FP Insights® Advisor Compensation Study

Compensation is one of a firm's largest ongoing investments. When it’s aligned to business goals, it becomes a lever for retention, growth, and valuation—not just an expense. Structure can help:

• Reduce guesswork in hiring and offers

• Reward performance without breaking margins

• Create clearer pathways to ownership and continuity

This initiative is designed for:

• Multi-employee independent advisory firms (RIA, hybrid, and IBD-aligned)

• Owners/partners responsible for pay decisions, equity incentives, or succession planning

• Team leaders building compensation plans for advisors, planners, and operations roles

The survey collects detailed data on how financial advisors and staff are compensated across the wealth management industry. It covers:

• Firm-level details including AUM, revenue, location, and broker-dealer affiliation

• Team member roles, ownership, licensure, and job functions

• Compensation structures including salary, hourly pay, shared revenue (“eat what you kill”), direct commissions, bonuses, deferred compensation, and profit distributions

• Equity and long-term incentive plans such as phantom stock or stock appreciation rights

• Work arrangements such as remote, in-office, or hybrid settings

• Geographic factors affecting pay (state and county)

• Bonus drivers and performance-based compensation metrics

The survey is designed to provide deep insights into both the amount and structure of compensation, allowing participants to benchmark their practices and support ownership-aligned pay strategies. It requires data on at least two team members, with one being an owner, and takes approximately 30–40 minutes to complete.

The data collected through the FP Insights® Advisor Compensation Survey is compiled, anonymized, and analyzed to create a comprehensive industry report. This report provides benchmarking insights into how financial advisors and support staff are compensated—highlighting both the amount and the structure of pay.

Key uses of the data include:

• Identifying trends in base salary, shared revenue, bonuses, equity participation, and deferred compensation

• Benchmarking firm compensation models by role, geography, firm size, and affiliation (e.g., broker-dealer or RIA)

• Highlighting best practices in ownership-aligned pay strategies to support business growth and sustainability

• Empowering firms to compare their compensation systems to peers and make informed, strategic adjustments

Participants are notified via email when the report is published and available for download. Only aggregated and anonymized results are shared—individual firm data is kept confidential and secure.

The FP Insights® Advisor Compensation Survey is open to U.S.-based wealth management firms across a range of sizes and structures, including:

• RIA firms, IBD-aligned practices, and hybrid models

• Practices with at least two team members, including at least one owner

Participants must be able to provide:

• Firm-level information such as AUM, revenue, and office location

• Individual-level compensation data for team members, including roles, pay structure, licenses, and benefits

Any firm staff that manages compensation for a team (whether a solo advisor or multi-advisor firm) is eligible to participate. 

Yes. All data submitted through the FP Insights® Advisor Compensation Survey is strictly confidential and handled with the highest standards of privacy and security.

• Individual firm data is never shared publicly or with other participants.

• All results in the final report are aggregated and anonymized to protect the identity of participating firms and individuals.

• Data is used solely for the purpose of generating industry insights and benchmarking trends to support informed compensation planning.

• Only the FP Transitions research team has access to collected raw data, and any contributors participants specifically invite from their teams.

We are committed to safeguarding all information throughout the entire process.