The 5 Largest Broker-Dealers Overview
Main Discoveries:
• Judged by published customer and relationship figures,
Fidelity Investments is at the top of this group.
• Although Robinhood is a newer entrant into the brokerage industry, it still lands in the
top 5.
• Many brokerage firms now have
tens of millions of customer accounts, investors, or client relationships.
If you’re looking for a large brokerage firm to help you with your trading, here is the top 5
broker-dealers in the United States:
Fidelity Investments
First on our list is the giant Fidelity Investments. This investment firm has over
52 million individual customers, making it the largest broker-dealer on our list. This huge number reflects both retail and workplace relationships. Because the company has large operations in employer-sponsored savings plans like 401(k) accounts, the real number of accounts is even higher. At the same time, some clients maintain multiple accounts; even so, the customer base is clearly in the tens of millions.
In terms of assets under administration (AUA), Fidelity delivers another gigantic number: more than
$18 trillion. AUA reflects assets in both brokerage and
investment-advisory programs. For discretionary programs where Fidelity has trading authority, the number is a smaller managed-assets figure, although it is still enormous.
Every market day, Fidelity’s customers now place about
4.4 million daily average trades.
This is another very large figure, making the investment firm one of the biggest players in the industry.
Learn more in
Fidelity Reviews.
Vanguard
A close second on our list is Vanguard, which has around
50 million investors. As with Fidelity, there are many investment programs at Vanguard, so the actual number of underlying accounts is likely even higher. For example, Vanguard has workplace plans and international operations that add even more reach.
In terms of total client assets, Vanguard comes in at roughly
$12 trillion, making it one of the largest firms anywhere. Managing all of these accounts and assets is a global workforce of about 20,000 people, which is another sizable figure.
Learn more in
Vanguard review.
Charles Schwab
Third on our list is Charles Schwab. In its purchase of TD Ameritrade in 2020, it acquired roughly
14.5 million client accounts, which were worth nearly
$1.6 trillion.
Today, Schwab has
38.9 million brokerage accounts, making it a formidable competitor with the other two we have just looked at. The
38.9 million figure includes active brokerage accounts. Then there are workplace plan participant accounts that Schwab oversees. These are accounts such as 401(k) accounts. Schwab has
5.7 million of these.
Schwab also operates Schwab Bank. In this unit of the company, we find another
2.2 million accounts; this number is composed of both checking and savings accounts.
In total, we see a figure of around
47 million accounts, which puts Schwab very near the top of our list.
Schwab’s brokerage customers place an average of
8.3 million trades every market day, a figure that
exceeds the one we found for Fidelity.
In terms of total client assets, Schwab has
$12.2 trillion in its treasure chest at last count. This figure includes bank deposits, investment accounts (brokerage and managed), and workplace plan assets. It also includes Schwab mutual funds and ETFs.
Learn more in
Charles Schwab review.
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Robinhood
Robinhood doesn’t operate a traditional bank or manage its own family of mutual funds and ETFs. It does have
27.4 million funded brokerage customers, though. This impressive figure places the company in fourth place on our list. Because Robinhood only launched in 2013, that still represents very fast growth.
Robinhood’s
27.4 million funded customers make up
roughly
$314 billion in platform assets. Robinhood is continuing to expand rapidly.
For example, recent monthly data show very heavy activity on the platform. In the latest figures, Robinhood reported average daily equity trading volume of
$10.2 billion, average daily options volume of
9.5 million contracts, and average daily crypto trading volume of
$893 million.
Learn more in
Robinhood review.
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Morgan Stanley
Rounding out our top 5 is Morgan Stanley with
over 19 million relationships in Wealth Management.
These clients use both advised and self-directed channels, including E*TRADE. At the end of 2024, the company had
$6.2 trillion in Wealth Management client assets. Across Wealth and Investment Management together, the total figure reached
$7.9 trillion.
Learn more in
Morgan Stanley review.
Honorable Mention
-
Kraken is a crypto-stock brokerage firm with operations in both industries. At last count, the
company had over 15 million accounts. This number is composed mostly of crypto accounts as its securities business is rather new.
-
Coinbase is a crypto-only broker with 120 million self-directed accounts.
-
Edward Jones serves more than
9 million clients. The firm has over
$2.5 trillion in client assets under care and remains one of the largest traditional wealth-management businesses in North America.
Edward Jones has more than
20,000 financial advisors, a total workforce of about
55,000 people, and nearly
15,000 locations in North America. These figures make it clear just how large this traditional investment firm still is, even though it no longer cracks the top 5 on this list.
Updated on 4/14/2026.