with the first question to ask about it — are laid out on the fee comparison chart. The advertised bands there are normalisation aids for reading a proposal, not a measured distribution, which is why this page does not publish them as statistics.
Dollar-first breakdowns with sources: how much a financial advisor costs. These figures are free to cite with attribution and a link. Suggested citation: “US Financial Advisor Statistics,” Clear Money Guide, 2026, clearmoneyguide.com/advisor-statistics/.
Archived, citable copy. This dataset is deposited with a permanent DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21741639. Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.
Citable figures: our statistics index collects 20 measured figures from four open datasets, each with the DOI to cite and all free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.