Charles Schwab
First on our list is the well-known Charles Schwab. At the most recent count, the firm reported more than
38.9 million brokerage accounts along with 5 million workplace plan participant accounts. In addition, there are close to 2 million deposit accounts through Schwab Bank, another division of this large financial company.
Schwab began operations somewhat later than Fidelity. The company was founded by Charles Schwab in 1971 in San Francisco under the name Commander Industries, Inc. The original goal of the business was to conduct securities brokerage services and publish a newsletter called Schwab Investment Indicator. The brokerage still publishes a quarterly investing magazine today titled OnInvesting.
Charles Schwab himself continues to serve as chairman of the company today. The firm’s headquarters are located in Westlake, Texas, although it maintains several offices in San Francisco along with hundreds of branch locations worldwide. The majority of these branches are located throughout the United States.
One of the best-known achievements of Schwab (both the individual and the company) is its push toward lower trading costs. Well before Robinhood and online trading became common, Schwab started cutting commissions in the late 1970s after the New York Stock Exchange allowed member firms to set their own commission rates.
Learn more...
Promotion: $0 commissions + ACAT rebate + satisfaction guarantee at Charles Schwab.
Visit Schwab Website
Fidelity Investments
Next on our list of the largest broker-dealers in the United States is Fidelity Investments with more than 52 million
accounts, an extremely large total by any measure.
Fidelity traces its roots back to 1943, when Edward C. Johnson II became president of the Fidelity Fund. Since that time, the firm has grown into one of the largest asset managers in the world. Notably, Fidelity remains a privately held company, with Edward’s granddaughter Abigail Johnson currently serving as CEO.
The company was founded in Boston and continues to be headquartered there today. Although Boston remains its central hub, Fidelity operates more than 200 branch offices across the United States and another 13 locations outside the country. The firm employs over 77,000 people, highlighting the immense size of this brokerage organization.
Vanguard
Third on the list is Vanguard. This well-known investment company has more than 50 million customers, many of whom are committed to the firm’s focus on low-cost index investing. This investment approach was popularized by Vanguard’s founder John C. Bogle, who launched the company in 1974.
Similar to Schwab and Fidelity, Vanguard manages its own lineup of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. Assets in these funds total several trillions of dollars, demonstrating the enormous scale of this Pennsylvania-based investment firm. Vanguard’s funds have an average expense ratio of just 0.06%, reflecting the company’s continued dedication to low-cost investing.
Vanguard is the first—but not the last—company on our list of largest broker-dealers that does not operate branch offices. Even without physical locations, the firm still runs both brokerage and investment-advisory services entirely through its online platform.
Vanguard is also unusual in its ownership structure. The company is owned by its 423 funds, which themselves are owned by the shareholders who invest in those funds.
J.P. Morgan
Fourth on our list is J.P. Morgan. With millions of customers and trillions of dollars held in custody, this major brokerage firm serves both individual investors and institutional clients. On the retail side alone, the firm holds roughly $4 trillion in client assets at the latest count. Its affiliated company Chase Bank reports similarly massive figures, with millions of accounts and trillions of dollars in client assets. Together with its banking division, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. ranks among the largest financial-services companies in the world. The company is headquartered in New York City.
Morgan Stanley/E*TRADE
Completing the top five is Morgan Stanley along with its online brokerage platform E*TRADE. Together, these two
investment operations hold more than $9.3 trillion in client assets
across brokerage accounts, advisory services, and workplace investment plans.
Morgan Stanley acquired E*TRADE in 2020, which gave the company a significant self-directed retail brokerage arm to complement its existing investment banking, wealth management, and institutional businesses. The firm’s headquarters are located in Times Square in New York City.
Learn more...
Merrill
Next on the list is Merrill. This investment business combines the traditional brokerage firm Merrill Lynch and the online discount platform Merrill Edge. Both are owned by Bank of America, forming another massive financial-services organization that ranks just behind J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in size. Merrill Edge alone has more than 4.2 million accounts representing roughly $520 billion in assets. That works out to an average account size of approximately $107,000.
Robinhood
Another company on our list is Robinhood. The brokerage currently holds slightly more than $314 billion in client assets under custody, which is relatively modest compared with some of the other firms included in this survey. However, the company has more than 27.4 million funded customers, a very impressive total considering that the firm was only founded in 2013. These numbers continue to grow as the platform attracts new users.
Learn more...
Promotion:
3% deposit match and FREE stock worth up to $200 at Robinhood.
Visit Robinhood Website
Webull
A newer brokerage firm appearing on the scene is Webull. Established in 2017, this investment company now has more than
26.8 million registered users worldwide. These
clients have deposited more than $24.6 billion in assets across brokerage and robo accounts. The company’s rapid expansion has led to an IPO on the Nasdaq exchange in the first half of 2025.
Headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, Webull is owned by a Chinese holding company and operates
several subsidiaries around the world, particularly in Hong Kong and Singapore. Through its Hong Kong-based accounts, investors can trade Chinese A-shares listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges, a feature that is relatively rare among brokerage firms.
Learn more...
Promotion:
3.5% match on your contributions and $20 stock bonus with $500 deposit at Webull.
Visit Webull Website
Updated on 3/4/2026.
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.