Best financial advisors, top firms for 2025

Amid economic uncertainty, the perfect financial advisors can present a gradual hand to traders in any stage of life or with any degree of wealth.

Whether you are early in your profession or nearing your golden years, financial advisors will help you meet key milestones and tackle planning wants reminiscent of saving for retirement, investing a windfall, funding college education, managing portfolio income or shaping your legacy.  

But discovering a superb financial advisor is not simple. 

To determine financial advisors who could greatest meet your wants, you possibly can ask folks you realize for referrals and use sources reminiscent of CNBC’s Financial Advisor 100. Verify advisors’ credentials and examine for complaints through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck or the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission‘s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, then interview these in your quick record.

We created CNBC’s Financial Advisor 100 in 2019 to acknowledge the nation’s greatest financial advisors and top financial advisory firms. CNBC accepts no fee for placement. 

Our crew makes use of knowledge evaluation, with knowledge accomplice AccuPoint Solutions, and editorial evaluation to compile CNBC’s Financial Advisor 100 record. For 2025, the method started with 40,563 registered funding advisor firms, or RIAs, and that record was diminished to 1,015 that met CNBC’s necessities. CNBC surveyed the finalists for extra particulars about their follow and verified responses towards publicly accessible sources. Then AccuPoint used CNBC’s weighted standards to rank the firms. (Read more about the methodology under.)

For 2025, CNBC’s top advisors collectively handle $223 billion. The firms have a median of 32 years in enterprise.

A fiduciary financial advisor acts in the perfect curiosity of the shopper, no matter how that impacts their enterprise or backside line.

Some financial advisors, reminiscent of RIAs, are certain by the fiduciary standard. However, funding brokers should comply with a suitability standard, which implies that suggestions could also be applicable however not essentially the most suitable choice.

Finding the right financial advisor could require some homework, however you can begin with referrals from trusted colleagues, buddies or members of the family.

Depending in your wants, you possibly can examine for advisors’ lively credentials, reminiscent of certified financial planner, or CFP; certified public accountant, or CPA; or chartered financial analyst, or CFA.

You also can examine for regulatory violations and buyer complaints, additionally referred to as disclosures, through BrokerCheck from FINRA, and the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure web site from the SEC. State regulators could present extra info for smaller firms.

Before selecting a financial advisor, you need to meet and interview potential candidates. These 10 questions from the CFP Board might assist slim down your record:

1. What are your {qualifications} and credentials?
2. What providers do you provide?
3. Will you’ve a fiduciary responsibility to me?
4. What is your strategy to financial planning?
5. What sorts of shoppers do you sometimes work with?
6. Will you be the one advisor working with me?
7. How will I pay for your providers?
8. How a lot do you sometimes cost?
9. Do others stand to achieve from the financial recommendation you give me?
10. Have you ever been publicly disciplined for unethical or illegal actions in your profession?

Before hiring a financial advisor, it is necessary to know their compensation structure and the way it might affect their suggestions.  

Typically, financial advisors are paid through fee, charges or a hybrid of the 2. Fee-only means the advisor doesn’t obtain a fee from merchandise. Some fee-only examples could embrace flat quantities for one-time tasks, hourly charges, month-to-month retainers or property beneath administration, or AUM.

Commission-based recommendation would be the lowest-cost choice for recommendation a few particular financial product. However, commission-based recommendation can current a conflict of interest in some circumstances. 

By comparability, AUM is mostly a set proportion annually, however the quantity paid varies based mostly on the scale of your portfolio. Some advisors paid through AUM have minimal asset necessities, which could be much less inclusive to traders with a smaller portfolio.  

Robo-advisors are algorithms developed by firms to routinely make investments your cash based mostly in your threat tolerance. Some robo-advisors provide further options, reminiscent of entry to a human advisor and tax-loss harvesting, which makes use of losses to offset different portfolio beneficial properties.  

By distinction, a human financial advisor can provide tailor-made, complete financial planning to fulfill particular targets. This could embrace steering on investing, taxes, insurance coverage, retirement planning, property planning and different areas.

In 2024, the median robo-advisor price was round 0.25% of assets per year, based mostly on 16 U.S.-based platforms, based on Morningstar’s 2025 Robo-Advisor Report. However, charges could be considerably larger, relying on the platform. To evaluate, financial advisors sometimes cost round 1% of property beneath administration, or 100 foundation factors, relying on the scale of your portfolio.   

If you are new to investing, most specialists advocate beginning together with your office 401(k), moderately than a robo-advisor, and contributing not less than as much as your employer’s matching contribution. Without a office plan, you possibly can contemplate a Roth individual retirement account, which offers tax-free progress, amongst different advantages.

Fidelity recommends aiming for not less than 15% of pretax income for retirement, together with your employer match. The hottest 401(ok) funding, target-date funds, additionally provide automated asset allocation, relying in your deliberate retirement date.  

You can be taught extra by studying our full methodology for figuring out the perfect financial advisors.

CNBC private finance reporters Jessica Dickler, Gregory Iacurci, Lorie Konish, Annie Nova and Ana Teresa Solá contributed to this story. 

CNBC receives no compensation from inserting financial advisory firms on our Financial Advisor 100 list. Additionally, a agency’s or advisor’s look in our rating doesn’t represent a person endorsement by CNBC of any agency or advisor.