Market Fit
How much room your state has for the firm you’re building
Three inputs, and nothing is sent anywhere or stored. It counts the households in your state filing above the income you want to serve, then the advisory firms with an office there that already report individual clients, and divides one by the other. Both counts are public filings rather than anything you have to type in.
Pick your state to see how much room is in it.
| Filing above | In your state | Per firm |
|---|
Your plan against that market
Run growth math and this will also say what your own plan takes as a share of that market.
A thin market and a crowded one need different firms, and most advisors pick the income they serve before they ever look at either number. Our goal is to make firms more efficient, easier to do business with, and more profitable. Launch℠ is the program we run for advisors in their first few years, and where you aim is one of the first things it works on.
Or work out the week behind your target with growth math.
Household counts are federal individual income tax returns for 2023 from IRS Statistics of Income, counted by state and size of adjusted gross income, and a return stands in for a household here. Firm counts come from Form ADV filings published by the SEC on 3 September 2026, counting registered investment advisers with a principal office in the state that report at least one individual or high net worth client. Advisers file where their office is and serve clients wherever they like, so neither count stops at a state line, and about six percent of firms file no office address that resolves to a state and are left out. This is an educational tool. It isn’t a valuation, a forecast, a market study, or advice on where to open a practice. Ritz Stevens is a d/b/a of RitzWerks and is not a registered investment adviser. Nothing here is investment, tax, or legal advice. See our Disclosures.
How It Works
Where the two numbers come from
Households
Federal individual income tax returns for 2023 from IRS Statistics of Income, counted by state and by size of adjusted gross income. A return stands in for a household here, so a couple filing jointly counts once.
Advisory firms
Registered investment advisers with a principal office in the state that report at least one individual or high net worth client, taken from Form ADV filings published by the SEC. Firms reporting only institutional clients aren’t competing for the households in the first count, so they’re left out.
Households for every firm
One divided by the other. Nationally it works out around 639 households for every advisory firm, and the states run a long way either side of that. The tool carries the current split.
Common Questions
Questions Advisors Ask About Market Size
Does a state line actually mean anything?
Not much on its own. Advisers file where their office is and serve clients wherever they like, so neither count stops at a border. The ratio is a read on how crowded your home market is.
Why are some firms missing?
About six percent of firms file no office address that resolves to a state. They’re left out rather than guessed at.
What does moving upmarket cost me?
Going from households filing above $200,000 to households filing above $1 million thins the count sharply while the firm count stays where it is. That’s the trade most advisors make before they’ve looked at either number, and the tool prices it for your state.
Is this a market study?
No. It’s an educational tool built on two public filings. It isn’t a valuation, a forecast, a market study, or advice on where to open a practice.
Talk Through Your Market
Bring the two counts this gave you, or bring the income you’d rather serve. Twenty minutes, no pitch.