The Healthy Advisor: What Drives Financial Advisor Wellbeing
Michael Kitts has spent years studying what drives satisfaction among financial advisors, focusing on personal well-being and professional fulfillment beyond hard performance metrics.
His latest research, the 2025 Advisor Wellbeing Study, shows how advisor happiness has changed in recent years and what the changes are driving. Based on responses from across the industry, the survey highlights both encouraging trends and emerging threats.
One of the most notable findings is that overall advisor safety has improved, largely due to a stable work environment and strong market conditions. But not all mentors share that growth, as young professionals report low optimism and a weak sense of purpose.
In this healthy advisor episode, host Diana Britton talks with Michael Kitces, Chief Financial Planning Officer at Kitces.com, about what really drives advisor wellness. He explains how experience, autonomy, compensation structure, and strong flexibility shape long-term satisfaction and career direction.
Main Receptors:
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How Stable Work Environments and Rising Markets Contribute to Advisor Security by 2023
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Why young consultants report low expectations and intentions, especially in firms with foreign ownership structures
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The relationship between experience, self-efficacy and long-term satisfaction in consulting jobs
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Not gross income, but how hourly compensation plays a key role in consultant happiness and satisfaction
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Why employee support and delegation are critical to reducing burnout and improving productivity outcomes
Resources:
Meet Michael Keats.
Connect with Wealth Management.
About our guest:
Michael E. Kitts is head of planning strategy at Focus Partners Wealth, a private wealth management firm based in St. Louis, Missouri that oversees more than $50 billion in client assets. He is also the co-founder of XY Planning Network, AdvicePay, fpPathfinder and New Planner Recruiting, former professional editor of the Journal of Financial Planning and publisher of the e-newsletter The Kitces Report and the popular financial planning industry blog Nerd’s Eye View at www.Kitces.com.
Michael is a popular speaker on financial planning and practice management topics and appears annually at 50-70 regional and national conferences for financial advisors.
Michael is one of the 2010 recipients of the Financial Planning Association’s “Heart of Financial Planning” awards for his efforts to advance the financial planning profession. Additionally, Financial Planning has been recognized at various times as a “deep thinker”, “legacy builder”, “influencer”, “mover and shaker”, part of the “Power 20” and a “star in wealth management”. These awards are presented in recognition of Michael’s contributions to the financial planning community. In addition, Michael is the founder of NexGen, the next generation community of financial planners, ensuring the transition from financial planning pioneers to the next generation of the profession.
