Advisors find opportunities in many forms, SmartAsset notes in a new report.

Some seek places that boast the highest income for the profession, while others look for niches that may offer returns at scale.

Although consumer demand for advisors varies from place to place, the report said, there’s a fuller story to be told about potential assets under management at stake and how competition in the advisor industry looks. Both factors can influence the return investment that advisors receive on their time and marketing dollars.

To find the total assets under management potentially available statewide, SmartAsset researchers multiplied the number of households in 44 states with available data by the average household net worth (excluding home equity), based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s data for net worth from 2022 and for household count from 2023.

They then divided this number by the number of collective employees whose RIA’s main location in the same state reported performing investment advisory services, including research, with data sourced from the SEC Form ADV filing for RIAs for June 2025.

The analysis found that seven states have more than $100 million in potential assets available per advisor. At the other end of the spectrum, RIAs in Missouri face the stiffest competition with a potential maximum of only $2.2 million to be managed per more than 39,000 active advisors, the lowest average among the 44 states studied.

New York, which has the most active advisor cohort of any state at 146,870, is second to last for potential assets available per advisor, $2.8 million. Advisors in neighboring Connecticut and New Jersey have somewhat more potential to work with, $10.7 million and $22.8 million.

See the accompanying gallery for the 12 states with the highest potential assets under management available per advisor, according to SmartAsset.

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