SEC-Registered RIAs with the Most Individual Clients (2026)

Acorns reports 8.2 million individual clients, more than twice as many as Edward Jones, the next SEC-registered adviser, and about $1,640 of regulatory assets for each of them, against $246,730 per individual client at Edward Jones, according to SEC Form ADV data. Among the 50 advisers with the most individual clients, regulatory assets per individual client range from $20 at MoneyLion to $2 million at Parametric Portfolio Associates. One of the 50 reports no regulatory assets for individual clients at all and is left out of that range.

This ranking covers all 17,142 SEC-registered investment advisers in the SEC's Form ADV data published for September 1, 2026, of which 10,601 give a number of individual clients. A client count on Form ADV is each firm's own: SEC staff guidance lets a firm count a family as one client or several, so the table compares what firms report, not a census of people.

The 50 SEC-registered advisers with the most individual clients

Ranked by the number of individual clients each adviser reports on Form ADV: individuals other than high net worth individuals, type (a), plus high net worth individuals, type (b), in Item 5.D.(1). "All clients" adds every client type the adviser lists, including funds, plans, charities and businesses. "Regulatory assets per individual client" divides the regulatory assets the adviser attributes to individual clients by their number.

Rank	Adviser	Headquarters	Individual clients	Of which high net worth	All clients	Regulatory assets per individual client	Wrap fee program	Source
1	Acorns	Irvine, CA	8,158,329	21	8,158,329	$1,640	Yes	SEC
2	Edward Jones	St. Louis, MO	4,030,222	372,771	4,069,320	$246,730	Yes	SEC
3	Morgan Stanley	Purchase, NY	2,644,338	43,631	2,703,720	$670,480	Yes	SEC
4	Strategic Advisers LLC	Boston, MA	2,390,975	736,141	2,401,763	$234,790	Yes	SEC
5	Envestnet PMC	Berwyn, PA	2,219,224	93,557	2,241,364	$260,810	Yes	SEC
6	LPL Financial LLC	Fort Mill, SC	1,962,908	671,511	1,986,990	$399,490	Yes	SEC
7	Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated	New York, NY	1,791,731	521,763	1,838,984	$860,090	Yes	SEC
8	Managed Account Advisors LLC	Jersey City, NJ	1,413,581	373,481	1,446,258	$635,750	Yes	SEC
9	Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC	Minneapolis, MN	1,373,063	183,925	1,386,329	$471,170	Yes	SEC
10	Wells Fargo Advisors (Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC)	St. Louis, MO	1,298,616	654,519	1,324,168	$475,580	Yes	SEC
11	J.P. Morgan Private Investments Inc.	New York, NY	1,262,641	299,091	1,278,255	$245,060	Yes	SEC
12	J.P. Morgan Securities LLC	New York, NY	1,234,172	356,866	1,246,646	$318,380	Yes	SEC
13	Stash	New York, NY	1,138,270	none reported	1,138,270	$4,320	Yes	SEC
14	UBS Financial Services Inc.	Weehawken, NJ	1,098,059	853,775	1,144,588	$693,690	Yes	SEC
15	Betterment	New York, NY	1,016,879	24,685	1,022,488	$62,690	Yes	SEC
16	Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc.	San Francisco, CA	852,332	154,404	856,597	$252,720	Yes	SEC
17	Cetera Investment Advisers LLC	Schaumburg, IL	801,652	79,279	813,961	$306,090	Yes	SEC
18	Human Interest Advisors LLC	San Francisco, CA	793,057	184	831,446	$10,220	No	SEC
19	Vanguard Advisers, Inc.	Malvern, PA	791,495	80,159	791,528	$416,080	No	SEC
20	MoneyLion	New York, NY	732,776	none reported	732,776	$20	No	SEC
21	Osaic Wealth, Inc.	Scottsdale, AZ	569,367	55,457	575,512	$398,340	Yes	SEC
22	Wealthfront Advisers LLC	Palo Alto, CA	518,600	12,784	518,639	$91,470	Yes	SEC
23	Morningstar Investment Management LLC	Chicago, IL	515,959	3,271	515,981	$76,690	No	SEC
24	Raymond James & Associates, Inc.	St. Petersburg, FL	513,125	99,598	531,617	$788,880	Yes	SEC
25	Raymond James Financial Services Advisors, Inc.	Saint Petersburg, FL	493,979	91,402	508,439	$700,800	Yes	SEC
26	Edelman Financial Engines	Santa Clara, CA	477,170	45,656	1,244,406	$375,510	Yes	SEC
27	Wells Fargo Advisors (Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC)	St. Louis, MO	455,837	233,869	466,575	$514,330	Yes	SEC
28	MML Investors Services, LLC	Springfield, MA	448,837	885	454,836	$249,380	Yes	SEC
29	AssetMark, Inc.	Concord, CA	448,019	11,731	456,452	$189,310	Yes	SEC
30	UBS Asset Management (Americas) LLC	New York, NY	415,328	88,963	433,784	$484,190	Yes	SEC
31	Fundrise Advisors, LLC	Washington, DC	402,927	none reported	402,942	no regulatory assets reported	No	SEC
32	Commonwealth Financial Network	Waltham, MA	355,973	41,874	360,488	$568,320	Yes	SEC
33	Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc.	Fairfield, IA	355,872	47,431	361,213	$378,280	Yes	SEC
34	Empower Advisory Group, LLC	Greenwood Village, CO	293,347	20,524	297,074	$565,060	Yes	SEC
35	VALIC Financial Advisors, Inc.	Houston, TX	292,989	1,913	293,026	$99,680	Yes	SEC
36	RBC Capital Markets, LLC	New York, NY	275,938	12,350	283,910	$1 million	Yes	SEC
37	SoFi Wealth LLC	San Francisco, CA	254,020	20	254,020	$8,060	Yes	SEC
38	Robinhood Asset Management	Menlo Park, CA	252,664	0	252,664	$6,010	No	SEC
39	Nationwide Investment Advisors, LLC	Columbus, OH	251,200	0	251,223	$66,480	No	SEC
40	Janney Montgomery Scott LLC	Philadelphia, PA	239,764	100,743	243,808	$406,740	Yes	SEC
41	Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated	Milwaukee, WI	236,131	82,420	241,359	$713,010	Yes	SEC
42	Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated	St Louis, MO	230,676	73,687	236,191	$773,560	Yes	SEC
43	Parametric Portfolio Associates	Seattle, WA	229,927	78,745	240,290	$2 million	Yes	SEC
44	Transamerica Retirement Advisors, LLC	Cedar Rapids, IA	212,700	none reported	212,722	$82,020	No	SEC
45	Albert Investments, LLC	Santa Barbara, CA	209,650 *	fewer than 5	209,650	$110	Yes	SEC
46	Fisher Investments	Plano, TX	199,061	125,844	199,922	$2 million	No	SEC
47	Alight Financial Advisors, LLC	Charlotte, NC	195,957	none reported	195,957	$178,890	Yes	SEC
48	Orion Portfolio Solutions, LLC	Omaha, NE	185,377	19,151	187,975	$209,900	Yes	SEC
49	HealthEquity Advisors	Draper, UT	178,476 *	fewer than 5	178,476	$11,180	No	SEC
50	Franklin Templeton Private Portfolio Group, LLC	New York, NY	175,905	920	179,738	$447,960	Yes	SEC

• The adviser checked "fewer than 5 clients" for one individual type instead of giving a number, so its count may be up to four higher; that cannot change its place in the table.

Download this table (CSV), free. The full dataset, every SEC-registered adviser with its client counts for all 14 client types, is one email away.

What a client count measures on Form ADV

The count is the firm's own unit. The SEC's Form ADV FAQ tells advisers to "count clients the way you normally count them for your firm": some treat the members of a family and a family trust as one client and others as several, and an individual and her IRA can be one client or two. The same guidance makes the count wider than a reader might expect in two ways:

• Wrap fee programs: each participant in a wrap fee program to whom an adviser provided advice counts as a client. According to SEC data, 40 of the 50 advisers in the table take part in a wrap fee program (Item 5.I.(1)).
• Clients without assets under management: clients who receive advice but whose assets the firm does not manage belong in the count, so a planning or advice-only relationship counts as much as a portfolio the firm runs. That is one reason regulatory assets per client vary so widely in the table.

Two more consequences follow. The same person can be the client of several advisers, for example a sponsor and a portfolio manager in one program, so the 61.0 million individual clients the advisers report cannot be added up into a number of people. And according to SEC data, half of those reported individual clients are at the largest 13 advisers; the median adviser that reports any individual clients reports 226.

What this means for technology buyers

A firm's client count, more than its assets, sets the load on the systems that touch each client: onboarding, the client record, portals, statements and the plan itself. A firm with millions of small accounts and a firm with far fewer, larger relationships need different software. These guides compare the options side by side:

• CRM for financial services: the client record, from a household view to millions of accounts.
• Robo-advisory platforms: automated advice for a large client base with small balances.
• Portfolio rebalancing tools for RIAs: keeping many accounts on model at once.
• Estate planning software: for the high net worth relationships at the other end of the table.

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

• 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, so exempt reporting advisers do not 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.

Individual clients are the sum of Item 5.D.(1) for types (a) and (b). The form defines "individuals" to include trusts, estates, and 401(k) plans and IRAs of individuals and their family members, but not businesses organized as sole proprietorships, and tells an adviser to put a client that fits several types in the one that fits best. An adviser with fewer than five clients of a type may check Item 5.D.(2) instead of giving a number. Such a type is treated as unknown, never as zero; 291 advisers check that box for individuals and give no number; they are not ranked, because the box means at most four clients of the type.

The form requires the regulatory assets an adviser attributes to each client type in Item 5.D.(3) to add up to its total in Item 5.F.(2)(c). For every adviser in the table they do, which shows the client-type columns were read in the right places; across the file, 16,491 of 16,491 advisers with regulatory assets balance to within one percent. One of the 50 reports more clients with no regulatory assets in Item 5.C.(1) than clients of every type in Item 5.D, although the SEC's staff asks for those clients in both; the ranking uses Item 5.D as filed. There is no second publisher of client counts.

Limits

• SEC-registered advisers only. State-registered advisers, which are generally below the SEC's registration threshold, and exempt reporting advisers are not ranked. Broker-dealer accounts that are not advisory accounts are not in these counts.
• Each firm counts its own way. A household at one firm can be several clients at another, so a difference in rank can reflect counting as much as size. The form asks for an approximate number.
• A client can be counted twice. The same person can be a client of a sponsor and of a portfolio manager, or of two unrelated firms, so counts cannot be added into a number of people.
• The count is as of the latest annual amendment. Advisers need not update Item 5 between annual amendments, so a count can be up to a year older than the September 1, 2026 file date.
• Clients, not assets. A firm can rank high with small accounts. The assets-per-client column shows the difference, and it includes clients with no regulatory assets in its count.

Cite this

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

Acorns reports 8.2 million individual clients on Form ADV, the most of any SEC-registered investment adviser, according to a Finantrix Atlas analysis of SEC data for September 1, 2026.

Among the 50 SEC-registered advisers with the most individual clients, regulatory assets per individual client range from $20 to $2 million, according to Finantrix Atlas analysis of SEC Form ADV data.

Suggested citation: Finantrix Atlas, "SEC-Registered RIAs with the Most Individual Clients," data as of September 1, 2026, from SEC Form ADV data. https://www.finantrix.com/articles/rias-by-number-of-clients

Embed the chart:

<a href="https://www.finantrix.com/articles/rias-by-number-of-clients"><img src="https://www.finantrix.com/atlas/rias-by-number-of-clients.png" alt="The SEC-registered investment advisers with the most individual clients, from Finantrix Atlas"></a>
<p>Chart: <a href="https://www.finantrix.com/articles/rias-by-number-of-clients">Finantrix Atlas</a>, from SEC Form ADV data.</p>

Frequently asked questions

Q: Which RIA has the most clients? A: Counting individual clients, Acorns, with 8.2 million reported on Form ADV, according to SEC data for September 1, 2026. Edward Jones is next, with 4.0 million, according to SEC data. Acorns also reports the most clients of all types, 8.2 million, according to SEC data.

Q: How do RIAs count clients on Form ADV? A: In their own way, under SEC staff guidance: a family can be one client or several, an individual and an IRA one client or two, and each wrap fee program participant counts as a client. Clients with no assets under management are included.

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 or a qualified purchaser. Individual clients in this ranking include both high net worth and other individuals.

Q: Why do regulatory assets per client vary so much? A: The advisers in the table serve very different clients, and clients who receive advice with no assets under management still count as clients. According to SEC data, the range among the 50 in the table is $20 to $2 million per individual client.