Personal Financial Advisors in Montana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$73,241
after federal, FICA and Montana tax
Tax takes
$24,209
24.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$81,159
Montana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Montana — 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
$97,450
Kept after tax
$73,241
Worth in national money
$81,159
State rank
23
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Montana sits in the middle of the pack for personal financial advisors. The median is $97,450, ranking 23 of 49 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Montana. It ranks 55 out of 475 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Montana is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $97,450 the take-home is $73,241; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $81,159 would nationally. The average comes to $126,570, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- Montana occupies the middle band for personal financial advisors: a median of $97,450, ranking 23 of 49. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Within Montana, personal financial advisors ranks 55 of 475 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Post-tax income for personal financial advisors in Montana, on $97,450, is $73,241 — equivalent to $81,159 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $126,570 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Personal Financial Advisors
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $55,010 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $97,450 |
| Top tenth earn over | $241,240 |
| This salary | $97,450 |
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 Montana | $73,241 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $77,386 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,523 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $91,558 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,104 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of personal financial advisors in Montana earn under $97,450 and half over. The published range runs $55,010 at the tenth percentile to $241,240 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $73,241 take-home in Montana comes from $97,450. 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 55 of 475.
- Two cautions on $81,159, the adjusted value of that $97,450 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Montana. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 55 of 475 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for personal financial advisors in Montana, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $55,010 to $241,240; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Retained pay of $73,241, from $97,450, assumes a single Montana 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 55 of 475 locally, and the state ranks 23 of 49 for it.
- This $81,159 adjusted figure, worked from $97,450, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 55 of 475 in the state. The occupation ranks 55 of 475 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 $126,570 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?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $55,010, the highest tenth $241,240, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $81,159.
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 Montana's own levy, $73,241 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
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 Montana is $126,570. 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 ($55,010) and the ninetieth ($241,240) 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.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Montana's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $81,159 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $73,241 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Montana 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.