Personal Financial Advisors in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$91,198
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$34,472
27.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$84,257
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$125,670
Kept after tax
$91,198
Worth in national money
$84,257
State rank
6
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Massachusetts pays personal financial advisors a middle wage of $125,670, ranking 6 of 49 states and sitting about 19.61% above the national middle.
- Within Massachusetts this is well-paid work. Of 485 occupations with published figures in the state, personal financial advisors ranks 49 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Massachusetts is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $125,670 the take-home is $91,198; in national-average money that behaves like $84,257. The average comes to $172,430, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Massachusetts's median for personal financial advisors is $125,670, about 19.61% above the national figure and 6 of 49 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Ranked against every occupation Massachusetts publishes a median for, personal financial advisors sits 49 of 485 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Take-home for personal financial advisors in Massachusetts, on $125,670, is $91,198; deflated by the state's price level, $84,257. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $172,430 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Personal Financial Advisors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $58,510 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $125,670 |
| Top tenth earn over | $478,850 |
| This salary | $125,670 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Massachusetts | $91,198 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $97,161 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$15,729 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $117,083 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$21,837 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $125,670 as a midpoint for Massachusetts, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $58,510 and the ninetieth is $478,850 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $91,198 take-home in Massachusetts comes from $125,670. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 49 of 485.
- One number stands for prices across all of Massachusetts, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $84,257, the adjusted value of that $125,670 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 49 of 485 in the state.
- The Massachusetts median of $125,670 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $58,510 to $478,850. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $91,198, from $125,670, assumes a single Massachusetts filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 49 of 485 locally, and the state ranks 6 of 49 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Massachusetts, so $84,257 — the adjusted value of that $125,670 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 49 of 485 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $172,430 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $58,510 and the top tenth $478,850 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Massachusetts costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $84,257 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Massachusetts's own levy, $91,198 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
The survey withholds small samples rather than publish an unreliable number. Pay appears for 49 states here, and a missing state means too few reports, not no jobs.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Massachusetts is $172,430. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($58,510) and the ninetieth ($478,850) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $84,257 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $91,198 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.