Throughline

Business and finance

Personal Financial Advisor in the United States

38 postings read · sampled 2026-09-01 · source ats

What employers actually ask for

Credentials named in the 38 postings we read, ranked by how many mentioned each one.

What it costs

Exam and application fees plus typical self-study hours. Almost nobody needs every credential on this list — start with the top line.

Most-asked-for, on its own
$1,290CFA Level I · ~300 hrs
asked for in 24 of 38 postings — 63%
If you earned all 2 of them
$2,790
fees checked 2026-08
700 hrs
700 hours — over a year at 10 hrs/wk

Not in the total: Bachelor's Degree — cost varies by institution; Master's Degree — cost varies by institution.

What the official taxonomy says

O*NET surveys people already doing this job. That describes who got hired over a long window, not what employers are asking for now — where it disagrees with the counts above, the counts are the more current answer.

Education reported by people doing this job
58%reported bachelor’s degree
  • Bachelor’s degree58%
  • Post-baccalaureate certificate23%
  • Master’s degree12%

Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

O*NET 13-2052.00 · pulled 2026-09-01 · percentages are of surveyed workers, each rounded separately, so they need not total 100

This sample is small enough that one posting moves any percentage by more than a couple of points, so we are not calling anything low-signal here. Read the numbers above as a direction, not a measurement.

What it pays

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. A different survey from the postings above, so the two do not share a sample.

$50,190
10th percentile
$105,070
median
$357,020
90th percentile

Every credential above costs $2,790 — about 7 days' pay at the median.

Who was hiring

Employers with at least one matching posting in this sample.

Mercer Advisors · Farther · Choreo · Focus Financial Partners · Foundation Risk Partners · Range · Current

Next

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