largest brokerage firms 2025

The Largest Brokerage Firms in 2025


The largest brokerage firms in the U.S. and the world. Top 10 brokerage firms for retail stock investors.


The Largest Brokerage Firms


Our 2025 list of the largest brokerage firms in the United States by the number of accounts and client assets includes some well-known names like Charles Schwab as well as lesser-known names like Webull. Regardless of how they made the list, these brokers are popular, large, and growing.

For sheer size, we can look at the ‘Club of Five.’ This short list of the largest US brokerage firms includes companies with massive amounts of assets. These firms are Charles Schwab, Vanguard, Fidelity Investments, Robinhood, and Morgan Stanley. This group has changed a bit in recent years, especially at the bottom. As market prices fluctuate and customers come and go, the calculation of client assets changes. The figures in this article represent the most recent numbers available.

Certainly, the rise of many smaller firms in recent years (brokerages like Webull and Robinhood) has led to some adjustments to the list of largest brokerage firms in 2025 in terms of the number of accounts and client assets. A company can get on our list of largest brokerages in the US by number of accounts, assets under management, growth, or total client assets.

Although the list of the largest brokerage firms here focuses on size and growth, it’s important to point out that sheer size does not guarantee the best investing experience. Smaller investment firms like Firstrade and M1 Finance have been able to attract loyal followings and maintain good track records. Besides size, other factors like cash management, customer service, account types, and investment products offered should be considered when choosing an investment firm.

Without further ado, here’s our list of the largest investment firms in 2025:

Brokerage
Rating
Investing
Commissions
Investments
Offered
Brokerage
Review


Charles Schwab rating

Charles Schwab


Stocks, ETFs: $0

Mutual Funds: $49.95 to buy, $0 to sell

Options: $0.65 per contract
  • Stocks
  • Options
  • Mutual Funds
  • Bonds
  • CDs
  • Annuities
  • ETFs
  • Futures
  • Forex
Charles Schwab
Review


Fidelity Investments rating

Fidelity


Stocks, ETFs: $0

Mutual Funds: $49.95 to buy, $0 to sell

Options: $0.65 per contract
  • Stocks
  • Options
  • Mutual Funds
  • Bonds
  • CDs
  • Annuities
  • ETFs
  • Crypto
Fidelity
Review


Vanguard rating

Vanguard


Stocks, ETFs: $0

Mutual Funds: $20

Options: $1.00 per contract
  • Stocks
  • Options
  • Mutual Funds
  • Bonds
  • CDs
  • ETFs
Vanguard
Review


Robinhood Trading rating

Robinhood


Stocks, ETFs: $0

Mutual Funds: na

Options: $0
  • Stocks
  • Options
  • ETFs
  • Crypto
Robinhood
Review


Etrade rating

E*trade


Stocks, ETFs: $0

Mutual Funds: $0

Options: $0.65 per contract
  • Stocks
  • Options
  • Mutual Funds
  • Bonds
  • Futures
  • ETFs
  • CDs
E*Trade
Review


J.P. Morgan Chase Brokerage Rating

J.P. Morgan Chase


Stocks, ETFs: $0

Mutual Funds: $0

Options: $0
  • Stocks
  • Options
  • Mutual Funds
  • Bonds
  • CDs
  • ETFs
JP Morgan
Review


Merrill Edge rating

Merrill Edge


Stocks, ETFs: $0

Mutual Funds: $19.95

Options: $0.65 per contract
  • Stocks
  • Options
  • Mutual Funds
  • Bonds
  • CDs
  • Annuities
  • ETFs
Merrill Edge
Review


Webull rating

Webull


Stocks, ETFs: $0

Mutual Funds: na

Options: $0
  • Stocks
  • Options
  • ETFs
  • Bonds
  • Futures
Webull
Review


Interactive Brokers rating

Interactive Brokers


Stocks, ETFs: $0

Mutual Funds: $14.95

Options: $0.65 per contract
  • Stocks
  • Options
  • Mutual Funds
  • Bonds
  • Futures
  • Forex
  • ETFs
  • Crypto
Interactive Brokers
Review

Firstrade rating

Firstrade


Stocks, ETFs: $0

Mutual Funds: $0

Options: $0
  • Stocks
  • Options
  • Mutual Funds
  • Bonds
  • CDs
  • ETFs
Firstrade
Review

Charles Schwab


At the first place on our list is the well-known Charles Schwab. In the last report, this company had more than 37 million brokerage accounts and 5 million workplace plan participant accounts. Additionally, there are nearly 2 million deposit accounts through Schwab Bank, another unit of this large financial company.

Schwab started a bit later than Fidelity. Founded by Charles Schwab in 1971 in San Francisco as Commander Industries, Inc., the business was initially focused on securities broking and publishing a newsletter called Schwab Investment Indicator. The brokerage still publishes a quarterly investing periodical called OnInvesting.


biggest brokerage firms in the us


Charles Schwab, the person, remains chairman of the firm today. The headquarters is in Westlake, Texas, with several branch offices in San Francisco and hundreds more throughout the world, mostly in the United States.

One of Schwab’s (the person and the company) notable achievements is lowering fees. Long before Robinhood and the Internet, Schwab started reducing commissions in the late 1970s after the New York Stock Exchange allowed member firms to set their own commissions. Learn more...

Promotion: $0 commissions + satisfaction guarantee at Charles Schwab.

Visit Schwab Website


Fidelity Investments


Next in our list of the largest brokerage firms in the United States is Fidelity Investments, with more than 51.5 million accounts.

Fidelity started in 1943 when Edward C. Johnson II became president of the Fidelity Fund. Since then, Fidelity has grown into one of the largest asset managers globally. Remarkably, it is still a private company, with Edward’s granddaughter Abigail Johnson serving as CEO today.

Fidelity was founded in Boston and remains headquartered there today. Although this New England city is the hub of the company, there are more than 200 Fidelity branch locations throughout the United States and another 13 offices outside the U.S. Fidelity employs more than 68,000 people, highlighting the sheer size of this brokerage firm.


Vanguard


Third on the list is Vanguard. This investing company boasts more than 50 million customers, many of whom are loyal to the firm’s focus on low-cost index investing. This approach was pioneered by the company’s founder John C. Bogle, who started Vanguard in 1974.

Like Fidelity and Charles Schwab, Vanguard manages its own family of exchange-traded and mutual funds. These funds amount to trillions of dollars, showcasing the enormous size of this Pennsylvania-based company. The average expense ratio for Vanguard’s funds is just 8 basis points, reflecting the company’s commitment to low-cost investing.

Vanguard is unique in that it has no branch locations. Despite its online-only presence, it conducts both brokerage and investment-advisory businesses.

Vanguard’s ownership structure is also unique. The company is owned by its 423 funds, which are in turn owned by their shareholders.


J.P. Morgan


Fourth on our list is J.P. Morgan. With millions of customers and trillions of dollars in assets, this large brokerage firm caters to both retail and institutional clients. On the retail side alone, it has roughly $4 trillion in client assets. Its sister company Chase Bank has similar numbers, making JPMorgan Chase & Co. one of the largest financial-services companies in the world. It is headquartered in New York City.


Morgan Stanley/E*Trade


Rounding out the top five is Morgan Stanley with its discount broker E*Trade. Together, these two investment firms have more than $2.7 trillion in client assets through brokerage, investment-advisory, and workplace channels.

E*Trade was acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2020, giving the parent firm a large self-directed operation to complement its wealth management, investment banking, and institutional services. The company is headquartered in Times Square in New York City. Learn more...

Largest Brokerage Firms


Merrill


Next is Merrill. Made up of the traditional firm Merrill Lynch and the online discount firm Merrill Edge, this investing company is owned by Bank of America, creating another huge financial-services company just behind JPMorgan Chase & Co. Merrill Edge has more than 4 million accounts, totaling roughly $320 billion in assets. That’s an average of about $107,000 per account.


Robinhood


Next on our list is Robinhood. The brokerage had slightly more than $221 billion in client assets, which isn’t a huge number compared to other firms in our survey. However, the company has more than 25.8 million accounts, a significant number given its recent founding in 2013. And the numbers are growing. Learn more...

Promotion: 3% deposit match and up to $200 FREE stock at Robinhood.

Visit Robinhood Website

Biggest Brokerage Firms


Webull


An even newer brokerage firm on the scene is Webull. Founded in 2017, this investment firm has more than 23.3 million registered users globally. These customers have deposited more than $13.6 billion in assets across both brokerage and robo accounts. This phenomenal growth has led to a planned IPO on the Nasdaq exchange in the second half of 2025. Expected valuation is around $400 million.

Headquartered in New York City, Webull is owned by a Chinese holding company. It operates a few subsidiaries, notably in Singapore and Hong Kong. An HK-based account can trade Chinese A-shares on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges, an exciting service that’s hard to find elsewhere. Learn more...

Promotion: Up to $12,000 cash and 20 FREE shares when you make a deposit at Webull.

Visit Webull Website

largest brokerage firms in the world


Updated on 4/22/2025.


About the Author
Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.