Which Custodians Do RIAs Use? Market Share (2024)

Charles Schwab is the custodian SEC-registered advisers name most, by 5,894 advisers or 55% of those that report one to the SEC. With Fidelity and BNY (Pershing and BNY Mellon), three custodians reach 78% of advisers. By the client assets held, BNY (Pershing and BNY Mellon) leads with $5.39 trillion.

Form ADV asks every SEC-registered adviser to name each custodian holding at least 10% of its separately managed account assets, and how much is held there. This count covers 10,668 of 16,850 registered advisers, from filings through December 31, 2024, the latest period the SEC has published in full.

The 20 custodians RIAs name most

Counted by the advisers that name each company, each adviser once per company, with the client assets those advisers report holding there.

Rank	Custodian	Advisers naming it	Share of advisers that report a custodian	Client assets held there
1	Charles Schwab	5,894	55.2%	$4.58 trillion
2	Fidelity	2,389	22.4%	$4.07 trillion
3	BNY (Pershing and BNY Mellon)	1,385	13.0%	$5.39 trillion
4	Northern Trust	525	4.9%	$2.01 trillion
5	J.P. Morgan	509	4.8%	$2.61 trillion
6	State Street	499	4.7%	$2.59 trillion
7	LPL Financial	348	3.3%	$260 billion
8	Raymond James	310	2.9%	$702 billion
9	Interactive Brokers	307	2.9%	$27.3 billion
10	Morgan Stanley	275	2.6%	$1.51 trillion
11	U.S. Bank	250	2.3%	$688 billion
12	Wells Fargo	204	1.9%	$241 billion
13	Goldman Sachs	200	1.9%	$403 billion
14	SEI	169	1.6%	$120 billion
15	UBS	156	1.5%	$271 billion
16	RBC	156	1.5%	$165 billion
17	Citi	148	1.4%	$1.03 trillion
18	Merrill / Bank of America	147	1.4%	$2.10 trillion
19	Axos	89	0.8%	$23.8 billion
20	Altruist	78	0.7%	$3.6 billion

Download this table (CSV), free, with every filed name grouped under each custodian. The full dataset, every adviser with its custodians and the amounts held, is one email away.

Reach and weight are different things

• The count of advisers measures a custodian's reach among firms; the assets measure its weight. A custodian serving a few very large institutional managers can hold more than one serving thousands of small advisers.
• The 10,668 advisers report $34.05 trillion held with custodians to the SEC in all, across 1,096 custodian companies.
• An adviser names a custodian only when it holds at least 10% of the adviser's separately managed account assets, so small relationships are not in the count.

What this means for technology buyers

An RIA's custodian sets the data feeds its other systems run on. These guides compare the tools that sit on top:

• Portfolio rebalancing tools for RIAs: trading across custodian accounts.
• Robo-advisory platforms: digital advice built on a custodian's rails.
• Estate planning software: advice that draws on custodial data.
• Proposal and RFP response management: winning clients who bring assets to move.

Planning a custodian change? The Wealth Management Business Architecture Toolkit maps the capabilities and data a transition touches.

More from Finantrix Atlas

• Fastest-growing RIAs
• Largest registered investment advisers, ranked by assets
• Largest custodian banks, ranked by assets under custody

How this was counted

This page takes each SEC-registered adviser's latest filing up to December 31, 2024, leaves out advisers whose latest filing is more than fifteen months older, and counts every custodian listed in Schedule D, Section 5.K.(3), grouped by company. Each adviser is counted once per company; the amounts are as the adviser reports them.

Limits

• As of the SEC's latest full release. The SEC publishes Form ADV filing data in periods; the latest runs through December 31, 2024, so custodian changes since then are not reflected.
• Separately managed accounts only. The question covers assets in separately managed accounts, not pooled funds, and only custodians above the 10% line.
• All registered advisers. Wealth managers and institutional managers are counted together; the amounts show where the large institutional relationships sit.
• Grouping is a judgment. The filed names under each company are in the free table, so any grouping can be checked or redone.

Cite this

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

55% of SEC-registered advisers that report a custodian name Charles Schwab, according to a Finantrix Atlas analysis of Form ADV filings through December 31, 2024.

Suggested citation: Finantrix Atlas, "Which Custodians Do RIAs Use?", from SEC Form ADV filings through December 31, 2024. https://www.finantrix.com/articles/ria-custodians-market-share

Embed the chart:

<a href="https://www.finantrix.com/articles/ria-custodians-market-share"><img src="https://www.finantrix.com/atlas/ria-custodians-market-share.png" alt="RIA custodians by number of advisers, from Finantrix Atlas"></a>
<p>Chart: <a href="https://www.finantrix.com/articles/ria-custodians-market-share">Finantrix Atlas</a>, from SEC Form ADV data.</p>

Frequently asked questions

Q: Which custodian do the most RIAs use? A: Charles Schwab, named by 5,894 SEC-registered advisers on Form ADV, 55% of those that report a custodian.

Q: Which custodian holds the most RIA client assets? A: By the amounts advisers report on Form ADV, BNY (Pershing and BNY Mellon), with $5.39 trillion.