Investment Advisor Industry Grows for 9th Consecutive Year 

In 2020, 92% of industry assets were managed by firms with more than $5 billion in assets under management, with almost two-thirds managed by the 185 largest firms.

Nearly all RIAs offer clients a fee based on a client's assets under management, generally in combination with other fee types, according to the report. While asset-based fees have become more common over the past 20 years, commissions have become less common. 

Advisors have also become significantly more likely to offer performance fees and fixed fees. 

In 2020, employment in the investment advisor industry reached a record high of 879,755 non-clerical staff, with employment growth strongest in firms with more than $100 billion in assets.

Growth in the number of investment advisors has been strongest in the South and the West, the report said. In the pandemic year, advisors were less likely to be located in traditional financial centers.

"Advisory services are increasingly viewed as an indispensable and ubiquitous necessity for financial well-being for ever-greater portions of the population, the demand for which has been less sensitive to economic cycles than many other services," John Gebauer, president of National Regulatory Services, said in the statement. 

"If this pattern continues to hold, the industry will experience continued and robust growth, further demonstrating its crucial role in the lives of investors."