IBD Elite 2023: The 10 firms with the largest percentage of women among their financial advisors

In wealth management, the act of simply disclosing the number of women who are financial advisors within a firm represents differentiation from the competition.

Out of 45 firms participating in Financial Planning's annual IBD Elite study of the largest independent brokerages in the industry, 26 companies that include big names like LPL Financial, Ameriprise and Cetera Financial Group didn't share the percentage of advisors at their firms who are women. 

Smaller rivals such as Kovack Securities, Avantax, Trutoro, Level Four Financial and Lincoln Investment Planning took the top spots in the below ranking of firms based on the percentage of female advisors in their ranks. Their numbers remain close to that of certified financial planners, less than a quarter of whom are women in 2023.

One major reason that the industry still falls far short of reflecting a country that is more than 50% women revolves around the traditional "commission-only approach to entering the business" for many aspiring advisors asked to sell products to their networks of friends and relatives, according to Rita Robbins, the president of New York-based Affiliated Advisors. Her firm is a branch of Osaic with 90 advisors and $3.5 billion in client assets.

"Economically, it feels unappealing, and there's the feeling that it's still an all-boys club," she said in an interview. "We do make the barriers to entry pretty hard in this profession. … The sad thing is that women typically excel at these helping professions, whether it's nurses or teachers."

At Osaic, the firm's annual W Forum for women advisors and a training program enabling administrative staff to train into advisors could help the firm drive change over time, Robbins said. More than two-thirds of the advisors who have either joined Affiliated this year or are in the process of doing so are women, she noted. 

In figures like Cambridge Investment Research CEO Amy Webber and the women who comprise 40% of Osaic's executive ranks, Robbins sees role models for future advisors and professionals. Events like the W Forum help them connect.

"It's the exact opposite of being the handful of women in the room," Robbins said. "When you go to a conference, and you see all of these smart and caring and successful women, you realize there's a whole different side of this profession."

Scroll down the slideshow to see which companies have the largest percentage of women in their ranks of advisors. For 2022's list, click here. Also, read the IBD Elite cover story, "What the heck is an OSJ?" or scroll through the ranking of the 15 firms in the channel with the largest annual revenue.   

IBD Elite 2023

IBD Elite: The 15 largest independent brokerages in wealth management

September 12, 2023 6:00 AM

Notes: The companies are ranked below by the percentage of financial advisors who are women as of year-end 2022, as reported by the companies themselves. FP relies on each firm to state their metrics accurately. The industry term "producing registered representative" refers to each firm's most accurate count of financial advisors using the firm as their brokerage or RIA. "Registered representative" refers to a usually larger group of all licensed professionals.