Executive Summary

While firm structure and advisor age trends shape operational strategy, equally important are the people behind the numbers. This standalone report—Part II of AdvizorPro’s 2025 Advisor Demographics & Team Structures Series—explores gender representation, geographic diversity, firm ownership, and personal identity signals across the advisor landscape.

Powered by AdvizorPro’s firm & person-level data and AI-enhanced entity extraction, this section highlights key patterns in diversity, advisor values, and lifestyle themes—providing a more human, nuanced lens into the profession.

Key insights include:

• Women now represent over 24% of advisors—and a higher share of firm owners in the RIA channel
• Gender participation varies significantly by channel and region, reflecting differences in firm structure and support
• Personal hobbies like fitness, fishing, and golf remain dominant—but niche interests offer untapped personalization opportunities
  
  

For firms focused on advisor engagement, talent development, and market segmentation, this data offers a critical foundation for personalization at scale.

Table of Contents

Diversity Signals & Personal Identifiers in the Advisor Landscape

• Gender Representation
• Gender by Channel
• Gender by Geography
• Female Ownership Snapshot
• Advisor Lifestyle Signals

Diversity Signals & Personal Identifiers in the Advisor Landscape

Beyond structural trends, advisor demographics and lifestyle data offer additional context on gender representation and personal interests. These patterns provide useful perspectives for recruiting, marketing, and understanding industry composition over time.

Gender Representation

Gender representation in the advisor profession remains uneven, with fewer than one in four advisors identifying as female. However, this figure reflects progress over the past decade, particularly within team-based firms, larger institutions, and firms with formal recruiting or mentorship programs.

While the industry continues to skew male, female participation is growing – this is visible in channels and firm types that emphasize collaboration, training infrastructure, or career pathing for younger advisors.

Key Takeaway: Gender diversity remains limited overall, but signs of improvement are emerging in structured environments that support advisor development and inclusion.

Gender by Channel

Female representation varies meaningfully across firm channels. Wirehouses lead with just over 30% of advisors identifying as female—likely influenced by structured recruiting programs, formalized onboarding, and legacy diversity initiatives at large financial institutions. Independent broker-dealers (IBDs) follow closely, often offering flexible affiliation models that may appeal to advisors at different stages of career or life.

RIAs, while the fastest-growing channel overall, continue to lag in gender diversity. This may reflect historical firm ownership patterns, the slower adoption of recruiting infrastructure in smaller firms, or the challenges of entering more entrepreneurial models without formal support.

Key Takeaway: Female advisor participation is highest in organizations with established hiring and development processes. Smaller or independent RIAs, while growing rapidly, have not yet built those same structural supports.

Gender by Geography

Female advisor representation varies significantly by state, with nearly 10 percentage points separating the top and bottom regions. States like Iowa, Montana, and New Mexico report female participation close to 30%, while others, including Utah, Connecticut, and Illinois, remain below 22%.

These differences likely reflect a mix of factors, such as local firm composition, dominant channel types (e.g., bank-affiliated vs. independent), and the presence—or absence—of advisor training pipelines. In some higher-ranking states, a larger proportion of advisors work within structured environments or regional institutions where collaborative team dynamics may support broader participation.

Key Takeaway: Gender representation in the advisor profession is not uniform across geographies. Local firm mix, practice models, and historical entry pathways likely contribute to these variations—offering both a benchmark and an opportunity for firms evaluating regional hiring or expansion.

Female Wealth Management Firm Ownership Snapshot

• 16.3% of firm owners or executives with known gender are female
• 23.5% of RIA firms have at least one female owner or executive

While women represent just 18.0% of advisors in the RIA channel overall, the proportion of firms with female ownership is meaningfully higher at 23.5% suggesting that independent firms may offer more accessible paths to leadership, particularly for advisors pursuing entrepreneurial models or launching their own practices.

Many of these firms are concentrated among smaller, advisor-led RIAs, where ownership transitions are more fluid and leadership opportunities emerge earlier in an advisor’s career.

Key Takeaway: Despite lower female representation across the RIA channel, women are stepping into leadership and ownership roles at a comparatively higher rate, likely in newer or smaller firms. This signals a gradual but important shift in the industry’s leadership landscape.

Advisor Lifestyle Signals

In a relationship-driven industry like wealth management, personal connection often builds trust as much as professional expertise. Many advisors openly share aspects of their personality: hobbies, interests, and values, on websites and bios to better connect with clients

and prospects. This section offers a lighter, human lens into the profession, showing how lifestyle signals can inform more tailored outreach, advisor engagement, and brand strategy.

Advisor hobbies are sourced from public advisor bios, websites, and LinkedIn profiles using AI-powered entity extraction and natural language processing. Our system flags lifestyle terms, which are then reviewed and standardized by AdvizorPro’s research team to create a high-confidence dataset.

To see how these trends connect to broader RIA firm data, view our Top Independent RIAs 2025

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Most Common Hobbies

These top interests reflect traditional advisor engagement themes: outdoor recreation, physical wellness, and community involvement. Golf, in particular, remains deeply embedded in advisor culture, not just as a pastime, but as a business development environment.

Volunteering and fitness, while less transactional, may signal generational shifts toward holistic well-being and values-based planning. Firms that connect with these themes in client-facing content or advisor events may find higher resonance.

Notable Niche Hobbies (15+ Mentions)

• Astronomy
• Pottery
• Embroidery
• Ceramics
• Knitting
• Bonsai
• Fencing
• Scrapbooking
• Quilting
• Skydiving

These long-tail hobbies highlight the diversity of interests that exist even in a traditionally conservative profession. While individually rare, their presence shows that personalization at scale, especially in content, gifting, or events—can cut through with authenticity. Advisors aren’t monolithic, and these niche interests provide fresh angles for connection and segmentation.

Key Takeaway: Common advisor hobbies align with classic business and lifestyle patterns—while niche interests offer unexpected openings for personal rapport. Knowing what your audience values beyond the balance sheet can elevate prospecting, client experience, and advisor marketing efforts.

Understanding the Human Side of Advisor Data

Advisor demographics reflect more than statistics; they reveal evolving values, leadership trends, and the human stories driving the future of wealth management. As gender representation grows, regional patterns shift, and advisors bring their personal passions into their professional lives, understanding these nuances becomes essential for any firm focused on meaningful engagement.

Firms that apply these insights can design more inclusive recruiting programs, tailor advisor marketing and segmentation strategies, and connect with audiences through shared values. Recognizing what advisors care about beyond performance metrics helps build stronger relationships and more authentic partnerships.

AdvizorPro’s Advisor Demographics Report 2025 offers deeper visibility into the people shaping the RIA and broker dealer landscape. Explore related insights in the Top Independent RIAs 2025 and Advisor Movement Trends Report 2025 to understand how data, diversity, and firm growth intersect across the wealth ecosystem.

Ready to use advisor intelligence to power better recruiting, segmentation, and engagement?

Start your free trial with AdvizorPro and see how our person level data and AI tools can help you uncover the people and patterns that drive growth.

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