A recent report underscores the scale of the hiring task that RIAs face to keep pace with demand, even if forces such as attrition and retirements are taken out of the mix.

Registered investment advisors need to recruit more than 70,000 new staff during the next five years, and that's without accounting for attrition, retirement or the arrival of new firms, a new report says. 

The hiring goal is set out in the 2025 RIA Compensation Report, which adds to Schwab’s 2025 RIA Benchmarking Study. A total of 1,046 advisory firms participated in the compensation segment of the 2025 study, representing 81 per cent of the 1,288 firms that took part overall. The data, which was gathered from January to March 2025, covers more than 16,000 employees across 27 roles commonly found in RIAs, reflecting the results from the 2024 calendar year, Charles Schwab said.

To put the 70,000-figure into context, a report by Randall Wealth Management, issued on July 26, 2025, said that the US had approximately 326,000 personal financial advisor jobs in 2024. Employment of financial advisors is projected to grow 10 per cent from 2024 to 2034, with about 24,100 openings per year, it said, citing figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As far as the Schwab report is concerned, it found that 78 per cent of firms reported hiring in 2024, with recruiting staff ranking as the second-highest strategic priority for firms. Some 74 per cent of firms reported plans to hire in 2025. 

People continue to be the largest investment for RIAs and compensation costs accounted for 68 per cent of firms' expenses in 2024. Staffing ratios offer valuable insight to help firms determine the right time to expand their team – for every $403,000 in revenue, firms typically add one new full-time employee.

The report found that across all roles, total cash compensation rose by 23 per cent from 2020 to 2024. Firms leveraging performance-based incentive pay saw stronger long-term performance, it said. 

Firms use various channels to find candidates – 35 per cent recruit from colleges/universities, and 25 per cent from other RIAs.

“Cultivating an inclusive workplace that values different backgrounds, ideas, perspectives, and experiences is important to attract talent, especially younger generations,” it said. “The good news is that firms across the study are generationally diverse. Twenty per cent of staff are under 30 and 46 per cent of staff are under 40.”

The Schwab report said equity continues to serve as a strategic lever for talent retention and succession planning – across the study, one in three staff are equity owners, it said. 

Growth pace
In other figures, the report said total RIA sector assets under management rose at a compound annual growth rate of 12.6 per cent from 2019 to 2024 – a period including the pandemic – with AuM reaching $615 billion in 2024. Revenue rose by 12.4 per cent to $3.8 billion over the same period.

Last year, the objective to “acquire new clients through client referrals” came top as a priority, above “recruit staff to increase firm’s skill set/capacity.”

Client account and relationship managers account for nearly a quarter of total staff at these firms; one revenue role is supported by 1.3 non-revenue roles; executive management positions make up about one in six of staff.