What the BD Industry Looks Like Now, in 6 Charts

The number of registered broker-dealers dropped to 3,184 firms in 2025 from 3,249 firms in 2024. The decline, according to the report, is due to "ongoing concentration."

After Regulation Best Interest was adopted in 2019 and implemented in 2020, "there were concerns that the heightened compliance would cause the broker-dealer industry to shrink," said Valerie Mirko, partner and leader of the securities regulation and litigation practice at Armstrong Teasdale in Washington, in an email Monday.

"While there has been mild contraction at the firm level (from 3,394 firms in 2021 to 3,184 in 2025)," Mirko added, the snapshot "shows a steady number of FINRA-registered representatives from 2021 to 2025, always above 600,000 and growing slightly since 2021."

Brian Rubin, partner at Eversheds Sutherland in Washington, added on Monday in another email that while "some people have said that individual financial advisors would be leaving BDs because of overregulation," the 2025 stats "show that, since at least 2022, the number of registered reps has increased each year."

2. The number of reps rose for the fourth year running.

The number of registered reps reached 639,723 in 2025, a 5% increase since 2021, "marking four consecutive years of growth with 40,000-45,000 people entering the industry annually," according to the report. The total number of reps in 2024 was 634,498, up from 628,351 in 2023.

3. More reps are entering the industry than leaving.

In 2025, 41,570 individuals left the brokerage industry while 46,795 entered, for a total of 639,723.

The recent growth streak follows five years in which more reps left the industry than joined it.

4. The opposite is true for firms.

More BD firms have left the industry than joined it each year since at least 2003, FINRA reported in its first Industry Snapshot in 2018.

5. Dual registration is now the predominant model.

More than half of FINRA-registered reps (331,802) maintain both broker-dealer and investment advisor registrations.

"The number of dually registered reps has also been increasing, suggesting that advisors and their clients see value when there is an option of brokerage or advisory services," Rubin said.

6. California and New York are losing ground while Florida rises.

In 2025, these five states had the most firms operating within them:
— New York, 1,375
— California, 784
— Florida, 746
— Illinois, 602
— Texas, 586

The same states also had the most branches, but with somewhat different footprints:
— California, 14,711
— Florida, 11,952
— Texas, 10,354
— New York, 9,448
— Illinois, 6,574

Since 2021, the number of firms operating in New York dropped by 63, from 1,438, while the state lost 10 branch offices. The number of BD headquarters in the state also dropped by 41, from 955 to 914.

California lost more than 1,000 branch offices in that time period, and 127 fewer BDs operated in the state. Seventy-eight fewer firms had their headquarters there — a drop from 377 to 299.

Florida, by contrast, is the only state in which the number of operating firms has grown, from 731 in 2021 — an addition of 15 firms. The number of branch offices increased by 974, and the number of headquarters grew by 57 — from 204 in 2021 to 261 in 2025.