Personal Financial Advisor Salary in Ohio: Pay by Experience, City & Take-Home

A personal financial advisor in Ohio earns a median of $90,990 per year, or about $43.75 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Pay runs from roughly $49,400 at the 10th percentile to $222,060 at the 90th, so where you land depends heavily on experience, your book of clients, and the metro you work in.

How Ohio compares to the national median

The national median for personal financial advisors is $105,070, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Ohio’s median of $90,990 sits about $14,080 below that mark, roughly 13 percent lower. That gap is normal for the role. Advisor pay tends to track regional wealth and asset levels, and Ohio’s cost of living is well under the coastal states that pull the national average up.

The lower headline number does not tell the whole story. Ohio’s state mean for the occupation is $123,380, which is far above the $90,990 median. When the mean runs that much higher than the median, it signals a long upper tail: a smaller group of senior advisors and producers with large books earns enough to drag the average up while most advisors cluster lower. You see the same pattern in the percentile spread below, where the 90th percentile of $222,060 is more than four times the 10th percentile of $49,400.

For a real comparison you have to net out taxes and housing, and that is where Ohio closes much of the gap. A six-figure title in San Francisco or Manhattan buys far less house than $90,990 does in Columbus or Akron. We work through the after-tax math in section four.

Financial advisor pay in Ohio by experience

The BLS does not label its data by years on the job, but the percentile breakdown is a reliable stand-in. New advisors and those still building a client base land near the bottom percentiles. As your assets under management grow and you add credentials, you move up the curve. Here is how the Ohio numbers map to a typical career arc, using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025) percentiles.

The jump from the median to the 75th percentile is the steepest part of the climb. Going from $90,990 to $158,070 is a $67,080 increase, far bigger than the $27,320 step from the 25th to the 50th. That reflects how the business compounds. Once an advisor has a stable book and recurring fee income, each additional client and each market gain adds to a base that already pays. The early years are the grind, when you are prospecting, studying for licenses, and earning closer to that $49,400 entry figure than the median.

The senior tier of $222,060 is real but selective. Advisors at the 90th percentile usually run large fee-based books, hold advanced designations, or have moved into a partner or branch-leadership seat. Most advisors in Ohio will spend their careers somewhere between the 25th and 75th percentile, which is a wide band of $63,670 to $158,070.

It helps to read these percentiles as a probability map rather than a fixed ladder. At the entry end, $49,400 is close to a salaried trainee or a junior advisor on a small base plus modest commission. The $63,670 early-career figure is what many advisors reach once they pass their licensing exams and start converting their first clients. The median of $90,990 is the realistic target for an advisor with five to ten years in and a steady book. The $158,070 experienced figure and the $222,060 senior figure are earned, not given, and they almost always involve recurring fee income rather than one-off commissions. The hourly column tells the same story: from $23.75 at entry to $106.76 at the senior level, the value of an advisor’s hour more than quadruples across a career, which is unusual even among well-paid professions.

Financial advisor salary by Ohio metro

Location matters inside Ohio, and the pattern is not what most people expect. The three biggest metros by employment pay less than the headline state median, while two smaller markets pay more. Here are the five largest Ohio metros for this occupation, ranked by the number of advisors employed, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025).

Akron leads on median pay at $96,550, with Dayton close behind at $96,270. Both clear the state median of $90,990 by more than $5,000. Yet they employ only 390 and 400 advisors respectively, a fraction of the field. The big three, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland, hold the vast majority of Ohio’s 7,680 advisor jobs but post medians in the low $80,000s, roughly $80,540 to $81,600.

Why would smaller markets pay more? A higher median in Dayton or Akron usually means the local mix tilts toward established advisors and fewer entry-level trainees, so the middle of the distribution sits higher. The big metros pull in more new hires and junior staff, which drags the median down even though the top earners in Cincinnati or Columbus likely out-earn anyone in Akron. If you are weighing offers, read the median as a signal of the local talent mix, not a ceiling. The gap between the top metro, Akron at $96,550, and the lowest, Cincinnati at $80,540, is $16,010, which is meaningful but smaller than the swing experience produces.

Employment density is worth weighing alongside pay. Cincinnati’s 2,510 advisor jobs mean more firms, more openings, and more room to move between employers without relocating. That competition for talent can lift offers at the top of the market even when the metro median looks modest. Columbus, with 1,900 advisors and a growing financial and insurance sector, and Cleveland, with 1,640, offer the same depth of opportunity. Akron and Dayton, with 390 and 400 advisors, are thinner markets. The higher median there is attractive, but a smaller pool of firms means fewer chances to switch jobs for a raise, and a single large employer can shape local pay. For an advisor early in a career who plans to change firms a few times to climb, the big three give more runway. For someone settled with an established book, the higher-median smaller metros can be the better deal.

One more note on these metro figures: the Cincinnati number spans the OH-KY-IN tri-state area, so it blends three states’ markets into a single median. If you work the Ohio side specifically, your local pay can differ from the $80,540 blended figure. Always treat a metro median as a regional center of gravity, not a precise read on one county.

Take-home pay after taxes in Ohio

Gross salary is the headline. What lands in your account is smaller. Ohio levies a state income tax, so an advisor here keeps less of each dollar than one in a no-tax state. The table below runs the four career points through 2026 federal brackets, FICA, and Ohio state tax for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Figures are estimates for illustration; your own number depends on filing status, deductions, and retirement contributions.

At the Ohio median of $90,990, the combined federal, FICA, and state bite is about 22.4 percent, leaving a net of $70,612 a year, or $5,884 a month. The effective rate climbs as you move up, reaching 28.8 percent at the senior $222,060 level, where you keep $158,095. Ohio’s share is modest at every step. On the median, state tax is just $1,786, well under what high-tax states would charge on the same income.

Here is the cross-state comparison that matters most. Take the same $90,990 Ohio median and earn it in Texas, a state with no income tax, and your net rises to $72,397 instead of $70,612. That is a gap of $1,785 in Texas’s favor, the exact amount Ohio collects in state income tax on the median advisor salary. So a Texas advisor on identical gross pay keeps about $1,785 more per year. That is the entire Ohio penalty, and it is small.

The number that actually decides your standard of living is net pay minus local housing. Ohio’s housing is cheap by national standards, and that quietly erases the Texas advantage. A $1,785 annual tax gap is a single monthly mortgage payment in many Ohio markets, and median home prices in Columbus, Cleveland, or Cincinnati run well below Austin or Dallas. The dollar that survives state tax in Texas often gets eaten by a higher house payment there. Net take-home minus what you pay for shelter is the figure to compare across any two states, not the gross or even the after-tax total alone.

Look at how the effective rate climbs and you can see where the real tax pressure comes from, and it is federal, not state. At entry the total effective rate is 16.8 percent, with Ohio taking only $642. At the median it is 22.4 percent. At the experienced $158,070 level it reaches 27.4 percent, and at the senior $222,060 level it tops out at 28.8 percent. Across that entire range, Ohio’s slice stays small: $642, then $1,786, then $4,066, then $6,306. The federal figure does the heavy lifting, rising from $3,890 to $43,322. FICA also flattens at the top because the Social Security portion stops applying above the wage base, which is why FICA grows from $12,092 to only $14,337 between the experienced and senior rows even as gross jumps by $63,990. For a high-earning advisor, that FICA ceiling is a quiet benefit of crossing into the upper percentiles.

Net monthly is the figure to anchor a budget on. At the median, $5,884 a month is what actually clears. At the experienced tier it is $9,561, and at the senior tier $13,175. Those are the numbers to hold a mortgage, retirement contributions, and living costs against, and in most Ohio metros they go a long way.

Before you sign off on your withholding, model your actual situation. A tool like TurboTax can estimate your full federal and Ohio liability with your real deductions, and you can sanity-check the paycheck side with our Ohio paycheck calculator.

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How to earn more as a financial advisor in Ohio

The data shows the path clearly. Most of the money is in moving from the median to the 75th percentile, a $67,080 jump from $90,990 to $158,070. That climb is about building assets under management and adding credentials that justify higher fees. Here is how advisors in Ohio actually get there.

• Earn the CFP designation. The Certified Financial Planner mark is the single most recognized credential in the field and supports a shift to fee-based planning, which pays better than transactional commission work. It is the most common dividing line between mid and upper-tier earners.
• Move toward fee-based and AUM models. Advisors paid a percentage of assets earn recurring income that compounds as markets rise and books grow. This is the mechanism behind that steep jump to the $158,070 experienced tier and the $222,060 senior level.
• Stack advanced designations. The CFA for investment-heavy roles, the ChFC, or a CPA combined with planning work all push you toward the upper percentiles by widening the services you can charge for.
• Specialize in a high-value niche. Business owners, physicians, and pre-retirees with complex needs pay for expertise. A focused practice commands higher fees than generalist advice.
• Target the higher-paying Ohio metros. If you are early in your career and mobile, Akron at $96,550 and Dayton at $96,270 post medians above the big three. The difference can be $15,000 or more versus a Cincinnati median of $80,540.
• Buy or inherit a book. Acquiring a retiring advisor’s clients is one of the fastest ways to jump percentiles, since you skip years of prospecting and step straight into recurring revenue.

If you are working toward the CFP or a CFA, structured coursework helps you pass the exams the first time. Platforms like Coursera offer financial planning and analysis courses you can fit around a full-time book.

Job outlook for financial advisors in Ohio

Ohio employs about 7,680 personal financial advisors, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). The concentration sits in the three largest metros: Cincinnati alone accounts for 2,510 of those jobs, with Columbus at 1,900 and Cleveland at 1,640. Together those three hold roughly 6,050 of the state’s advisor positions, about 79 percent of the total.

Demand for advice tracks the aging of the population and the steady shift of retirement savings onto individuals. As more Ohioans approach retirement with 401(k) and IRA balances to manage, the need for planning help grows. The role rewards persistence: the early years are hard, but advisors who survive the prospecting phase and build a book reach the upper percentiles where pay compounds. If you are scanning openings across Ohio markets, a board like ZipRecruiter aggregates advisor and planner roles by metro so you can compare firms and compensation structures.

Related and higher-paying roles in Ohio

If you are comparing the financial advisor path against nearby careers in Ohio, here is how the medians stack up against the advisor median of $90,990, using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025) figures for the state.

• Accountant: Ohio median of $79,320, which is $11,670 less than a financial advisor in Ohio.
• Financial Analyst: Ohio median of $94,280, which is $3,290 more than a financial advisor in Ohio.

Accounting pays a touch less at the median but offers steadier, salaried income without the prospecting grind. Financial analysts edge slightly ahead and lean more toward corporate finance and markets work. The advisor role has the widest upside of the three, given that 90th-percentile tail reaching $222,060.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) 2025, SOC 13-2052; 2026 federal and Ohio tax estimates for a single filer. Last updated 2026. See our methodology.