Jump to Winners | Jump to Methodology
In today’s wealth and investment landscape, the employers that stand above the rest are those that lead with transparency and respond with agility to the evolving needs of their teams.
The top firms aren’t just competing on compensation grids and benefits packages; they are building workplaces where individuals can see a future, feel a purpose, and participate in genuine ownership of the firm’s success.
The exceptional employers recognized in InvestmentsNews’ Best Places to Work 2026 were evaluated using both employer-provided data and anonymously collected employee feedback. Collectively, they are proactive in three key areas:
🗓️ giving financial advisors and support staff autonomy over their time
🎓 investing in education to ensure staff development
🏦 ensuring employees can retire with lasting financial security
Andrew Blake, associate director of the wealth management team at Cerulli Associates, underlines how guidance matters. “Strong mentor relationships foster a cohesive culture built on trust. When junior advisors and staff feel heard, it creates an environment where everyone wants to thrive,” he says.
That human connection is not a soft extra – it’s a hard performance driver. Gallup’s latest US engagement data shows only about 31 percent of employees are engaged at work, with disengagement costing the global economy an estimated $8.8 trillion in lost productivity. In that context, the firms that deliberately engineer high trust mentoring, regular feedback, and visible sponsorship are creating a structural advantage.
Career trajectory is another defining fault line between the top workplaces and the merely competitive. According to Schwab, top-performing advisory firms post staff attrition of about 1.6 percent, versus a median of 6.9 percent for their peers – a gap strongly linked to better development and clearer career paths.
Blake notes, “Advisors thrive where the runway for career growth is long and friction is low.”
What matters is transparency into future roles and early, meaningful client exposure. The leading firms have responded by mapping progression by role, funding credentials and advanced education, and building team-based structures where junior talent is pulled into planning conversations instead of trapped behind paperwork.
Compensation design is also shifting from safety to upside. Cerulli’s research shows many newer financial advisors prefer a higher share of variable or production-based pay, even at the cost of some base salary, because traditional salary-heavy models cap their long-term earnings and dilute their sense of ownership.
“Ensuring that less senior team members are closely linked to the firm’s or practice’s overall success is crucial for their retention and helps build a culture of being in it together,” adds Blake.
Finally, flexibility in 2026 is no longer about having a hybrid policy on paper; it’s about real control over how work is done. Surveys of US workers show roughly two-thirds say flexible schedules are a major benefit, and knowledge workers overwhelmingly rank schedule and location flexibility among their top priorities. For advisors, that dovetails with Cerulli’s finding that the top reasons they choose this career include the desire to help clients reach financial goals, gain control over their schedule, and pursue a strong interest in investment topics.
2026 winners
Overall average rating (out of 5): 4.45
Overall average satisfaction rating: 88.99 percent
Retirement plan leads because workers are acutely aware of retirement funding gaps and see employer pensions/savings plans as their main chance to achieve long-term security.
Vacation leave ranks second because in a stressed, post-pandemic workforce, time away from work is both a core part of total compensation and one of the clearest signals of an employer’s commitment to well-being. Industry surveys show paid vacation and holidays in the topmost tier of desired benefits alongside health coverage.
Medical coverage is third but still elite, with healthcare costs and medical bills named as top financial stressors and premiums hitting record highs, comprehensive health insurance consistently emerges as the single most valued benefit, according to large surveys, explaining its high score in IN’s 2026 ratings.
Sage Advisory regards its people as its primary asset and has designed the business around that principle. President, co-founder, and CEO Bob Smith made a conscious choice to leave New York.
“I came to enjoy the more open and relaxed atmosphere that Austin provided. It’s that simple; it was to essentially create something from scratch that would be sustainable and really attract people,” he says.
Smith emphasizes that, as the founder, he treats the firm as “part of me” for over 30 years, which drives his commitment to “care for and feed it” on every level. He deliberately built “a place where people felt that it was a nice place to work, that there was not a lot of drama” and had a strong sense of stability.
High retention underlines this culture, with roughly half to three quarters of employees having been there for 10 years or longer, a notable tenure in financial services.
Key benefits: retirement, medical, community
Sage is unusually generous and pays for medical, dental, and eye care. Smith acknowledges this makes the firm somewhat unusual because very few people get 100 percent of their healthcare paid for anymore.
He adds, “We felt that it was extremely important to give people a sense of security.”
On retirement, the firm lists a 401(k) match among the standard benefits it offers. Beyond core benefits, Sage offers paid volunteer time and allows employees to request charitable donations of up to $1,000 to causes aligned with the firm’s values. This positions Sage as a community-minded and values-driven company.
Work–life balance is clearly intentional, not rhetorical. Smith says work should not “destroy [employees’] lives,” and that work–life balance “was very important for me from the get-go.” During school shutdowns, employees with children are supported to work from home, backed by sophisticated IT infrastructure to make remote work seamless.
Smith prefers in-office collaboration but accepts a hybrid reality, treating people as professionals rather than closely monitoring their time.
“We’ve always emphasized it was important for [employees] to grow, and in that growth, the firm would benefit,” comments Smith. “And so, we are always willing to fund people who really want to develop their minds.”
This extends to supporting CIMA and other certifications, lowering cost barriers.
Intellectually, employees are encouraged to write and publish. The firm produces so much research that sometimes it is mistaken for a publishing company rather than solely an investment manager. This public platform for ideas, backed by AI tools where appropriate, gives staff visibility and ownership.
Sage operates with the main salary plus bonus model, in which the bonus is determined by:
overall firm performance
each team’s contribution to the firm’s benefit
difference makers within a team
Smith adds, “While all contributions matter, there are times when certain individuals have an outsized impact, and that is recognized in compensation.”
VLP Financial Advisors prioritizes people and builds everything around that foundation, rather than around production and scale. Using an Entrepreneurial Operating System creates transparency and accountability across all departments, so everybody knows each department’s goals. This structured, values-driven approach is the driver behind VLP’s third successive appearance on IN’s annual Best Places to Work list.
Benefits are explicitly framed as a tool to lower stress and support real life, not as a box-ticking exercise. Director of operations, Nicholas DiFiore, says, “Many firms talk about growth, whereas we focus on how growth happens and that starts with our people.”
Retirement and long-term security: As a financial advisory firm, VLP naturally thinks in terms of long-term outcomes. It describes benefits as an “investment in long-term retention, engagement, and not just an expense,” which emphasizes long-horizon benefits such as retirement saving and financial security.
Medical and health coverage: Health is explicitly part of the benefits philosophy: the firm prioritizes “flexibility, health, support during major life moments,” aligning medical and wellness coverage with real-world needs rather than minimum compliance.
Vacation and time away: VLP emphasizes benefits that reduce stress and acknowledges that stress is a huge detractor in productivity that leads to burnout. The firm's willingness to support bereavement leave and remote work during difficult periods implies a humane approach.
VLP operates a hybrid model of two days remote and then three days in office, balancing collaboration with flexibility. The firm intentionally uses hybrid work, clear role expectations, and workload sharing to manage burnout. DiFiore notes that VLP conducts “consistent check-ins with our team, not as a check-mark exercise, but genuine check-ins” asking how people are feeling and redistributing work when someone is overloaded.
DiFiore says, “We understand that in this day and age, flexibility is a necessity.”
In the client service team, for instance, colleagues routinely step in when one person has a particularly heavy workload. This peer-to-peer support culture is a practical safeguard against burnout, not just rhetoric.
VLP invests heavily in learning, both in onboarding and ongoing development. New hires get a deliberately slow, structured ramp up.
“The only expectation we have of you within your first 90 days is to learn our systems, our processes, and our company culture,” explains DiFiore. Rather than pushing for immediate production, the firm builds a strong foundation so employees can “go further, faster, and more efficiently” later.
For ongoing development, leadership and advisors participate in industry study groups with comparable firms, sharing best practices and learning what works elsewhere. This continuous benchmarking also informs compensation, helping VLP to never lag the market on pay.
Prentice Wealth Management is a people-first firm that invests heavily in coaching, culture, and long-term financial security for staff. The firm’s practices around performance coaching, proactive staffing, generous retirement design, health protection, and education support explain why it qualifies as a top employer.
A defining feature is universal access to an in-house performance coach who isn’t reserved for senior staff but positioned as a tool to help all employees become better versions of themselves, personally and professionally. Leadership credits this coaching with greater alignment and better communication among the team, and with giving managers a safe space to refine ideas before bringing them to the team.
When hiring, Prentice deliberately applies a culture-first approach. Candidates go through “at least three or four touch points” and come into the office to “meet every single person on our team”. They look less for industry experience and more for “basic emotional intelligence skills” and a “drive to learn,” which supports a collaborative environment.
Work–life balance is pursued through day-to-day flexibility and social connection. The firm advocates for group lunches and allowing people to connect. Senior director of trading and operations, Amanda Rodriguez, says, “We know people have appointments and different things going on, and we offer that flexibility.”
Burnout is addressed structurally through proactive staffing.
“We hire in an anticipatory way,” says communications specialist Connie Ciarico. “When someone needs to go out on leave or if we anticipate hiring additional advisors, we hire the support staff so that they are trained and ready to go. The advisor then has that support and can hit the ground running, which I think differentiates us.”
As a financial firm, Prentice Wealth aligns benefits with long-term financial stability. It operates a safe harbor 401(k), plus an age-weighted new comparability profit-sharing plan, targeting eight percent or so in terms of the match and profit-sharing into employees' retirement accounts annually. The firm also aims to be at or above the midpoint in compensation to employees.
“We want people to have long-term stability for their financial future,” explains managing partner Bill Prentice. “We don’t want people to wonder if they’re getting paid appropriately. I think that we do a pretty good job of that to make sure people are compensated properly and above where competing firms generally are.”
On the health side, the firm covers single healthcare costs for insurance and provides a stipend to those who aren’t on the plan. Protection is layered through a group life plan, “enriched short-term and long-term disability,” plus a “multi-life group discount” for employees who want more coverage.
Prentice Wealth* invests aggressively in development. Continuing education is “a big thing,” with licensing and certifications fully on the table and essentially without limit as long as it benefits the employee and firm. The company also maintains an annual firmwide education budget of around $30,000 that it doesn’t hit but wants people to use.
Recognition and ownership are built into compensation: each person has a $500 gratitude budget to use on other staff members yearly, as well as client referral rewards and hiring referral bonuses.
*Securities offered through LPL Financial, member of FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Prentice Wealth Management LLC, an SEC-Registered Investment Adviser. Prentice Wealth Management and LPL Financial are separate entities.
The Wall Street stereotype of “living to work” is a thing of the past, as employees now want to not only be challenged but also appreciated and supported.
IN’s Best Places to Work 2026 winners share a common profile of understanding that by ensuring their teams have:
⏰ real control over schedules and where work gets done, and not just a policy on paper
📈 transparent career paths, mapped progression, and visible future opportunities
💰 compensation linked to overall firm success and competitive fixed pay that removes anxiety about being underpaid
👵 retirement plans that meaningfully move the needle
📚 serious investment in education and professional growth
🙌 recognition, feedback, and visible appreciation
To compile the third annual Best Places to Work list, InvestmentNews opened a participation process for organizations across the financial advice and wealth management industry. Employers were invited to complete an official company questionnaire outlining their workplace policies, benefits, and cultural practices. Only organizations that formally submitted this questionnaire were eligible for evaluation. All employer-provided information was required to be reviewed and verified internally before it was accepted into the evaluation process.
Participating organizations then invited their employees to complete an anonymous workplace satisfaction survey administered independently. Only organizations that met the required employee response threshold – based on total company size – advanced to the scoring stage.
A total of 99 organizations and 1,284 employees participated in the process, and 43 companies were selected as recipients of the 2026 Best Places to Work recognition.
Organizations were evaluated using both employer-provided data and anonymously collected employee feedback. Scoring was driven primarily by employee sentiment, consistent with SEC expectations for transparency in awards that incorporate survey results.
1. Employer questionnaire (company-provided data)
Organizations supplied verified information regarding:
workplace culture and values
employee benefits and compensation practices
policies related to flexibility, well-being, and work–life balance
learning, development, and advancement programs
2. Anonymous employee survey
Employees evaluated their workplace across key areas, including:
satisfaction with leadership and communication
perceived culture, collaboration, and engagement
fairness of compensation and benefits
trust in management
opportunities for growth and career advancement
Organizations that received an average employee satisfaction score of 80 percent or higher were recognized as 2026 Best Places to Work honorees.
This recognition reflects:
aggregated and anonymous employee satisfaction scores
To comply with SEC advertising and anti-fraud rules, InvestmentNews confirms that the Best Places to Work list is not based on:
investment performance or portfolio returns
client experience, testimonials, or client satisfaction
financial performance, profitability, or business growth
industry reputation, brand recognition, or firm size
any criteria not expressly disclosed in this methodology
This award does not evaluate the advisory services offered by participating firms and should not be interpreted as an endorsement of investment results or client outcomes.
No fee is required to be nominated or considered for the Best Places to Work recognition.
Some organizations may elect to purchase optional promotional, licensing, or marketing packages from InvestmentNews after being selected. Such purchases have no influence on:
participation eligibility
questionnaire acceptance
employee survey administration
scoring methodology
final recognition decisions
