2025 State of Financial Coaching Benchmarking Survey

2025 FCN State of Financial Coaching/Counseling Benchmarking Survey

Please complete this survey about your financial coaching/counseling services. Your input is extremely valuable and will be shared with other coaches. As a thank you for participating, you will receive a High Level Summary of the survey results for free and a discount on the detailed report. © 2025 Financial Coaches Network
Reminder

This survey is intended for professionals currently offering or planning to offer Financial Coaching/Counseling services.
About You
In your role as a financial coach or counselor, where do you work with clients?

I own a private practice.I want to start a private practice.I work for a company.I work on a military base.I work for the government.I work for a nonprofit organization.I offer pro bono financial coaching services.Other
More than one role? Answer questions below based on your primary role.

If you are a financial coach/counselor in more than one role/company, please fill out the survey for your primary role, the one you spend the most time on or earn the most money in.
Name (optional)

First NameLast Name
If you would like to receive a free High Level Summary of the report, please enter your email address.
Your email will only be used to send you survey results. You will NOT be added to a mailing list.
What state/country do you work in?

Street Address

Street Address Line 2

CityState / Province

Postal / Zip CodeCountry
What is your gender? (optional)

FemaleMaleNon-Binary
Do you have any of the following highly recognized credentials or certifications?

Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®) or AFCC®AttorneyCertified Financial Planner® (CFP®)Certified Financial Therapist™ (CFT™)Certified Public Accountant® (CPA®)Certified Student Loan Professional® (CSLP®)Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)Enrolled Agent (EA)Personal Financial Specialist (PFS™)Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®)Other, please specify - add highly recognized credentials only (see next question for others)
Have you been through any of the following training courses?

Coach ConnectionsFinancial Coach Academy®Financial Coaches Network - Biz DIY (Launch)Financial Coaches Network - Biz-in-a-BoxFinancial Coaches Network - MoneyCoach NetworkFinancial Fitness Coach (FFC®)Kingdom AdvisorsMoney Coaching Institute / Certified Money Coach (CMC)®Ramsey Financial Coach Master Training or Ramsey Preferred CoachYNAB Certified CoachOther
What licenses, if any, do you hold?

Series 65 (Registered Investment Advisor)State Insurance LicenseSeries 6Series 7Series 63Bar-Licensed AttorneyLicensed Behavioral Health ProfessionalSIE Exam (Security Industry Essentials)Other Series LicenseOther
Are you currently a member of the Financial Coaches Community Facebook group?

YesNo
Are you currently a paying member of Financial Coaches Network (FCN)?*

YesNo
What do you call yourself, in your role as a financial coach/counselor?

Financial CounselorFinancial CoachMoney CoachBudget CoachFinancial EducatorOther

About Your Services
Do you currently offer financial coaching or financial counseling services?*

YesYes, but I'm currently taking a break and plan to return to financial coaching/counseling within 6 months.No, but I plan to start offering financial coaching/counseling services within 6 months.No, but I plan to offer financial coaching/counseling services in the future.No, I have no plans to offer financial coaching or counseling services.
Date you formally started providing financial coaching/counseling services (e.g., as an employee, as a business, as part of your practice, or in exchange for money). An estimate is fine.*

MonthDayYear

What services do you offer along with your financial coaching/counseling services?

	Standard for all clients	Offered as needed in coaching service	Offered for additional fee	Not offered
Cash flow & budgeting
Debt management
Money mindset
Financial therapy
Investment advice/management
Insurance advice/policies
Student loan debt
Bookkeeping services
Business consulting & advice
Career advice
Retirement planning
Tax planning
Tax preparation
Tax debt

About Your Time

How much time do you spend on average each week for each aspect of your practice? If you offer other services, please only include time for the coaching/counseling part of your practice.

	Average weekly hours
Coaching/Counseling (meeting with clients and prep/follow-up work)
Marketing Activities
Sales Activities
Business or Administrative Tasks
Professional Development/ Learning/ Certifications

About Your Practice/Business
Date you created your financial coaching/counseling private practice. An estimate is fine.

MonthDayYear
What is your entity structure?

Sole proprietorshipLimited Liability Company (LLC)S-CorporationC-CorporationNon-Profit OrganizationPartnership
In what phase would you classify your private practice?

Preparing to launch (creating your launch strategy and process, beta clients only)Launching (less than 50% of your individual capacity as a coach/counselor, executing your launch strategy, coaching your first clients, refining your process)Growing (50%-80% of your individual capacity as a coach/counselor, process is refined)Coasting (80%-100% of your individual capacity, process is refined, happy with where the practice is)Scaling (reached your individual capacity, bringing on other staff, identifying the business you would like to build)
If you have reached the scaling phase, what type of business are you building?

Solo (just me)Boutique Business (2-5 staff members)Enterprise Business (6+ staff members)

Which types of staff (other than you) do you leverage to help you run your practice/business?

	In-house coach/counselor	Other internal staff	Outsourced support	None/ not used
Budgeting/software support for clients
Business bookkeeping/accounting
Client meeting preparation
Coaching/counseling clients
Conducting sales calls
Course creation/content
Marketing
Office administration tasks
Process creation/support
Setting up sales calls

About Your Financials

What are your standard fees as of now? Enter 0 if you do not use a particular pricing model.

	Price	# sessions in program (leave blank if not applicable)
Hourly Fee ($/hour)
Monthly Subscription ($/month)
Set price for a program (main program)
Set price for a program (secondary program)
Set price per coaching/counseling session
Other

Please specify which currency you used above

US Dollar ($)Other

Have you changed fees since joining Financial Coaches Network?

	Increased	Decreased	No change	Not applicable
Hourly fee
Retainer fee
Set price for a program
Set price per coaching/counseling session

Additional notes on your pricing not included above
If you are an employee, what is your hourly pay or pay per 1-hour session? For Salaried full-time employees, calculate your hourly rate by dividing your annual salary by 2000.

Not Applicable$0 (Volunteer)$10-19/hour$20-29/hour$30-49/hour$50-59/hour$60-84/hour$85-99/hour>$100/hour
Cash Flow

For the following questions, please answer in US dollars for each tax reporting year.

Approximately what was your practice/business cash flow each year for the following? Leave blank if no cash flow or if unknown.

	2022	2023	2024
Annual Revenue
Marketing & Sales Expenses
Software
Professional Services
Operations & Office Expenses
Your Own Salary
Staff Expenses

Unsure How to Categorize an Expense?

If you are unsure of where to categorize your expenses, here is how to map the IRS Schedule C expense categories onto these categories: Marketing & Sales 8, 10 | Professional Services 17 | Operations & Office Expenses 9, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27 | Staff Expenses 11, 13, 19, 26 | Reference: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sc.pdf

About Your Clients
Do you focus on a particular niche?*

YesNo
What type of niche do you serve?

Age-based (e.g., Gen X, Millennials)Professional (e.g., teachers, artists)Interest-specific (e.g., surfers, FIRE)Culture-specific (e.g., Latinos)Life events (e.g., marriage, birth)Career stages (e.g., recent grads, executives)GenderHealth condition (e.g., ADHD)Specific money issues (e.g., debt collection, bankruptcy, gambling)Income based (e.g, high income, low income)*** Please describe your niche here ***
2024 Clients

For the following questions, please answer based on the number of clients you provided financial coaching/counseling services to in the previous calendar year. If you only worked with a client for 1 month or 1 session, please include them in these numbers.
How many paying clients did you provide financial coaching/counseling services to in the previous calendar year?
(Paying means they pay you directly or indirectly through a company.)
Out of the paying clients that you worked with in the previous calendar year, how many are in your niche?
(Paying means they pay you directly or indirectly through a company.)
Current Clients

For the following questions, please answer based on the clients you currently provide financial coaching/counseling services to.
How many paying clients are you currently providing financial coaching/counseling services to?
(Paying means they pay you directly or indirectly through a company.)
Out of the paying clients that you're currently working with on a regular basis, how many are in your niche?
(Paying means they pay you directly or indirectly through a company.)
Total Clients

For the following questions, please answer based on the total number of clients since you started offering financial coaching/counseling services.
How many clients (total) have you coached/counseled in exchange for money?
(Paying means they pay you directly or indirectly through a company.)
How many clients (total) have you coached/counseled for free, where you don't get paid and clients don't pay anything?
How many clients (total) have you coached/counseled, where you are paid, but the clients don't pay anything?

About Your Coaching Program(s)
What does your coaching/counseling program look like?*

Program(s) with set # of months or sessionsProgram(s) with varying number of months or sessionsProgram(s) with set # of months or sessions, following by ongoing support options (e.g., quarterly/yearly coaching, email/text support, online course)Ongoing coaching, depending on client needsOnline training courseGroup coachingOther
For your Group Coaching Program do you offer individualized support?

Yes - a set number of one-on-one sessions are included.One-on-one coaching/training sessions are an add-on.No - one-on-one coaching/training sessions are not offeredOther
For your online training course, do you offer coaching sessions as part of your course?

Yes - a set number of sessions are included.Yes - group office hours are included.Coaching/training sessions are an add-on.No - coaching/training sessions are not offeredOther

What are the length(s) of the program(s) you offer?

	# months	# coaching sessions (exclude short check-in calls)
Primary program
Secondary program
Tertiary program

For coaching/counseling sessions, how do you meet with clients?

In person, at an officeIn person, at a public locationPhone callVideo callOther
Do you record client coaching/counseling sessions?

AlwaysSometimesNeverAI note-taker
How do you follow up with clients after coaching/counseling sessions? Check all that apply.

Share a worksheet/other document for them to complete.Place client tasks in a software.Provide a checklist/list of action items.Provide a written summary.Send them a video or audio copy of the session.Share a report or deliverable.Nothing - I do not provide follow-up.
Between meetings, how do you communicate with your coaching/counseling clients?

Casual, in-person conversationsCoaching/CRM softwareEmailInstant messenger/social media messagesPhone callPhone textRecorded videoRecorded audioVideo callNone, I do not communicate outside of coaching sessionsOther

ONBOARDING/PROGRAM: During your initial program or onboarding -- on average, how frequently do you interact with clients using each of the communication methods below?

	Weekly	Semi-monthly	Monthly	Quarterly	N/A
Meetings
Other communications
Automated communications

ONGOING: For longer term relationships (ongoing coaching) -- on average, how frequently do you interact with clients using each of the communication methods below?

	Weekly	Semi-monthly	Monthly	Quarterly	Semi-annually	Annually	N/A
Meetings
Other communications
Automated communications

Primary Financial Coaching/Counseling Program

For the following questions, please think about your primary program -- the one you typically recommend or most people choose. If you don’t have a specific length for your program, answer the questions based on your onboarding process (e.g., if you have a 2-month onboarding process with 4 meetings, and then work with the client until they are ready to move on, then answer the questions based on the 2 months with 4 meetings).
How many coaching sessions are included in your Primary Financial Coaching Program or the Onboarding Process if you have an ongoing program?

Thinking of your Primary Program with 1 coaching session, what is the main purpose of each coaching session? Please choose "Primary purpose" a maximum of two (2) times.

	1st
Client goals, wishes, & stresses
Setting up software
Gathering client financial data
Analyzing client data
Presenting a report
Developing a budget
Updating the budget
Debt strategy
Emergency & other savings plans
Money mindset
Niche specific topic
Individualized topic
Whatever the client wants to talk about
Accountability meeting

Thinking of your Primary Program with 2 coaching session, what is the main purpose of each coaching session? Please choose "Primary purpose" a maximum of two (2) times for each session.

	1st	2nd
Client goals, wishes, & stresses
Setting up software
Gathering client financial data
Analyzing client data
Presenting a report
Developing a budget
Updating the budget
Debt strategy
Emergency & other savings plans
Money mindset
Niche specific topic
Individualized topic
Whatever the client wants to talk about
Accountability meeting

Thinking of your Primary Program with 3 coaching sessions, what is the main purpose of each coaching session? Please choose "Primary purpose" a maximum of two (2) times.

	1st	2nd	3rd
Client goals, wishes, & stresses
Setting up software
Gathering client financial data
Analyzing client data
Presenting a report
Developing a budget
Updating the budget
Debt strategy
Emergency & other savings plans
Money mindset
Niche specific topic
Individualized topic
Whatever the client wants to talk about
Accountability meeting

Thinking of your Primary Program with 4 coaching sessions, what is the main purpose of each coaching session? Please choose "Primary purpose" a maximum of two (2) times.

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Client goals, wishes, & stresses
Setting up software
Gathering client financial data
Analyzing client data
Presenting a report
Developing a budget
Updating the budget
Debt strategy
Emergency & other savings plans
Money mindset
Niche specific topic
Individualized topic
Whatever the client wants to talk about
Accountability meeting

Thinking of your Primary Program with 5 coaching sessions, what is the main purpose of each coaching session? Please choose "Primary purpose" a maximum of two (2) times.

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
Client goals, wishes, & stresses
Setting up software
Gathering client financial data
Analyzing client data
Presenting a report
Developing a budget
Updating the budget
Debt strategy
Emergency & other savings plans
Money mindset
Niche specific topic
Individualized topic
Whatever the client wants to talk about
Accountability meeting

Thinking of your Primary Program with 6 or more coaching sessions (or varying number of sessions), what is the main purpose of the first 6 coaching sessions? Please choose "Primary purpose" a maximum of two (2) times.

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Client goals, wishes, & stresses
Setting up software
Gathering client financial data
Analyzing client data
Presenting a report
Developing a budget
Updating the budget
Debt strategy
Emergency & other savings plans
Money mindset
Niche specific topic
Individualized topic
Whatever the client wants to talk about
Accountability meeting

ONGOING: If you offer an Ongoing Program, what is the main purpose of coaching sessions? Please choose "Primary purpose" a maximum of two (2) times.

	Session purpose
Client goals, wishes, & stresses
Setting up software
Gathering client financial data
Analyzing client data
Presenting a report
Developing a budget
Updating the budget
Debt strategy
Emergency & other savings plans
Money mindset
Niche specific topic
Individualized topic
Whatever the client wants to talk about
Accountability meeting

What types of client "homework" do you ask clients to do before/after a sales meeting or coaching sessions?

	Sales meeting	Coaching sessions
Financial snapshot
Goals
Credit report activities
Debt information gathering
Savings information gathering
Budget creation/review
Automation setup
Bank activities
Software setup
Software transactions/rules
Report review
Niche-specific activity
Individualized action items

Please share any additional details or thoughts about your program(s) that you'd like to share.

About Your Practice/Biz Goals & Vision

Skip any questions that are not applicable to you.
What is your annual revenue goal for 2025?
What is your annual profit goal for 2025?
What is your top practice/business goal for 2025?

Client acquisitionClient education & communicationClient retentionHiring/outsourcingMarketing & building my brandOperational efficiencyTechnology systems & software implementationOther
If you had to commit to one of these tomorrow for the next 5 years of your life, which would you commit to?

Running your own coaching/counseling practiceWorking as a full-time 1099 contractor of a coaching/counseling businessWorking as a full-time employee of a coaching business/counseling businessWorking as a part-time 1099 contractor of a coaching/counseling businessWorking as a part-time employee of a coaching/counseling business

About Your Prospects

If you own your own practice, please answer the following questions based on your entire company (you and your employees). If you are an employee and do not participate in prospecting for your employer, skip any questions that don't apply.
Do you participate in prospecting in your role as a financial coach/counselor?

YesNo

In the calendar year 2024, how many prospects became clients? If you're not sure, provide your best estimate.

	Prospects	In my niche	Sales call conducted	Converted to client
# of People

In the calendar year 2024, how many prospects found you by each of the following? If you're not sure, provide your best estimate. Enter 0 if you don't use this marketing source.

	Prospects
Blog
Cold calling or cold DMs
Employer
Find an AFC®
Local business review site (e.g., Yelp, Google maps)
Networking events
Online advertisement
Online search
Podcast
Coach finding tool (i.e. a third-party website that refers prospects to coaches)
Referral partners
Social media
Social media messages (DMs)
Speeches, webinars, workshops, community events
Third party sites
Word of mouth

On average, how frequently do you use each of the following for sharing information/ prospecting?

	More than once per day	Daily	Several times per week	Several times per month	Monthly or less	Do not use
Blog
Email newsletter
Podcast
Social media posts
Social media direct messaging
Other

About Your Technology Support

What types of Core Software do you use for your coaching/counseling role?*

	Do Not Use	Free Version	Paid Subscription	Provided by Employer/ Membership
Accounting & bookkeeping software
Financial coaching & budgeting software
Calendar software
Customer relationship management (CRM)
Payments & billing

What types of Other Software do you use for your coaching/counseling role?

	Do Not Use	Free Version	Paid Subscription	Provided by Employer/ Membership
Course content software
Data security system
Document sharing software
Email marketing software
eSignature
Project/task management software
Social media
Survey/form software
Video meeting software
Video/audio recording software
Video/audio editing software

How do you view and manage non-sensitive information about your client (click all that apply)?

Customer relationship management (CRM) softwareSpreadsheet(s)PaperOther
How do you view or share your client's financial information (click all that apply)?

File that we both have access to (e.g., spreadsheet).I view my clients' cash flow software account through a coach portal.I log into my client's budget software account using their username/password.My client sends me screenshots, downloads, or reports.They share their information during meetings (e.g., screen sharing).They share videos with me.
Did we miss something? Please share any additional details or thoughts that you weren't able to share anywhere else.
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2025 FCN State of Financial Coaching/Counseling Benchmarking Survey

Reminder

About You

More than one role? Answer questions below based on your primary role.

About Your Services

About Your Time

About Your Practice/Business

About Your Financials

Cash Flow

Unsure How to Categorize an Expense?

About Your Clients

2024 Clients

Current Clients

Total Clients

About Your Coaching Program(s)

Primary Financial Coaching/Counseling Program

About Your Practice/Biz Goals & Vision

About Your Prospects

About Your Technology Support