The ranks of certified financial planners swelled by more than 4,000 nationwide in 2024, bringing the total to 103,093, the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards reported in early January.
SmartAsset broke those numbers down by state in a study published Wednesday.
The amount of competition among financial planners in a particular area can affect the availability and quality of services, the advisor-client matchmaking site noted. Competition can also influence how long advisors remain in a community and how much income they can earn.
Working with clients remotely has increased since the pandemic, SmartAsset pointed out. Still, engaging them directly and keeping current with local financial trends and attitudes can foster long-lasting relationships.
The CFP marketplace is dynamic, and the number of advisors in a state can shift when certificants move or new planners set up shop. In many of these growth areas, largely outside of financial hubs, there are masses of high-earning households with relatively few CFPs to serve them.
SmartAsset examined changes in active CFP certifications from 2024 to 2025 to determine where advisors are located and how the industry has shifted in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
To gauge the potential demand for financial planning by state, ThinkAdvisor used IRS statistics on the number of tax returns filed by households with $200,000 or more in adjusted gross income for tax year 2022, the most recent state-level data available.
We then compared the number of affluent households with the number of CFPs in the state. Across the U.S., there are about 120 affluent households per CFP.
See the gallery for the 12 states with the fastest-growing CFP populations from 2024 to 2025, according to SmartAsset.
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