RIA Custodian Trends Report 2026

AdvizorPro Research · October 2026

Executive Summary: Key Findings from the 2026 RIA Custodian Trends Report

Schwab is the SMA custodian for 67.8% of RIAs, and Altruist has moved into #3. The AdvizorPro 2026 RIA Custodian Trends Report covers 15,722 RIAs that report at least one SMA custodian on the Form ADV, across 20,381 custodian relationships and $11.7T in reported SMA assets. Data was pulled from the AdvizorPro platform on October 1, 2026.

Key findings:

• Schwab remains the default. 67.8% of RIAs use Schwab as an SMA custodian, more than the next nine custodians combined.
• Altruist passes Interactive Brokers for #3. 7.4% of RIAs use Altruist, versus 7.2% for IBKR. Its client base is young: 88% of its RIAs manage under $100M and 45% were founded in the last five years. Vanguard agreed to acquire Altruist on August 26, 2026, which sets up the next chapter of this ranking.
• Firm count and assets tell two different stories. Schwab and Fidelity together hold 69% of reported SMA assets. Altruist and IBKR are top 4 by firm count but hold under 1% of assets combined.
• Fidelity is the scale custodian, and it is making that official. 8% of RIAs under $100M use Fidelity. At $1B+, that rises to 43%. On October 1, 2026, Fidelity told existing RIA clients they need at least $100M in assets on its platform by June 30, 2027, or must move to another custodian.
• Multi-custodial adoption holds near one in four. 23.9% of RIAs use two or more SMA custodians, rising to 47% among $1B+ firms. Schwab + Fidelity is the most common pairing by a wide margin.
• New RIAs start simple. 90% of RIAs founded in the last 12 months use a single SMA custodian. Schwab wins 63% of them, Altruist 15%.

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Methodology and Scope

This edition is a point-in-time snapshot of SMA custodian relationships, pulled September 30, 2026.

Timeline

Scope

• 18,860 advisor firms in the AdvizorPro RIA dataset (Independent RIAs and dually registered firms). 15,722 report at least one SMA custodian.
• An SMA custodian is a custodian reported with a dollar amount in Section 5 of Form ADV. Custodians listed without an amount are excluded.
• Firm age is measured from the date established. New RIAs are firms established October 1, 2025 or later.
• AUM tiers use regulatory AUM: under $100M, $100M to $500M, $500M to $1B, and over $1B.

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Market Leaders: Top 5 RIA Custodians by Firm Count

Altruist is the only top 5 custodian to change places, moving from #4 to #3 past Interactive Brokers. TD Ameritrade (#6 in 2025) no longer appears, since its listings are now counted under Schwab.

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Key takeaways:

• Altruist's climb continues. It went from #10 in 2024 to #4 in 2025, and now #3. It also holds the #2 spot among RIAs founded in the last five years (Section 6).
• Schwab's lead is structural. 67.8% of RIAs use Schwab, nearly four times Fidelity's 17.4%.
• Interactive Brokers slips to #4. Its base is the smallest RIAs: a median client AUM of $13M, the lowest in the top 5.

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Top 5 Custodians by SMA Assets

Schwab and Fidelity hold 69.0% of the $11.7T in reported RIA SMA assets, and the top 10 hold 90.4%. To see the largest firms behind these assets, explore AdvizorPro's ranking of the Top 100 Independent RIAs.

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Key takeaways:

• Fidelity closes much of the gap on assets. Fidelity has about a quarter of Schwab's RIA count but 80% of its SMA assets, because the average Fidelity RIA relationship is three times larger.
• Pershing ranks #3 by assets, versus #5 by firm count. Its RIAs have a median AUM of $382M, the highest among the top 5 by count.
• Altruist and Interactive Brokers fall outside the top 10 by assets. They rank #3 and #4 by firm count but each holds about 0.3% of SMA assets.

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Multi-Custodial Adoption and Most Common Custodian Pairings

23.9% of RIAs use two or more SMA custodians. The 2025 report put the figure at nearly 30%, measured across a larger universe of SEC-registered RIAs.

RIA Distribution by SMA Custodian Count

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Most Common Custodian Pairings

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Key takeaways:

• Schwab anchors every top pairing. Each of the five most common pairs includes Schwab.
• Schwab + Fidelity is the dual-stack standard. It is more common than the next three pairings combined.
• Altruist is the most common second custodian for Schwab shops after Fidelity. 2.2% of RIAs use both, ahead of Interactive Brokers.
• Single-custodian firms lean Schwab. Among single-custodian RIAs, 64% use Schwab alone, 11% Fidelity, 6% Interactive Brokers and 5% Altruist.
• The Fidelity minimum reaches past small firms. Fidelity counts only assets held on its platform, so a multi-custodial RIA with $500M in total AUM but a $60M Fidelity sleeve falls below the line. Schwab + Fidelity is the most common pairing, used by 7.7% of RIAs.

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Custodian Adoption by RIA Firm Age

Altruist is the #2 SMA custodian among RIAs founded in the last five years, used by 15.4% of them, ahead of Fidelity at 12.6%.

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Key takeaways:

• Schwab leads both cohorts and is used by roughly two thirds of RIAs regardless of age.
• Altruist's base skews young. 45% of its RIAs are under five years old, versus 21% for Schwab. Among established firms, Altruist ranks #4. For more on how custody is shifting across the industry, see AdvizorPro's look at ETF flows and custodian trends in 2026.
• Established RIAs lean on Fidelity and Pershing, at 18.8% and 4.2%, versus 12.6% and 1.9% of younger firms.
• Older firms diversify more. One in four established RIAs is multi-custodial, versus about one in five younger firms.

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New RIA Custodian Preferences

Schwab wins 62.7% of new RIAs and Altruist 14.5%, with Altruist taking about one new RIA for every four that pick Schwab.

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Key takeaways:

• Schwab is still the first call for nearly two thirds of new firms.
• Altruist is the clear #2 for launches, ahead of Fidelity by more than five points.
• New firms start with one custodian. 90% of new RIAs use a single SMA custodian, versus 76% of all RIAs.
• Fidelity's minimum shows up in launch data. Fidelity already required $100M for new firms joining its platform, and the median new RIA manages $55M. That helps explain why Fidelity is #3 among new RIAs at 9.2%, behind Altruist.

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RIA Client Growth by Custodian

Altruist's RIAs grew AUM fastest over the past year, with a median of 28.3% versus about 16% for Schwab and Fidelity clients. For a closer look at fast-growing firms, see The $1B Watchlist, which tracks RIAs nearing $1 billion in AUM.

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Key takeaways:

• Altruist's clients are growing, not just forming. Its RIAs are smaller on average, and small firms grow faster in percentage terms, but a median near 28% is well ahead of every other top custodian.
• The big two grow at the market rate. Schwab and Fidelity clients sit within 0.1 points of each other.

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Who Uses Each Custodian: RIA Profiles by Custodian

Altruist RIAs are the most planning-focused and Interactive Brokers RIAs the least. Figures in parentheses compare each custodian's RIAs to RIAs of the same size: 1.0x means what firm size alone predicts.

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Altruist's low median reflects its smaller AUM but growing client base: 88% of Altruist RIAs manage under $100M, and 28% were founded in the last three years, versus 12% of all RIAs.

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Appendix: Data Rules

• TD Ameritrade is mapped to Schwab. Where a firm listed both, TD was removed. Where a firm listed TD only, it was renamed Schwab.
• Custodian-affiliated advisory arms are excluded (17 firms, such as Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith and Morgan Stanley's own advisory entities). These self-custody relationships added about $7T of SMA assets and would distort the asset rankings.

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About AdvizorPro

AdvizorPro is the advisor intelligence platform built for asset managers, ETF issuers, wealthtechs, and distribution teams that need to identify, prioritize, and engage financial advisors. With verified data across 750,000+ RIAs, family offices, and broker-dealers - combined with AI-powered lead scoring, TrafficIQ visitor intelligence, native CRM integrations, and now direct connectivity to Claude and ChatGPT - AdvizorPro powers the go-to-market strategies of leading firms across the wealth management ecosystem.

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