Stifel Ranks Highest in Overall Satisfaction Among Employee Advisors, Commonwealth Ranks Highest Among Independent Advisors
- AI adoption among employee advisors rises to 73%; independent advisors trail at 42%
- Advisor satisfaction and perception of firm now directly linked to effective use of AI
- Advisors using AI effectively are seeing benefits in the form of more time spent serving clients and growing their practice, and less time taken up by compliance and administrative tasks
Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is heavily influencing financial advisors’ perceptions of their firms, transforming how they serve clients and grow their practices, according to the JD Power 2026 U.S. Financial Advisor Satisfaction Study,SM released today. Over the past year, active use of AI tools jumped to 73% among employee advisors (up from 44% last year), while adoption among independents, though rising, still lags at 42% (up from 19% last year).
“We’re now seeing AI move beyond the buzz and start to fundamentally change how advisors manage their practices and evaluate their firms’ ability to support their continued growth,” said Mike Foy, managing director of the wealth management practice at JD Power. “When AI is rolled out smoothly, with proactive communication and effective training, advisors can take hours back from compliance and administrative work and reinvest that time in clients and new business development. The firms that get that formula right are the ones seeing the biggest gains in satisfaction, loyalty and productivity in their advisor populations.”
However, AI’s impact does not occur in isolation. The latest results show that advisor teaming, particularly in the independent channel, along with stronger mentorship and succession planning, are also critical strategies firms are deploying to address an aging advisor workforce and high attrition rates among newer advisors.
Following are some key findings of the 2026 study:
- AI becomes key factor in investment advisor experience: The average overall satisfaction score for employee advisors is 632 (on a 1,000-point scale) and the average score for independent advisors is 688. Those scores jump to 781 among employee advisors and 826 among independent advisors when they use AI tools provided by their firms and find them to be effective. Advisors actively seeing benefits from AI are also significantly more likely to stay loyal to their current firm and to agree that their firm gives them the opportunity to grow income over time.
- Effective AI integration drives real-world performance improvement: Advisors who rate their firm’s AI tools as “very effective” consistently report stronger outcomes and a shift in how they spend their time, with more time devoted to client meetings, client service and new business growth. Keys to “very effective” AI deployments include well managed technology rollouts, proactive advisor communications and effective training.
- Teaming among independent advisors increases client focus and satisfaction: Teaming is gaining momentum among independent advisors, particularly those under age 50, as more independents adopt structures historically associated with large employee firms. Industry-wide, 40% of employee advisors and 35% of independent advisors are now working as part of teams. Among advisors under 50, 49% of independent advisors are now working on teams. Satisfaction also peaks among teams with three or four advisors, suggesting that mid-size teams strike the right balance between scale, collaboration and client-facing focus.
- Advisor tenure shapes mentorship and succession needs: Newer advisors prioritize client‑retention support, while veteran advisors focus on practice valuation as they prepare for transition or retirement. Advisors also suggest that mentorship programs have become less effective over time, with the decline most evident among early‑career advisors in the employee segment, even as failure rates for new advisors remain high.
“Beyond technology, firms that want to develop and retain talent while protecting client relationships need effective team structures, mentorship and succession planning,” said Kapil Vora, senior director of wealth intelligence at JD Power. “It is essential that these programs combine hands‑on experience with clear career progression tailored to advisors at every stage of their careers.”
