Top Financial Advisors: Best Firms for 2025
The best financial advisors don’t earn commissions for promoting specific investments or other products — which can introduce a conflict of interest. They offer holistic, expert guidance to take the guesswork out of planning for your future goals. They also adjust their approach to meet your specific needs, and they offer a variety of ways to get in touch, including virtual meetings.
This page covers the best financial advisors as chosen by NerdWallet’s editorial team.
How we picked the best financial advisors for this list
Duty to the client. All of the firms on our list are fiduciary financial advisors, which means they’re required to put your interests above their own.
Breadth. Some of the financial advisor firms on our list have in-house financial advisors. Others operate a network of advisors all over the country, and they refer you to the financial advisor who is the best fit for your needs. (Not included on this list is NerdWallet Advisory, a registered investment advisor operated by NerdWallet that offers advisor matches. We don’t review our own products to avoid conflicts of interest.)
Access. In many cases, working with an advisor through these firms is cheaper than finding a local financial advisor, but you’ll still have a 1-to-1 relationship with an advisor who knows your financial situation and understands your needs. However, we’ve also included a few financial advisor firms that offer access to a team of financial advisors on an as-needed basis. In most cases, you’ll talk to a different advisor each time, but you’ll generally pay an even lower fee if you opt for one of these services.
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Over 60 investment account providers reviewed and rated by our expert Nerds.
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More than 50 years of combined experience writing about finance and investing.
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Extensive review of the features that matter most to average investors.
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Dozens of objective ratings rubrics, and strict guidelines to maintain editorial integrity.
NerdWallet’s comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks companies that provide financial planning services online or connect users to a financial advisor. Our aim is to provide an independent assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgements on which ones will best meet your needs. We adhere to strict guidelines for editorial integrity.
We collect data directly from providers through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through provider demonstrations. The questionnaire answers, combined with demonstrations, interviews of personnel at the providers and our specialists’ hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process that scores each provider’s performance across more than 20 factors. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars).
What is a financial advisor?
A financial advisor helps people manage their money and reach their financial goals. A financial advisor can help prioritize or set goals, manage the financial and emotional effects of life or market changes, review and rebalance investments, plan for retirement, manage tax consequences and provide other services.
What exactly does a financial advisor do?
The services vary based on the type of advisor, but typically a financial advisor will assess your financial situation (your assets, debts and expenses), identify areas for improvement and help you create a financial plan.
How much does a financial advisor cost?
Financial advisors use several different cost structures, including annual fees that are a percentage of assets under management, flat annual or monthly fees, hourly rates, one-time financial plan fee, or, for some advisors, commissions.
How do I know if I need a financial advisor?
Financial advisors aren’t for everyone, but if dealing with your finances and planning for the future feels overwhelming, or if your financial situation feels disorganized, a financial advisor can certainly help.
Also, if you recently had a big life change (you got married, had a child, lost a family member, for example), it can be helpful to work with a financial advisor to help you understand your new financial landscape.
Is it worth having a financial advisor?
A financial advisor’s value depends on what they bring to your financial life. If you don’t have a lot of assets to manage, it might be better to use a robo-advisor. But as your assets grow and life becomes more complicated — maybe you own a house, have an investment portfolio and are trying to pay off debt — it can be worth talking to a financial advisor.
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