15 RIAs With the Biggest Accounts: 2023

The financial advisory industry comprises a wide range of companies that serve a variety of clients. Some firms are huge networks of advisors, managing hundreds of billions in client assets; others are boutique outfits built by a small group of advisors. Advisory firms are often grouped and ranked according to their total assets under management. In a report released Friday, SmartAsset took a different tack, ranking some 5,800 firms registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission by their average account balances. According to the report, the average account balance is more than $2.7 million for all types of accounts, including those of large institutional clients. The median account balance is $386,646. The study considered regulatory assets under management in discretionary and non-discretionary accounts. Account types include individual trusts, estates, 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts, but not business organizations. Researchers included firms if they were headquartered in the United States, offer financial planning services, have reported regulatory assets under management and monitor securities portfolios. They excluded ones that had any disclosures on their Form ADV, or if they were headquartered from their personal residence. See the accompanying gallery for the 15 financial advisory firms with the largest average regulatory AUM per account, according to SmartAsset.