Investment adviser statistics, September 2026
Key numbers about registered investment advisers in the United States, from the Form ADV filings behind every AdvisorCensus page. Each answer is dated and names its source; the figures are rebuilt with the monthly data and match the reports and directory pages they come from.
How many registered investment advisers are there in the United States?
33,382
33,382 investment advisers are registered with U.S. regulators as of September 2026: 17,149 with the SEC and 16,233 with state securities regulators; 898 of them are based outside the United States. Another 10,084 are exempt reporting advisers, which file parts of Form ADV without registering.
As of September 2026. Source: AdvisorCensus directory. How it is counted.
How many investment advisers registered with the SEC in the past year?
1,635
1,635 firms registered with the SEC from September 2025 through August 2026, 10.0 for every 100 already registered, against 1,271 (8.0 per 100) in the 12 months before.
As of September 2026. Source: AdvisorCensus Monthly Adviser Report.
How many new investment advisers registered with the SEC last month?
207
207 newly registered advisers appear on the SEC's September 1, 2026 list, and 76 firms left it. 97 exempt reporting advisers began reporting to the SEC.
As of September 2026. Source: AdvisorCensus Monthly Adviser Report.
How many exempt reporting advisers are there?
10,084
10,084 exempt reporting advisers are listed as of September 2026: 6,686 on the SEC's list and 3,398 that report only to state regulators. 1,214 began reporting to the SEC over the past 12 months.
As of September 2026. Source: SEC monthly adviser lists. How it is counted.
What share of people who give investment advice work at fee-only firms?
4.9%
4.9% of the 612,547 employees that SEC- and state-registered firms report as performing investment advisory functions (Form ADV Item 5.B(1), which includes research staff) work at a fee-only firm, and 84.2% work at a firm with sales-related compensation ties. The share of people is far smaller than the 36.6% of firms because most advisory staff work at the firms with those ties.
As of September 2026. Source: AdvisorCensus Fees Report. How it is counted.
How many investment advisory firms have ties to commissions or other sales compensation?
45.2%
15,094 of the 33,382 SEC- and state-registered firms (45.2%) show sales-related compensation ties: commissions checked on Form ADV Item 5.E, an employee registered with a broker-dealer or licensed as an insurance agent (Item 5.B), a brokerage, insurance, real estate, or other product sales business (Item 6.A), a related broker-dealer, insurance company, real estate broker, or futures commission merchant (Item 7.A), or referral fees from others or another sales interest (Item 8). Only 678 (2.0%) check commissions on Item 5.E, which asks only how a firm is paid for its advice; the ties through which a firm's people or affiliates earn commissions are reported in Items 5.B, 6.A, and 7.A. Firms with these ties employ 84.2% of advisory staff.
As of September 2026. Source: AdvisorCensus Fees Report. How it is counted.
Which custodians do investment advisers use most?
Charles Schwab (57.4%)
Charles Schwab. Of the 11,170 SEC-registered advisers that name a custodian for clients' separately managed accounts (Form ADV Schedule D, Section 5.K(3)), 57.4% name Charles Schwab, 22.2% name Fidelity Investments, and 4.8% name JPMorgan Chase. A firm can name more than one.
As of September 2026. Source: AdvisorCensus Custodians Report.
Which metro areas have the most investment advisory firms?
New York, NY (3,941)
By principal office, New York, NY (3,941), San Francisco, CA (1,778), and Los Angeles, CA (1,669) have the most investment advisory firms, as of September 2026, counting SEC-registered, state-registered, and exempt reporting advisers.
As of September 2026. Source: AdvisorCensus Metros Report.
How many investment advisers report disciplinary disclosures?
3,589 (8.3%)
3,589 of the 43,466 SEC-registered, state-registered, and exempt reporting advisers (8.3%) answered yes to at least one Form ADV Item 11 disclosure question as of September 2026. Each question covers the firm and its advisory affiliates, and one event can produce several yes answers.
As of September 2026. Source: AdvisorCensus directory. How it is counted.
How much does a typical SEC-registered adviser manage?
$451 million
The median SEC-registered adviser reports $451 million in regulatory assets under management (Form ADV Item 5.F), among the 16,520 that report any, as of September 2026.
As of September 2026. Source: AdvisorCensus directory. How it is counted.
These numbers are free to use under CC BY 4.0 with credit to AdvisorCensus and a link to this page; download them as CSV. AdvisorCensus counts firms from their filings; it does not rate, rank, verify, or recommend firms.
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AdvisorCensus. Investment adviser statistics, September 2026. https://advisorcensus.com/statistics