{
  "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/federal-employees",
  "url": "https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/dc/washington/federal-employees",
  "page_type": "metro_niche",
  "title": "Financial advisors for federal employees in Washington, DC",
  "filters": {},
  "scope_total": 2,
  "faq": [
    {
      "q": "How many financial advisory firms are there in Washington, DC?",
      "a": "AdvisorCensus lists 682 investment advisory firms with a principal office in the Washington metro area, from Form ADV filings as of October 2026: 320 SEC-registered, 218 state-registered, and 144 exempt reporting advisers. Firms may request removal, so the count can differ slightly from the number of firms that file Form ADV."
    },
    {
      "q": "How does AdvisorCensus know a firm works with federal employees?",
      "a": "The firm says so in its own words, in one of three places, and each firm on the page shows which: its current Form ADV Part 2A brochure, where AdvisorCensus checks the sentence word for word; its own website, at a domain it filed on Form ADV, where the firm says it specializes in or works with the group in a sentence found word for word on the page; or its AdvisorCensus profile, which the firm attests. Presence on this page means the firm states the focus; it does not mean the firm works only with that group, and absence means no such statement was found."
    },
    {
      "q": "How many fee-only financial advisors are in Washington, DC?",
      "a": "192 of the 682 firms meet AdvisorCensus's fee-only test: paid only by a percentage of assets, hourly charges, fixed fees, or subscription fees on Form ADV Item 5.E (no commissions, performance-based fees, or other compensation), with no sales-related compensation ties in the same filing: no employee registered with a broker-dealer or licensed as an insurance agent (Item 5.B), no brokerage, insurance, real estate, or other product sales business (Item 6.A), no related broker-dealer, insurance company, real estate broker, or futures commission merchant (Item 7.A), and no referral fees from others or other sales interest (Item 8). Form ADV has no fee-only box, so this is derived from the filing; it is not a fee-only certification, and a firm's own page lists its compensation arrangements as filed."
    },
    {
      "q": "How many financial advisors in Washington, DC offer financial planning?",
      "a": "320 of the 538 firms in Washington, DC that answer Form ADV Item 5.G, which asks what advisory services a firm provides, report financial planning services, as of October 2026. Exempt reporting advisers do not answer Item 5.G. Each firm page lists every advisory service the firm reports."
    },
    {
      "q": "Are the financial advisors in Washington, DC fiduciaries?",
      "a": "Every firm on this page is an investment adviser that files Form ADV, and an investment adviser owes its clients a fiduciary duty under federal law, made up of a duty of care and a duty of loyalty: it must act in the client's best interest and not put its own interests ahead of the client's, and must eliminate its conflicts of interest or disclose them fully and fairly. Form ADV has no fiduciary box because the duty comes with being an investment adviser. The duty covers the firm's advice; a firm or its people may also sell securities through a broker-dealer or insurance as licensed agents, roles held to other standards. The 192 firms that meet AdvisorCensus's fee-only test report none of those sales ties."
    },
    {
      "q": "How do I check whether a financial advisor has disciplinary disclosures?",
      "a": "Each firm page shows how many Form ADV Item 11 disciplinary questions the firm answered yes and links to the firm's record on the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site (adviserinfo.sec.gov), where the detail of each disclosure is public. Individual advisers' records are on the same site and on FINRA BrokerCheck."
    },
    {
      "q": "Does AdvisorCensus rate, verify, or recommend these firms?",
      "a": "No. The directory shows what each firm filed, in alphabetical order unless you choose another sort, and no firm's position depends on payment. Firms that claim their page can add a description and links, marked as provided by the firm; the filed facts are never changed by that content."
    },
    {
      "q": "What does regulatory assets under management mean?",
      "a": "Regulatory assets under management (RAUM) is the figure a firm reports on Form ADV Item 5.F: the securities portfolios it provides continuous and regular supervisory or management services for, at market value, including assets managed without discretion. It measures scale, not performance or quality."
    }
  ],
  "period": "2026-10-01",
  "answer_paragraph": "AdvisorCensus lists 2 investment advisory firms with a principal office in the Washington metro area that state a focus on federal employees in their own words: in the firm's Form ADV Part 2A brochure or on its own website, each sentence checked word for word, or on its AdvisorCensus profile, which the firm attests. Filings as of October 2026. Each firm shows where its statement comes from; firms are listed alphabetically, and the controls below sort by years registered or assets band.",
  "about_market": "Washington has 682 investment advisory firms with a principal office in the metro area as of October 2026: 320 SEC-registered, 218 state-registered, and 144 exempt reporting advisers. 192 of them meet AdvisorCensus's fee-only test (paid only by client fees, with no sales-related compensation ties such as an employee registered with a broker-dealer or licensed as an insurance agent), and 185 report under $100 million in regulatory assets under management. The metro area has 2,373,022 households, 673,453 of them with income of $200,000 or more, or 987 such households for each firm (Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates).",
  "citation": "AdvisorCensus. Financial advisors for federal employees in Washington, DC: 2 firms from Form ADV filings as of October 2026.",
  "total_firms": 2,
  "page": 1,
  "total_pages": 1,
  "sort": "name",
  "registration_types": {
    "sec": 2,
    "state": 0,
    "exempt": 0
  },
  "fee_model_mix": [
    {
      "code": "fee-only",
      "count": 1
    },
    {
      "code": "percentage_of_aum",
      "count": 2
    },
    {
      "code": "hourly",
      "count": 2
    },
    {
      "code": "subscription",
      "count": 0
    },
    {
      "code": "fixed",
      "count": 2
    },
    {
      "code": "commissions",
      "count": 0
    },
    {
      "code": "performance_based",
      "count": 0
    },
    {
      "code": "other",
      "count": 1
    },
    {
      "code": "not_reported",
      "count": 0
    }
  ],
  "years_registered_distribution": [
    {
      "code": "under_5",
      "count": 1
    },
    {
      "code": "5_to_9",
      "count": 0
    },
    {
      "code": "10_to_19",
      "count": 0
    },
    {
      "code": "20_plus",
      "count": 1
    },
    {
      "code": "not_reported",
      "count": 0
    }
  ],
  "raum_band_distribution": [
    {
      "code": "under_25m",
      "count": 0
    },
    {
      "code": "25m_100m",
      "count": 0
    },
    {
      "code": "100m_500m",
      "count": 1
    },
    {
      "code": "500m_1b",
      "count": 0
    },
    {
      "code": "1b_5b",
      "count": 0
    },
    {
      "code": "over_5b",
      "count": 0
    },
    {
      "code": "not_reported",
      "count": 1
    }
  ],
  "firms": [
    {
      "crd_number": 341222,
      "name": "Capital Financial Planners LLC",
      "name_as_filed": "CAPITAL FINANCIAL PLANNERS LLC",
      "url": "https://advisorcensus.com/firm/capital-financial-planners-llc-chevy-chase-md-341222",
      "city": "Chevy Chase",
      "state": "MD",
      "years_registered": 0,
      "raum_band": "not_reported",
      "compensation_types": [
        "percentage_of_aum",
        "hourly",
        "fixed"
      ],
      "enhanced": false,
      "niche_basis": "brochure"
    },
    {
      "crd_number": 133697,
      "name": "Schaeffer Financial LLC",
      "name_as_filed": "SCHAEFFER FINANCIAL LLC",
      "url": "https://advisorcensus.com/firm/schaeffer-financial-llc-rockville-md-133697",
      "city": "Rockville",
      "state": "MD",
      "years_registered": 21,
      "raum_band": "100m_500m",
      "compensation_types": [
        "percentage_of_aum",
        "hourly",
        "fixed",
        "other"
      ],
      "enhanced": false,
      "niche_basis": "brochure"
    }
  ],
  "states": [],
  "metros": [],
  "siblings": {
    "national": "/advisors",
    "state": {
      "path": "/advisors/dc",
      "label": "Financial advisors in District of Columbia"
    },
    "metro": {
      "path": "/advisors/dc/washington",
      "label": "Financial advisors in Washington, DC"
    },
    "city_pages": [
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/bethesda",
        "label": "Financial advisors in Bethesda, MD",
        "firm_count": 82
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/arlington",
        "label": "Financial advisors in Arlington, VA",
        "firm_count": 63
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/mclean",
        "label": "Financial advisors in McLean, VA",
        "firm_count": 55
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/alexandria",
        "label": "Financial advisors in Alexandria, VA",
        "firm_count": 43
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/reston",
        "label": "Financial advisors in Reston, VA",
        "firm_count": 36
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/rockville",
        "label": "Financial advisors in Rockville, MD",
        "firm_count": 32
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/chevy-chase",
        "label": "Financial advisors in Chevy Chase, MD",
        "firm_count": 27
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/vienna",
        "label": "Financial advisors in Vienna, VA",
        "firm_count": 21
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/fairfax",
        "label": "Financial advisors in Fairfax, VA",
        "firm_count": 20
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/ashburn",
        "label": "Financial advisors in Ashburn, VA",
        "firm_count": 15
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/frederick",
        "label": "Financial advisors in Frederick, MD",
        "firm_count": 10
      }
    ],
    "fee_pages": [
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/fee-only",
        "label": "Fee-only financial advisors in Washington, DC",
        "firm_count": 192
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/flat-fee",
        "label": "Flat-fee financial advisors in Washington, DC",
        "firm_count": 282
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/hourly",
        "label": "Hourly financial advisors in Washington, DC",
        "firm_count": 230
      }
    ],
    "answer_pages": [
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/for-high-net-worth-individuals",
        "firm_count": 341,
        "label": "Financial advisors for high-net-worth individuals in Washington, DC"
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/for-retirement-plans",
        "firm_count": 132,
        "label": "Financial advisors for retirement plans in Washington, DC"
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/for-businesses",
        "firm_count": 128,
        "label": "Financial advisors for businesses in Washington, DC"
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/for-charities",
        "firm_count": 147,
        "label": "Financial advisors for charitable organizations in Washington, DC"
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/no-account-minimum",
        "firm_count": 35,
        "label": "Financial advisors with no account minimum in Washington, DC"
      }
    ],
    "niche_pages": [
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/divorce",
        "firm_count": 1,
        "label": "Financial advisors for divorce in Washington, DC"
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/immigrants-and-cross-border-families",
        "firm_count": 1,
        "label": "Financial advisors for immigrants and cross-border families in Washington, DC"
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/sustainable-and-impact-investing",
        "firm_count": 1,
        "label": "Financial advisors for sustainable and impact investing in Washington, DC"
      },
      {
        "path": "/advisors/dc/washington/young-professionals",
        "firm_count": 1,
        "label": "Financial advisors for young professionals in Washington, DC"
      }
    ]
  },
  "csv": null,
  "source": {
    "name": "Form ADV",
    "as_of": "2026-10-01",
    "operator": "BH Monitor Services, LLC",
    "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
    "credit": "AdvisorCensus (advisorcensus.com), from SEC Form ADV data"
  }
}