Key Takeaways
- Ranked by the assets they report to the SEC for individual and high-net-worth clients, the largest RIAs are wirehouse and broker-dealer advisory arms, led by Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.
- Ranked by total regulatory assets, the list is led by fund managers such as Vanguard, Fidelity, Capital Group and BlackRock.
- Each row is one registered entity and rows from the same group overlap, so they should never be added together.
- Every figure comes from the SEC's Form ADV dataset and is cited to the filing it was reported in.
The largest registered investment advisers in the United States are not the firms most people picture when they hear "RIA". Ranked by the assets they report to the SEC, the list is led by the advisory arms of wirehouses and broker-dealers and by the fund managers behind the largest mutual fund and ETF complexes, with a handful of independent wealth firms in between.
How this ranking works
Every figure on this page comes from the SEC's dataset "Information About Registered Investment Advisers and Exempt Reporting Advisers", the file published on October 2, 2026, which compiles each adviser's most recent Form ADV as of September 1, 2026. Nothing has been estimated, adjusted or combined.
Two numbers from Form ADV are used:
- Regulatory assets under management (RAUM), Item 5.F(2)(c): the securities portfolios an adviser provides continuous and regular supervisory or management services for, as the adviser reports it.
- RAUM attributable to individual and high-net-worth clients, Item 5.D: the part of that total the adviser attributes to individuals and to high-net-worth individuals. This is the closest the filing comes to measuring a wealth-management business.
Three things to keep in mind when reading the tables:
- Each row is one registered legal entity. Large groups register several advisers, and their figures overlap: the same assets can be counted by a fund adviser and by the affiliate that manages them. Rows from one group should never be added together.
- Advisers file on different dates. Form ADV is updated at least annually, so each row shows the filing date its figures come from.
- RAUM is a regulatory measure, not a firm's reported total client assets. It excludes assets an adviser does not continuously manage, such as many brokerage accounts, and it follows the SEC's instructions rather than a firm's own investor-relations definition.
The largest RIAs serving individuals
Ranked by RAUM attributable to individual and high-net-worth clients (Form ADV Item 5.D):
| Rank | Adviser | Headquarters | Assets for individual and high-net-worth clients | Total regulatory AUM | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Morgan Stanley | Purchase, NY | $1,773.0 billion | $1,961.9 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/28/2026 |
| 2 | Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith | New York, NY | $1,541.0 billion | $1,781.6 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/24/2026 |
| 3 | Edward Jones | St. Louis, MO | $994.4 billion | $1,013.6 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/25/2026 |
| 4 | Managed Account Advisors | Jersey City, NJ | $898.7 billion | $995.0 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/18/2026 |
| 5 | LPL Financial | Fort Mill, SC | $784.2 billion | $819.1 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/21/2026 |
| 6 | UBS Financial Services | Weehawken, NJ | $761.7 billion | $915.8 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 08/25/2026 |
| 7 | Ameriprise Financial Services | Minneapolis, MN | $646.9 billion | $660.5 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/25/2026 |
| 8 | Wells Fargo Advisors (Wells Fargo Clearing Services) | St. Louis, MO | $617.6 billion | $671.4 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 10/01/2026 |
| 9 | Envestnet PMC | Berwyn, PA | $578.8 billion | $614.9 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 06/30/2026 |
| 10 | Strategic Advisers (Fidelity) | Boston, MA | $561.4 billion | $1,370.1 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 03/30/2026 |
| 11 | Raymond James & Associates | St. Petersburg, FL | $404.8 billion | $501.0 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/25/2026 |
| 12 | J.P. Morgan Securities | New York, NY | $392.9 billion | $429.7 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/30/2026 |
| 13 | Parametric Portfolio Associates | Seattle, WA | $383.5 billion | $684.8 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 04/21/2026 |
| 14 | Goldman Sachs Asset Management | New York, NY | $367.0 billion | $2,648.9 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/25/2026 |
| 15 | Raymond James Financial Services Advisors | St. Petersburg, FL | $346.2 billion | $390.0 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/21/2026 |
| 16 | Fisher Investments | Plano, TX | $331.3 billion | $386.7 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 04/02/2026 |
| 17 | Vanguard Advisers | Malvern, PA | $329.3 billion | $344.6 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/24/2026 |
| 18 | J.P. Morgan Private Investments | New York, NY | $309.4 billion | $470.0 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 06/26/2026 |
| 19 | RBC Capital Markets | New York, NY | $280.7 billion | $310.4 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/30/2026 |
| 20 | Cetera Investment Advisers | Schaumburg, IL | $245.4 billion | $256.8 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 08/13/2026 |
| 21 | Wells Fargo Advisors (Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network) | St. Louis, MO | $234.5 billion | $252.3 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/02/2026 |
| 22 | Osaic Wealth | Scottsdale, AZ | $226.8 billion | $234.9 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/29/2026 |
| 23 | Charles Schwab Investment Management | San Francisco, CA | $215.4 billion | $1,721.0 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 03/30/2026 |
| 24 | Commonwealth Financial Network | Waltham, MA | $202.3 billion | $212.7 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/29/2026 |
| 25 | UBS Asset Management (Americas) | New York, NY | $201.1 billion | $588.2 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 07/31/2026 |
Who is on this list
The list is a map of how Americans actually receive investment advice.
- Wirehouse and bank advisory arms lead it: Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, UBS, Wells Fargo Advisors and J.P. Morgan. Their advisory programs run alongside a brokerage business, and their Form ADV covers the fee-based accounts their financial advisors manage.
- Broker-dealer networks follow: Edward Jones, LPL Financial, Ameriprise, Raymond James, Cetera, Osaic and Commonwealth. Most of their assets are managed by independent or employee advisors working under the firm's advisory registration.
- Platform and overlay managers appear because they report the accounts they manage for other advisers' clients. Managed Account Advisors, Envestnet PMC, Strategic Advisers and Parametric run separately managed account, model portfolio and direct indexing programs, so their individual-client assets arrive through intermediaries rather than through their own advisors.
- Independent wealth firms are fewer at this scale. Fisher Investments is among the largest independent RIAs serving individuals directly.
The largest RIAs by total regulatory assets
Ranked by total RAUM (Form ADV Item 5.F(2)(c)), the list changes character entirely:
| Rank | Adviser | Headquarters | Total regulatory AUM | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Vanguard Group | Malvern, PA | $11,092.7 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/21/2026 |
| 2 | Vanguard Capital Management | Malvern, PA | $8,436.2 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/21/2026 |
| 3 | Fidelity Management & Research | Boston, MA | $5,685.0 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 07/30/2026 |
| 4 | Capital Research and Management (Capital Group) | Los Angeles, CA | $4,320.8 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/25/2026 |
| 5 | BlackRock Fund Advisors | San Francisco, CA | $4,282.2 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 05/15/2026 |
| 6 | Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) | Newport Beach, CA | $3,666.9 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 08/28/2026 |
| 7 | J.P. Morgan Investment Management | New York, NY | $3,519.4 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 08/26/2026 |
| 8 | Vanguard Portfolio Management | Malvern, PA | $2,656.5 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/21/2026 |
| 9 | Goldman Sachs Asset Management | New York, NY | $2,648.9 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/25/2026 |
| 10 | T. Rowe Price Associates | Baltimore, MD | $2,196.5 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 07/06/2026 |
| 11 | Morgan Stanley | Purchase, NY | $1,961.9 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/28/2026 |
| 12 | Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith | New York, NY | $1,781.6 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 09/24/2026 |
| 13 | Geode Capital Management | Boston, MA | $1,736.5 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 03/31/2026 |
| 14 | Charles Schwab Investment Management | San Francisco, CA | $1,721.0 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 03/30/2026 |
| 15 | BlackRock Financial Management | New York, NY | $1,595.1 billion | SEC Form ADV, filed 08/27/2026 |
This is a list of fund managers. Vanguard, Fidelity, Capital Group, BlackRock, PIMCO, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and T. Rowe Price register their fund advisory businesses as investment advisers, and their regulatory assets are dominated by the mutual funds, ETFs and institutional mandates they manage. Several groups appear more than once because they register more than one adviser, which is exactly why rows from one group cannot be summed.
What the ranking means for technology buyers
The scale on these lists explains the shape of wealth technology. Firms at the top run proprietary platforms and buy components; broker-dealer networks and platform providers buy the systems their advisors work in every day; independent RIAs assemble a stack from specialized vendors.
- Advisor platforms, account opening and portfolio management are compared in the Wealth Management Platforms for Private Banks guide.
- Planning tools are compared in Financial Planning Software for RIAs.
- Reporting to clients is covered in Client Reporting Platforms for Wealth Managers.
- Model portfolio and rebalancing tools, the core of the platform and overlay businesses above, are in Portfolio Rebalancing Tools for RIAs.
- CRM and practice management are covered in CRM for Financial Services and Practice Management Software.
The vendors behind them are listed in the wealth and private banking directory. For the brokerage side of the same firms, see Top Broker-Dealer Firms in the U.S.. For the banks that hold institutional assets in custody, see Largest Custodian Banks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a registered investment adviser? A: A registered investment adviser (RIA) is a firm registered with the SEC or a state securities regulator to provide investment advice for compensation. Advisers owe their clients a fiduciary duty. Larger advisers register with the SEC and file Form ADV, which discloses their business, clients and assets.
Q: What is regulatory assets under management? A: Regulatory assets under management (RAUM) is the measure the SEC requires on Form ADV: the value of securities portfolios for which an adviser provides continuous and regular supervisory or management services. It is calculated under the SEC's instructions, so it can differ from the client assets a firm reports elsewhere.
Q: Why do some firms appear more than once? A: Each row is a separately registered adviser. Large financial groups register several advisers, for example a fund adviser and a wealth-management affiliate, and their reported assets can overlap. Rows from the same group should not be added together.
Q: Where does this data come from, and how often is it updated? A: From the SEC's monthly dataset of registered investment advisers, compiled from each adviser's most recent Form ADV filing. Advisers update Form ADV at least once a year, so this page will be refreshed from newer SEC files.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a registered investment adviser?
A registered investment adviser (RIA) is a firm registered with the SEC or a state securities regulator to provide investment advice for compensation. Advisers owe their clients a fiduciary duty. Larger advisers register with the SEC and file Form ADV, which discloses their business, clients and assets.
What is regulatory assets under management?
Regulatory assets under management (RAUM) is the measure the SEC requires on Form ADV: the value of securities portfolios for which an adviser provides continuous and regular supervisory or management services. It is calculated under the SEC's instructions, so it can differ from the client assets a firm reports elsewhere.
Why do some firms appear more than once?
Each row is a separately registered adviser. Large financial groups register several advisers, for example a fund adviser and a wealth-management affiliate, and their reported assets can overlap. Rows from the same group should not be added together.
Where does this data come from, and how often is it updated?
From the SEC's monthly dataset of registered investment advisers, compiled from each adviser's most recent Form ADV filing. Advisers update Form ADV at least once a year, so this page will be refreshed from newer SEC files.