The demand for financial advisors will boom as baby boomers retire, according to Forbes new e-book, Wall Street's Hottest Career.
The profession is expected to grow 27 percent over the next decade, according to Forbes, compared to an average growth rate of just 11 percent for all occupations tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
At the same time, the average age of today's 316,000 financial advisors is 51 years old, with 43 percent over 55, and the industry predicts that over the next 10 years, 12,000 to 16,000 of these advisors will retire every year.
Recommended For You
That means the industry will need to attract 237,000 new financial professionals over the next decade, leading to huge opportunities for young people.
Experts say that a financial background is not essential to success in the field, while the most important skill is the ability to learn new material and work hard.
"I was a psychology and communications major. I don't love math," Scote Tobe, president and managing partner of Signature Financial, a $250 million firm, told Forbes.
"What you need to do as a financial planner is to understand the psychology of money; the fears people have around it and learn what motivates them. It's not simply about money management; our job is to be a financial partner to clients and provide the sleep-at-night factor."
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
