Investment Advisory Firm Revenue Benchmark

Average Investment Advisory Firm Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every portfolio management and investment advice firm with paid employees, from a small registered investment adviser to a large asset manager, and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of firms gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$5,183,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $372.9 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 71,935 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $5,183,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Portfolio Management and Investment Advice, NAICS 523940. The Census category is Portfolio Management and Investment Advice, which counts firms managing investment portfolios and funds for others as well as firms giving investment advice for a fee. Securities brokerages and banks are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 5239: 523910 Miscellaneous Intermediation; 523991 Trust, Fiduciary, and Custody Activities; 523999 Miscellaneous Financial Investment Activities. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Varies by cohort

Other financial investment activities, NAICS 5239, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 50.9 to 61.0 percent. This benchmark covers Other financial investment activities, NAICS 5239, as a whole, and this category accounts for 71,935 of the 84,422 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

Payroll share of receipts, Portfolio Management and Investment Advice, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 34.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a substantial share because advisers, analysts and client service staff are the business and compensation in the field is high.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and revenue here means advisory and management fees, not client assets, so the figure describes what a firm earns rather than what it oversees.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

Scale and ownership, Portfolio Management and Investment Advice, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 8.0 people, and the industry counted 1.4 employer establishments per firm. That staff count reflects a category that blends small advisory practices with large asset managers, and the establishments per firm figure shows that firms operating several offices are common alongside single-office practices.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

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Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Investment Advisory Firm: what a fee-on-assets average cannot say about a firm.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• How much is under management? Revenue in this trade follows assets under management multiplied by the fee rate, so a firm's scale is measured in assets rather than offices. The census does not publish assets, and revenue per establishment mixes boutique practices with large managers.
• Where were the markets that year? Fees based on asset values rise and fall with markets, so a strong or weak year for stocks and bonds moves revenue without any change in the client list. A single year's revenue reflects market levels as much as client growth.
• Advisory only or also brokerage? Some firms are fee-only fiduciaries, others earn commissions through affiliated broker-dealers or insurance sales, and the census counts firms by their main activity. The revenue behind this figure comes from a mix of fee and commission models.
• Which regulator applies? Advisers register with the SEC or with state regulators depending on size, and compliance obligations, examinations and disclosure rules differ. Compliance staff and systems are a fixed cost that grows with the firm.
• How concentrated is the client base? A firm whose revenue depends on a few large clients or one family faces a different risk from one with hundreds of households, and succession of an aging adviser can move clients elsewhere. Client concentration is invisible in an average.
• What is the succession plan? Advisory practices are frequently bought and sold, and the value of a firm depends on recurring fees and client retention through a transition. A founder's plan to exit shapes decisions long before any sale, and the benchmark cannot see it.