Best financial advisors, top firms for 2025

Amid economic uncertainty, the best financial advisors can provide a steady hand to investors in any stage of life or with any level of wealth.

Whether you’re early in your career or nearing your golden years, financial advisors can help you meet key milestones and address planning needs such as saving for retirement, investing a windfall, funding college education, managing portfolio income or shaping your legacy.  

But finding a good financial advisor isn’t easy. 

To identify financial advisors who may best meet your needs, you can ask people you know for referrals and use resources such as CNBC’s Financial Advisor 100. Verify advisors’ credentials and check for complaints via the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck or the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, then interview those on your short list.

We created CNBC’s Financial Advisor 100 in 2019 to recognize the country’s best financial advisors and top financial advisory firms. CNBC accepts no payment for placement. 

Our team uses data analysis, with data partner AccuPoint Solutions, and editorial review to compile CNBC’s Financial Advisor 100 list. For 2025, the process began with 40,563 registered investment advisor firms, or RIAs, and that list was reduced to 1,015 that met CNBC’s requirements. CNBC surveyed the finalists for more details about their practice and verified responses against publicly available resources. Then AccuPoint used CNBC’s weighted criteria to rank the firms. (Read more about the methodology below.)

For 2025, CNBC’s top advisors collectively manage $223 billion. The firms have an average of 32 years in business.

A fiduciary financial advisor acts in the best interest of the client, regardless of how that affects their business or bottom line.

Some financial advisors, such as RIAs, are bound by the fiduciary standard. However, investment brokers must follow a suitability standard, which means that recommendations may be appropriate but not necessarily the best option.

Finding the right financial advisor may require some homework, but you can start with referrals from trusted colleagues, friends or family members.

Depending on your needs, you can check for advisors’ active credentials, such as certified financial planner, or CFP; certified public accountant, or CPA; or chartered financial analyst, or CFA.

You can also check for regulatory violations and customer complaints, also called disclosures, via BrokerCheck from FINRA, and the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website from the SEC. State regulators may provide more information for smaller firms.

Before choosing a financial advisor, you should meet and interview prospective candidates. These 10 questions from the CFP Board could help narrow down your list:

1. What are your qualifications and credentials?
2. What services do you offer?
3. Will you have a fiduciary duty to me?
4. What is your approach to financial planning?
5. What types of clients do you typically work with?
6. Will you be the only advisor working with me?
7. How will I pay for your services?
8. How much do you typically charge?
9. Do others stand to gain from the financial advice you give me?
10. Have you ever been publicly disciplined for unethical or unlawful actions in your career?

Before hiring a financial advisor, it’s important to understand their compensation structure and how it could influence their recommendations.  

Typically, financial advisors are paid via commission, fees or a hybrid of the two. Fee-only means the advisor does not receive a commission from products. Some fee-only examples may include flat amounts for one-time projects, hourly fees, monthly retainers or assets under management, or AUM.

Commission-based advice may be the lowest-cost option for advice about a specific financial product. However, commission-based advice can present a conflict of interest in some cases. 

By comparison, AUM is generally a set percentage each year, but the amount paid varies based on the size of your portfolio. Some advisors paid via AUM have minimum asset requirements, which can be less inclusive to investors with a smaller portfolio.  

Robo-advisors are algorithms developed by companies to automatically invest your money based on your risk tolerance. Some robo-advisors offer additional features, such as access to a human advisor and tax-loss harvesting, which uses losses to offset other portfolio gains.  

By contrast, a human financial advisor can offer tailored, comprehensive financial planning to meet specific goals. This may include guidance on investing, taxes, insurance, retirement planning, estate planning and other areas.

In 2024, the median robo-advisor fee was around 0.25% of assets per year, based on 16 U.S.-based platforms, according to Morningstar’s 2025 Robo-Advisor Report. However, fees can be significantly higher, depending on the platform. To compare, financial advisors typically charge around 1% of assets under management, or 100 basis points, depending on the size of your portfolio.   

If you’re new to investing, most experts recommend starting with your workplace 401(k), rather than a robo-advisor, and contributing at least up to your employer’s matching contribution. Without a workplace plan, you could consider a Roth individual retirement account, which provides tax-free growth, among other benefits.

Fidelity recommends aiming for at least 15% of pretax income for retirement, including your employer match. The most popular 401(k) investment, target-date funds, also offer automated asset allocation, depending on your planned retirement date.  

CNBC used data analysis and editorial review to compile its seventh annual Financial Advisor 100 list.

For 2025, we started with 40,563 RIAs from the SEC’s regulatory database. That list was filtered to 1,015 firms, and the finalists completed surveys to verify key details. CNBC conducted an editorial review of entries, before data partner AccuPoint Solutions applied our proprietary weighted criteria to narrow down the list and rank the firms.

Among other criteria, we considered:

Assets under managementFirm location and states registeredRegulatory and compliance recordsFirm size and years in businessNumber of certified financial plannersNumber of investment advisors registered with the firm

You can learn more by reading our full methodology for determining the best financial advisors.

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

CNBC receives no compensation from placing financial advisory firms on our Financial Advisor 100 list. Additionally, a firm’s or advisor’s appearance in our ranking does not constitute an individual endorsement by CNBC of any firm or advisor.