AdvisorCensus Custodians Report
2026 edition, Form ADV data as of September 2026
Charles Schwab is the custodian SEC-registered investment advisers name most often: 57.4% of the 11,170 firms that report a custodian for their clients' separately managed accounts name it, followed by Fidelity Investments (22.2%) and JPMorgan Chase (4.8%).
- Most of these firms name one custodian (63.7%); 23.9% name two and 12.3% three or more.
- Among firms with $100 million to $500 million in assets under management, the largest group (5,730 firms), 66.1% name Charles Schwab; among the 1,240 firms with over $5 billion, 24.9% do, and 24.1% name Fidelity Investments.
- 165 custodians are named by at least 5 firms, and 2.0% of the firms name a custodian that is a related person, such as an affiliated bank or broker-dealer.
- A firm lists each custodian holding 10% or more of its separately managed account assets, so a custodian holding less at a firm does not appear for that firm.
The 25 custodians named by the most firms
| Custodian | Firms naming it | Share of firms naming any custodian | Metro areas where those firms are based |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charles Schwab | 6,406 | 57.4% | 303 |
| Fidelity Investments | 2,477 | 22.2% | 214 |
| JPMorgan Chase | 534 | 4.8% | 45 |
| Pershing LLC | 443 | 4.0% | 92 |
| The Bank of New York Mellon | 406 | 3.6% | 52 |
| The Northern Trust Company | 391 | 3.5% | 54 |
| LPL Financial LLC | 373 | 3.3% | 112 |
| Interactive Brokers LLC | 346 | 3.1% | 62 |
| Morgan Stanley | 296 | 2.6% | 50 |
| State Street Bank and Trust Company | 296 | 2.6% | 40 |
| Raymond James & Associates, Inc. | 255 | 2.3% | 96 |
| Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC | 182 | 1.6% | 63 |
| Altruist Financial LLC | 178 | 1.6% | 80 |
| U.S. Bank National Association | 167 | 1.5% | 47 |
| Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC | 161 | 1.4% | 27 |
| Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC | 131 | 1.2% | 62 |
| RBC Capital Markets, LLC | 112 | 1.0% | 44 |
| SEI Investments Distribution Co. | 98 | 0.9% | 56 |
| Northern Trust Securities, Inc. | 95 | 0.9% | 38 |
| Citibank, N.A. | 89 | 0.8% | 13 |
| UBS Financial Services Inc. | 88 | 0.8% | 34 |
| Axos Clearing LLC | 83 | 0.7% | 48 |
| State Street Corporation | 81 | 0.7% | 24 |
| Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated | 66 | 0.6% | 19 |
| BNY Mellon | 65 | 0.6% | 30 |
A firm can name several custodians, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Download all 165 custodians as CSV
By assets under management
| Assets under management | Firms naming a custodian | Name Charles Schwab | Name Fidelity Investments | Name JPMorgan Chase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $25 million | 171 | 21.1% | 4.1% | 1.8% |
| $25 million to $100 million | 459 | 55.1% | 11.3% | 3.1% |
| $100 million to $500 million | 5,730 | 66.1% | 19.6% | 1.8% |
| $500 million to $1 billion | 1,661 | 60.6% | 26.6% | 3.2% |
| $1 billion to $5 billion | 1,909 | 53.0% | 29.1% | 7.5% |
| Over $5 billion | 1,240 | 24.9% | 24.1% | 17.4% |
The 16 metro areas with the most firms naming a custodian
| Metro area | Firms naming a custodian | Name Charles Schwab | Name Fidelity Investments | Name JPMorgan Chase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York, NY | 1,149 | 36.6% | 14.4% | 12.1% |
| Los Angeles, CA | 423 | 66.0% | 23.2% | 4.5% |
| Boston, MA | 398 | 42.2% | 39.7% | 6.8% |
| Chicago, IL | 372 | 58.9% | 21.8% | 4.6% |
| San Francisco, CA | 355 | 69.6% | 21.4% | 3.9% |
| Miami, FL | 344 | 37.8% | 16.9% | 17.7% |
| Philadelphia, PA | 290 | 56.9% | 22.4% | 5.2% |
| Dallas, TX | 282 | 59.6% | 25.5% | 5.7% |
| Atlanta, GA | 215 | 62.3% | 27.9% | 2.3% |
| Washington, DC | 210 | 58.1% | 30.0% | 3.8% |
| Minneapolis, MN | 199 | 64.3% | 27.1% | 1.5% |
| Houston, TX | 187 | 60.4% | 33.2% | 3.7% |
| Denver, CO | 179 | 68.7% | 25.7% | 3.9% |
| San Diego, CA | 152 | 68.4% | 16.4% | 3.9% |
| Bridgeport, CT | 151 | 32.5% | 19.2% | 15.9% |
| Seattle, WA | 151 | 66.2% | 24.5% | 4.0% |
Download all 329 metro areas as CSV
A custodian holds client assets; it does not endorse or supervise the adviser. Each custodian's page lists the firms that name it, and each firm's page lists its custodians as filed.
The data in this report is free to use under CC BY 4.0 with credit to AdvisorCensus and a link to this page; download the main table as CSV.
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Sources and method
Source: Form ADV Schedule D, Section 5.K(3), from the SEC's Form ADV filing data.
What firms report. An SEC-registered adviser with separately managed accounts lists in Form ADV Schedule D, Section 5.K(3) each custodian that holds 10% or more of those accounts' regulatory assets under management. AdvisorCensus uses each firm's most recent filing in the SEC's Form ADV data from the past 18 months, for SEC-registered firms in the directory as of September 2026. State-registered advisers are not included, because their Schedule D is not in the SEC's data.
How custodians are counted. Custodians are grouped by the SEC registration number filed for them. One filed without a number, or with a mistyped one, is matched to the numbered custodian of the same name, and a bank, which has no SEC number, is grouped by name. A division, trade name, or branch of one company counts as that company: Schwab Advisor Services is Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., and a bank's London branch is the bank.
Companies counted as one. Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Vanguard are each counted as one company, and a firm naming several of a company's custodians counts once for it. Fidelity Investments includes Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, National Financial Services LLC, Fidelity Distributors Company LLC, Fidelity Management Trust Company, Fidelity's Canadian companies, and filings that name only Fidelity or Fidelity Investments; it does not include Fidelity International, Fidelity Charitable, or other firms with Fidelity in their names. Charles Schwab includes Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., Schwab's bank and trust companies, and TD Ameritrade, now part of Charles Schwab; it does not include Schwab Charitable. JPMorgan Chase includes J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and its branches, JPMorgan's other U.S. and international companies, and filings that name only J.P. Morgan or JPMorgan Chase & Co. Morgan Stanley includes Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (Morgan Stanley Wealth Management), Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Morgan Stanley's international companies, and E*TRADE Securities, which Morgan Stanley owns. Vanguard includes Vanguard Marketing Corporation (Vanguard Brokerage Services), The Vanguard Group, Inc., and Vanguard Fiduciary Trust Company; Altruist, which Vanguard agreed in August 2026 to buy, is counted separately until the purchase closes. Firm pages list each custodian as the firm filed it.
Other custodians. Each other custodian is counted as the company filed, so related companies are separate rows: Pershing LLC, Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC, and The Bank of New York Mellon, all BNY companies, for example. A firm that names only a brand shared by several companies, such as BNY Mellon, is counted under that name.
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AdvisorCensus. AdvisorCensus Custodians Report. https://advisorcensus.com/reports/custodians