Largest Wealth Managers by HNW Advisory Assets (2026)

According to SEC Form ADV data, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith reports $1.23 trillion of regulatory assets under management for high-net-worth individuals, 72% more than UBS Financial Services, the next SEC-registered adviser. Managed Account Advisors is third. According to SEC data, 31 advisers each report more than $100 billion for high-net-worth clients, and for 29 of the 50 largest, those clients hold more than half of the firm's regulatory assets.

This ranking covers all 17,142 SEC-registered investment advisers in the SEC's Form ADV data published for September 1, 2026, of which 10,304 report regulatory assets for high-net-worth individuals. It measures advisory assets only: brokerage accounts that are not advisory accounts, and bank trust assets outside a registered adviser, are not in it.

The 50 largest wealth managers by high-net-worth advisory assets

Ranked by the regulatory assets under management each adviser attributes to high net worth individuals, type (b) in Item 5.D.(3) of Form ADV. "Share of adviser's regulatory assets" divides that amount by the adviser's total in Item 5.F.(2)(c). "Assets per high-net-worth client" divides it by the number of high-net-worth clients the adviser reports in Item 5.D.(1), which each firm counts its own way.

Rank	Adviser	Headquarters	High-net-worth regulatory assets	Share of adviser's regulatory assets	High-net-worth clients	Assets per high-net-worth client	Source
1	Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated	New York, NY	$1.23 trillion	69%	521,763	$2.4 million	SEC
2	UBS Financial Services Inc.	Weehawken, NJ	$715 billion	78%	853,775	$837,000	SEC
3	Managed Account Advisors LLC	Jersey City, NJ	$649 billion	65%	373,481	$1.7 million	SEC
4	LPL Financial LLC	Fort Mill, SC	$553 billion	67%	671,511	$823,000	SEC
5	Morgan Stanley	Purchase, NY	$528 billion	27%	43,631	$12.1 million	SEC
6	Wells Fargo Advisors (Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC)	St. Louis, MO	$495 billion	74%	654,519	$756,000	SEC
7	Strategic Advisers LLC	Boston, MA	$397 billion	29%	736,141	$539,000	SEC
8	Edward Jones	St. Louis, MO	$381 billion	38%	372,771	$1.0 million	SEC
9	Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC	Minneapolis, MN	$368 billion	56%	183,925	$2.0 million	SEC
10	Goldman Sachs Asset Management, L.P.	New York, NY	$335 billion	13%	33,593	$10.0 million	SEC
11	Parametric Portfolio Associates †	Seattle, WA	$319 billion	47%	78,745	$4.0 million	SEC
12	Raymond James & Associates, Inc.	St. Petersburg, FL	$289 billion	58%	99,598	$2.9 million	SEC
13	Fisher Investments	Plano, TX	$283 billion	73%	125,844	$2.2 million	SEC
14	J.P. Morgan Securities LLC	New York, NY	$251 billion	58%	356,866	$704,000	SEC
15	Raymond James Financial Services Advisors, Inc.	Saint Petersburg, FL	$231 billion	59%	91,402	$2.5 million	SEC
16	Envestnet PMC †	Berwyn, PA	$191 billion	31%	93,557	$2.0 million	SEC
17	Wells Fargo Advisors (Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC)	St. Louis, MO	$183 billion	73%	233,869	$783,000	SEC
18	Vanguard Advisers, Inc.	Malvern, PA	$165 billion	48%	80,159	$2.1 million	SEC
19	Creative Planning	Overland Park, KS	$164 billion	56%	39,511	$4.2 million	SEC
20	J.P. Morgan Private Investments Inc. †	New York, NY	$159 billion	34%	299,091	$532,000	SEC
21	Hightower Advisors, LLC	Chicago, IL	$157 billion	79%	29,177	$5.4 million	SEC
22	Corient	Miami, FL	$155 billion	94%	19,571	$7.9 million	SEC
23	Focus Partners Wealth, LLC	St. Louis, MO	$143 billion	78%	30,177	$4.7 million	SEC
24	Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated	St Louis, MO	$137 billion	70%	73,687	$1.9 million	SEC
25	Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated	Milwaukee, WI	$135 billion	34%	82,420	$1.6 million	SEC
26	Osaic Wealth, Inc.	Scottsdale, AZ	$113 billion	48%	55,457	$2.0 million	SEC
27	Commonwealth Financial Network	Waltham, MA	$109 billion	51%	41,874	$2.6 million	SEC
28	Cerity Partners LLC	New York, NY	$107 billion	66%	14,561	$7.4 million	SEC
29	Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc.	San Francisco, CA	$107 billion	6%	154,404	$693,000	SEC
30	UBS Asset Management (Americas) LLC †	New York, NY	$105 billion	18%	88,963	$1.2 million	SEC
31	Mariner	Overland Park, KS	$105 billion	84%	22,322	$4.7 million	SEC
32	RBC Capital Markets, LLC	New York, NY	$98.5 billion	32%	12,350	$8.0 million	SEC
33	Aperio Group, LLC	Sausalito, CA	$95.1 billion	63%	25,295	$3.8 million	SEC
34	Northern Trust Investments, Incorporated	Chicago, IL	$94.5 billion	8%	15,055	$6.3 million	SEC
35	Pathstone	Englewood, NJ	$91.0 billion	83%	1,834	$49.6 million	SEC
36	CAPTRUST	Raleigh, NC	$89.4 billion	7%	18,154	$4.9 million	SEC
37	Cambridge Associates, LLC	Boston, MA	$87.1 billion	27%	213	$409 million	SEC
38	Edelman Financial Engines	Santa Clara, CA	$86.5 billion	27%	45,656	$1.9 million	SEC
39	AllianceBernstein L.P.	Nashville, TN	$77.3 billion	10%	25,513	$3.0 million	SEC
40	Janney Montgomery Scott LLC	Philadelphia, PA	$76.5 billion	69%	100,743	$759,000	SEC
41	Natixis Advisors, LLC	Boston, MA	$72.6 billion	67%	54,818	$1.3 million	SEC
42	Mercer Global Advisors Inc.	Denver, CO	$70.5 billion	84%	18,398	$3.8 million	SEC
43	Cetera Investment Advisers LLC †	Schaumburg, IL	$69.8 billion	27%	79,279	$881,000	SEC
44	Cresset Asset Management, LLC	Chicago, IL	$69.8 billion	88%	3,667	$19.0 million	SEC
45	Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc.	Fairfield, IA	$69.6 billion	50%	47,431	$1.5 million	SEC
46	Rockefeller Capital Management	New York, NY	$69.4 billion	70%	15,255	$4.5 million	SEC
47	Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC	New York, NY	$63.0 billion	16%	15,676	$4.0 million	SEC
48	Quantinno Capital Management LP	New York, NY	$60.1 billion	99%	8,263	$7.3 million	SEC
49	Rathbones	Liverpool, United Kingdom	$56.9 billion	42%	20,366	$2.8 million	SEC
50	IEQ Capital, LLC	Foster City, CA	$56.5 billion	100%	2,300	$24.6 million	SEC

† Five of the 50 manage at least 25% of their regulatory assets as portfolio manager in a wrap fee program (Item 5.I.(2)(b) of Form ADV), so a program sponsor can report some of the same accounts, according to SEC data.

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What counts as a high-net-worth client on Form ADV

The Form ADV glossary defines a high net worth individual as an individual who is a "qualified client", as Rule 205-3 under the Advisers Act defines one, or a "qualified purchaser" as defined in section 2(a)(51)(A) of the Investment Company Act of 1940. Both are tests of the assets a client has with the adviser or of the client's net worth or investments, set by SEC rule and by statute, not a threshold each firm chooses. The form tells an adviser to put a client that fits several types in the one that fits best, so that no client or asset is counted twice within the firm, and the amounts by type must add up to the firm's total.

Three things follow for reading the table:

• Trusts and accounts of the individual count. The form's "individuals" include trusts, estates, and IRAs and other retirement accounts of individuals and their relatives, so a household's accounts can sit in this type.
• The share varies widely. Among the 50 advisers in the table it runs from 6% to 100%, and the median attributes 57% of its regulatory assets to high-net-worth individuals, according to SEC data; the rest is other individuals, funds, plans and institutions.
• Assets per client can reflect counting as much as wealth. A firm can count a household as one client or several. Regulatory assets per high-net-worth client in the table run, according to SEC data, from $409 million at Cambridge Associates down to $532,000 at J.P. Morgan Private Investments.

What this means for technology buyers

A firm with most of its assets in high-net-worth relationships buys for depth per client: consolidated reporting across entities and custodians, planning across generations, and service that a private bank would recognize. These guides compare the options side by side:

• Private banking solutions for affluent clients: the client platform for a high-net-worth book.
• Goal-based planning tools: plans built around a household's goals rather than a portfolio.
• Estate planning software: trusts, entities and the transfer of wealth.
• Portfolio management for private investment offices: consolidating many entities and asset types into one view.

Planning the change before choosing the vendor? The Wealth Management Business Capabilities Model maps the work of a wealth firm, from client onboarding to reporting.

More from Finantrix Atlas

• SEC-registered RIAs with the most individual clients, the same filings ranked by clients rather than assets
• Largest RIAs in each state
• Fastest-growing RIAs
• RIA custodians by market share

How this list was built

The universe is every adviser in the SEC's monthly file of registered investment advisers for September 1, 2026, published October 2, 2026. Item 5 of Form ADV Part 1A is completed only by registered advisers: exempt reporting advisers complete only Items 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 and 11, according to the Form ADV instructions, so they cannot appear, and state-registered advisers are not in the file. 68 advisers whose latest Form ADV filing is more than fifteen months older than the file are left out, because they have missed an annual amendment and their figures describe the firm as it was; the largest by the assets it still lists, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, last filed in January 2008, according to SEC data.

The measure is Item 5.D.(3) for type (b), as filed. The form requires the amounts an adviser attributes to each client type to add up to its regulatory assets in Item 5.F.(2)(c). For every adviser in the table they do, which shows the type (b) column was read where it is; across the file, 16,491 of 16,491 advisers with regulatory assets balance to within one percent. According to SEC data, 191 advisers report high-net-worth assets without a number of high-net-worth clients, and 41 report high-net-worth clients with no assets attributed to them; in the table a missing count is shown as not published rather than as zero.

Each adviser is ranked as filed, under its own CRD number. Affiliated advisers are not added together, because the same assets can be reported by more than one of them. There is no second publisher of these figures.

Limits

• SEC-registered advisers only. State-registered advisers and exempt reporting advisers are not ranked. Brokerage accounts that are not advisory accounts, and assets a bank holds in trust outside a registered adviser, are not in the measure, so a wealth manager's whole business can be larger than its figure here.
• The same assets can appear twice. A wrap fee program's sponsor and its portfolio manager, or an adviser and its sub-adviser, can each report the same assets, including advisers in the same group. The figures cannot be added into a market total.
• The adviser classes the client. Each firm decides which clients meet the high-net-worth test and places each client in one type, so a difference in rank can reflect classification as well as size.
• The figures are as of the latest annual amendment. Advisers need not update Item 5 between annual amendments, so a figure can be up to a year older than the September 1, 2026 file date.

Cite this

Free to quote, cite and republish, including the chart, with credit to Finantrix Atlas and a link to this page.

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith reports $1.23 trillion of regulatory assets under management for high-net-worth individuals, the most of any SEC-registered investment adviser, according to a Finantrix Atlas analysis of SEC Form ADV data for September 1, 2026.

31 SEC-registered advisers each report more than $100 billion of regulatory assets for high-net-worth individuals, according to a Finantrix Atlas analysis of SEC data.

Suggested citation: Finantrix Atlas, "Largest Wealth Managers by HNW Advisory Assets," data as of September 1, 2026, from SEC Form ADV data. https://www.finantrix.com/articles/largest-wealth-managers-by-hnw-assets

Embed the chart:

<a href="https://www.finantrix.com/articles/largest-wealth-managers-by-hnw-assets"><img src="https://www.finantrix.com/atlas/largest-wealth-managers-by-hnw-assets.png" alt="The wealth managers with the most high-net-worth advisory assets, from Finantrix Atlas"></a>
<p>Chart: <a href="https://www.finantrix.com/articles/largest-wealth-managers-by-hnw-assets">Finantrix Atlas</a>, from SEC Form ADV data.</p>

Frequently asked questions

Q: Which wealth manager has the most high-net-worth assets? A: Among SEC-registered investment advisers, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, with $1.23 trillion of regulatory assets under management for high-net-worth individuals on Form ADV, according to SEC data for September 1, 2026. UBS Financial Services is next, with $715 billion, according to SEC data.

Q: What is a high-net-worth individual on Form ADV? A: The SEC's Form ADV glossary defines one as an individual who is a qualified client under Rule 205-3 or a qualified purchaser under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Each adviser applies the definition to its own clients.

Q: Can these figures be added up? A: No. The same assets can be reported by two advisers, such as a wrap program's sponsor and its portfolio manager, so a sum across firms would count some assets twice.

Q: Why do assets per high-net-worth client differ so much? A: Firms count clients their own way: a household can be one client or several. According to SEC data, the range among the 50 advisers in the table is $532,000 to $409 million per high-net-worth client.