States with the Most Potential Assets to Manage Per Financial Advisor — 2026 Study

For financial advisors, market opportunity depends not only on the amount of wealth residents have available to manage, but also on the number of advisors competing for that wealth. States where residents have substantial wealth, and where advisor competition is relatively limited, may offer stronger prospects for new business acquisition and practice growth. In places where competition is stiffer, or available wealth is limited, advisors may experience greater professional headwinds.

SmartAsset calculated potential assets to manage per advisor in 40 states with available data. In each state, potential assets to manage were estimated by dividing total household net worth, excluding home equity, by the number of employed personal financial advisors working in that state. That count leaves out self-employed advisors, who account for about 10% of personal financial advisors nationally, so the per-advisor figures are best read as a way to compare states with one another, not as what any single advisor could expect to manage. The results offer a directional measure of potential market opportunity.

Key Findings

• Hawaii tops the list. At roughly $680 million in potential assets per advisor, the Aloha State leads No. 2 Idaho, at roughly $410 million, by a wide margin in this estimate. As an island state, Hawaii has no neighboring-state markets, so its advisors don’t compete with advisors across a state line.
• Wealth doesn’t always mean opportunity. Colorado, New Hampshire and New Jersey each top $540,000 in average household net worth, but relatively high advisor counts for their size keep all three out of the top 20.
• Kansas is the toughest market on this measure. More than 4,000 advisors share about $368 billion in potential assets — about $89 million each — the lowest per-advisor figure in the study and the only one below $100 million.
• In eight states, the amount of potential assets available to manage per advisor tops $300 million. They include Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, South Carolina, New Mexico, Virginia, Oregon and Louisiana.

Questions and Answers

Methodology

All values are estimates based on the most recent available data for each component. The number of households and mean household net worth were sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2025 Survey of Income and Program Participation, which reports 2024 estimates. Ten states were excluded where the base is under 200,000 households or the sample size is under 50. Home equity was excluded from household net worth. The number of advisors in each state was based on May 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data for personal financial advisors (SOC 13-2052), which generally excludes self-employed advisors. Potential assets to manage per advisor were calculated by multiplying the number of households by mean household net worth excluding home equity, then dividing that total by the number of personal financial advisors in the state. This measure is directional and should not be interpreted as the amount of assets actively available for advisor management, since household net worth may include illiquid assets or assets already under professional management. Differences between states should be interpreted cautiously because household wealth estimates are subject to sampling variability. Source data providers are not affiliated with, and do not endorse or sponsor, this study or its findings.