Thrivent plans major hiring spree of nearly 600 advisors in 2025

Thrivent plans to expand its employee advisor and independent RIA workforce with nearly 600 new advisor hires by the end of this year in an effort to combat a “looming industry crisis” of advisors set to retire over the next decade, the company says.

Thrivent currently has 3,200 client-facing advisors. The company says its 2025 hires will mark a 2% growth rate for the firm, far outpacing the annual 0.3 % workforce growth rate for the entire financial advisor industry over the past 10 years, according to McKinsey. 

Thrivent’s recruiting plan focuses on hiring advisors who are new to the industry and will place them in salaried virtual advisor roles. The company has prioritized Denver, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Dallas as key hubs for its remote virtual advisors. Thrivent envisions a pipeline where these advisors can transition to joining local employee teams, affiliating as a statutory advisor, or operating indepdendently though the Thrivent Advisor Network, its RIA with roughly $6.5 billion in assets under management. 

“We're looking at building out our capabilities with employee advisors who come onto our team, spend a certain amount of time on our team and learn how to do really strong, purpose-based, value driven advice,” said Thrivent’s chief distribution officer Nick Cecere. “And then that would be their launching pad onto serving our teams of advisors who are growing their practices across the country.”

Thrivent’s new hiring ambitions come two years after the company laid off ex-Thrivent Advisor Network president Carolyn Armitage and four other executives within the RIA. Thrivent, a not-for-profit rooted in Christian faith, plans for “around 35% of new advisors brought on as employee advisors, 65% onto directly new [independent] teams,” Cecere said of this year’s plan.

“Over the next three years, we expect that to reverse, and most of the advisors who are going to be joining us as we build out our capabilities will be joining us as an employee advisor, and then graduating to becoming an advisor on a team,” Cecere said.

Over a third of U.S. financial advisors plan to retire over the next decade, according to a 2024 report from Cerulli Associates. The virtual advisor roles from Thrivent carry listed salary rates of $24.03-$26.44 per hour, with additional monthly sales bonuses based on performance.  

“We are looking for a younger, more diverse population of advisors. And I think when you look at places like Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Milwaukee and Minneapolis, we're looking to build out an advisor force whose going to look more like the clients and demographics that we will continue to serve into the future,” Cecere said.

Thrivent’s virtual advisor jobs require licenses across Life and Health insurance, Series 7, and Series 66. Cecere explained that Thrivent’s advisor recruits often come from varying industries. 

“Some are former business owners, some are former school teachers, some are folks who have been involved in nonprofits or religious organizations, and some are just coming from school,” he said. “We have a nice second generation of advisors whose parents or siblings are in this business. We've seen a nice increase in that over the last couple of years, where our advisors are bringing their family members onto their teams.”