Alabama sits on the Gulf Coast of the United States, home to many sites of several great turning points in history such as Montgomery, Selma, and Mobile – the birthplace of Mardi Gras. It is also the second least tax-burdened state in the country, by overall federal, state and local tax burden. Additionally, as residents know, Alabama’s property taxes are among the lowest in the U.S.
According to two recent surveys by Champlain College Center for Financial Literacy and The Council For Economic Education (CEE), it scores highly on financial literacy efforts, and Alabama’s youth boast some of the highest financial literacy in the country thanks to various programs and required courses in high school.
Alabama is home to 660 CFPs, according to the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Board, around 0.7 % of the total number of certified financial planners in the country. In order to be certified by the CFP Board, a financial advisor must first become a fiduciary, a professional who is legally bound to act based on their clients’ best interests, as opposed to acting in self-interest, namely for commissions, or the sale of products and services.
Therefore, those interested in financial planning can decide between one of two options – to become a fee-based advisor or a commission-based advisor. Fee-based advisors make their living through a pre-stated fee for their services rendered to their clients. A commission-based advisor, by contrast, makes a living by earning commissions on the sales of financial products or services to their clients.
If you are curious how salaries for financial advisors, stockbrokers and insurance agents vary across different regions of Alabama, you have come to the right place. Below, you will find data on the salaries of financial advisors, stockbrokers and insurance agents in Alabama, across its various metropolitan and non-metropolitan regions. This data has been acquired from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and is visible below.
Financial Advisor Salary in Alabama
According to the 2019 BLS data, the Birmingham-Hoover area is home to 830 financial advisors, which is more than all its other areas put together. The cities of Huntsville and Mobile follow with 280 and 240 professionals, respectively, in each city.
The state’s highest average annual salary for a financial advisor is in Montgomery at $178,100, followed by Birmingham-Hoover at $133,830. Average salaries for financial advisors are amongst the lowest in the state in Mobile with a salary of $73,590.
Additional data on hourly compensation and percentile-based breakdowns are provided below.
Do note that the hourly rate represents the salary breakdown and is not a representation of the hourly rate an advisor, stockbroker or insurance agent charges their clients.
Stockbroker Salary in Alabama
There are 1,060 stockbrokers in Birmingham-Hoover, Alabama’s most populous city, according to 2019 data. The annual mean salary for a stockbroker in Birmingham is $85,250. While Huntsville and Mobile are home to far fewer stockbrokers, their annual mean salaries are comparable at $84,230 and $85,110. By contrast, Montgomery is home to only 160 stockbrokers, and its annual mean wage there is $57,460.
Life/Annuity Producer Salary in Alabama
The annual mean wage of life/annuity producers in Birmingham-Hoover is $97,130, coming somewhere in between the mean wage there of a financial advisor and of a stockbroker. However, the number of insurance agents in all regions of Alabama far exceed the number of financial advisors or stockbrokers there – for example, Birmingham-Hoover is home to around 2,170 insurance agents. Annual mean salaries for life/annuity producers are their second-highest in the state in Mobile, at $80,460.
Find additional data on hourly mean wage, annual median salary and how much agents make at the higher end of the pay scale below.
(Salary and job growth data reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in May 2019 for personal financial advisors; securities, commodities and financial services sales agents; and insurance sales agents. Figures represent national data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary. Information accessed February 2021.)
