Wealth management expanded across assets, client relationships, adviser businesses, and digital service activity in 2024. The figures below show the scale of major firms and the wider investment-adviser industry, while keeping each measurement period and source label explicit.
Contents
- Industry scale and adviser structure
- Fidelity wealth management statistics
- Ameriprise client assets and advisers
- Schwab assets, accounts, and flows
- BNY custody, administration, and wealth services
- Alternative investment growth
Industry scale and adviser structure
The Investment Adviser Association reported 15,870 advisers in 2024. Those advisers served 68.4 million clients, an increase of 6.8%. The industry reported $144.6 trillion in assets under management in 2024, compared with $128.4 trillion in the prior comparison period. These figures describe the adviser industry as reported by the IAA and should not be treated as a single-firm wealth-management total.
Employment was also substantial. The IAA reported 1,032,455 non-clerical employees in 2024, up 2.6%. At the same time, 92.7% of advisers employed 100 or fewer employees. This combination points to a large industry made up predominantly of relatively small employers, alongside firms with much larger operating footprints.
The asset distribution shows a similar pattern. In 2024, 68.5% of advisers managed less than $1 billion in assets, while 87.7% managed less than $5 billion. Advisers focused on individuals averaged 8 employees and $393 million in assets under management. The averages apply to that adviser segment and do not represent a typical result for every firm or the whole industry.
Fidelity wealth management statistics
Fidelity reported $32.7 billion in revenue in 2024, up 16% from 2023, according to the Fidelity 2024 Annual Report. Operating expense was $22.4 billion, up 14%, while operating income reached $10.3 billion, up 21%. Together, these measures describe a year of higher reported revenue, expenses, and operating income; they are not a fee rate or a client-return measure.
Fidelity assets under administration reached $15.1 trillion in 2024, up 20% from 2023. Net asset flows were $698 billion, up 8%, and discretionary assets were $5.9 trillion, up 21%. Assets under administration and discretionary assets are different measures, so the values should not be added together.
Customer engagement was measured across several channels. Fidelity recorded 8.8 million customer planning interactions in 2024, up 14%, and 5.5 million customer appointments, up 13%. It reported 39.2 million unique customers engaging with Fidelity.com, NetBenefits.com, or mobile apps, up 12% from 2023. Fidelity also handled 37.5 million calls, up 8%, and 2.8 million social media service interactions, up 17%.
The Fidelity 2024 Annual Report reported a Green Client Score of 98.99% in 2024. Fidelity also increased its health savings account market share to 20%. These are company-reported indicators for the stated year, with the market-share figure referring specifically to HSAs rather than to wealth management assets overall.
Ameriprise client assets and advisers
Ameriprise reported that total client assets passed $1 trillion in 2024 and increased 14% during the year. Its investment advisory business grew to $574 billion. Total client flows reached $35 billion, while wrap flows reached $33 billion, up 37%.
The firm also reported more than $23 billion in Ameriprise Bank assets at the end of 2024 and more than 10,000 financial advisers during 2024. Adviser productivity exceeded $1 million in adjusted operating net revenue per adviser. That productivity figure uses adjusted operating net revenue and should not be read as adviser compensation, assets gathered, or client investment performance.
Ameriprise client satisfaction was 4.9 out of 5 in 2024. The satisfaction score is a customer-experience measure, whereas client assets and flows describe scale and movement of assets. Keeping those measures separate helps avoid treating a service score as a financial outcome.
| Ameriprise measure | 2024 result | Reported change or scope |
|---|---|---|
| Total client assets | More than $1 trillion | Up 14% |
| Investment advisory business | $574 billion | Business size |
| Total client flows | $35 billion | Annual flows |
| Wrap flows | $33 billion | Up 37% |
| Ameriprise Bank assets | More than $23 billion | End of 2024 |
| Client satisfaction | 4.9 out of 5 | 2024 score |
Source: Ameriprise 2024 Annual Report.
Schwab assets, accounts, and flows
Schwab reported $19.6 billion in revenue in 2024, up 4% from 2023. Net income was $5.9 billion, up 17% year over year. Diluted earnings per share were $2.99, up 18% from the prior year, while adjusted diluted earnings per share were $3.25, up 4% from 2023. Reported and adjusted EPS are separate measures and should not be combined.
Schwab core net new assets were $367 billion in 2024, up 20% from 2023. Total net new assets were $361.6 billion, and net growth in client assets was $1,584.7 billion. These flow and growth measures use different labels in the Schwab 2024 Annual Report; they are presented as reported rather than reconciled into a single total.
At year-end 2024, Schwab total client assets were $10.1013 trillion. Investor Services client assets were $5.7216 trillion and Advisor Services client assets were $4.3797 trillion. The two service figures sum to the reported total based on the supplied values, but the categories remain distinct business measures.
Account activity was high. Schwab opened 4.2 million new brokerage accounts in 2024; the annual-report statistics also state 4,170 thousand new brokerage accounts. At year-end, Schwab had 36,456 thousand active brokerage accounts and 1,998 thousand banking accounts. The two new-account figures are duplicate presentations of the same reported activity, so they should not be counted twice.
Schwab daily average trades were 5.9 million in 2024, up 9% from 2023. Schwab bank loans at the end of the period were $45.2 billion, up 12%. These statistics measure trading activity and bank lending rather than assets under management.
BNY custody, administration, and wealth services
BNY assets under custody and/or administration were $52.1 trillion at year-end 2024. BNY assets under management were $2.0 trillion at the same year-end measurement point. Custody and/or administration is a broader service measure than assets under management, so these figures describe different roles in the financial-services system.
BNY wealth management client assets were $327 billion at year-end 2024. This is a narrower wealth-management measure than total assets under custody and/or administration. Comparing the two without accounting for their different scopes would overstate the size of the wealth-management business.
The BNY 2024 Annual Report also reported an average daily clearance value of $16.3 trillion in 2024 and an average daily U.S. dollar payment value of $2.4 trillion. Average triparty balances were $5.4 trillion. These are daily activity or balance measures for financial infrastructure, not end-of-year client-asset totals.
BNY’s Market and Wealth Services segment reported a 46% pre-tax margin. The segment label matters: this margin applies to Market and Wealth Services as reported by BNY and should not be presented as a margin for every wealth manager or for the entire wealth-management industry.
Alternative investment growth
The Investment Adviser Association reported that the number of private equity funds increased 8.1% in 2024. It also reported that hedge fund gross assets increased 14.6% and private equity fund gross assets increased 9.2% in 2024.
These measures indicate growth in alternative-investment structures and gross assets, but they do not state net investor returns, net flows, or the performance of an individual fund. Gross assets are also not interchangeable with assets under management reported by a wealth manager, bank, custodian, or adviser.
How to read these wealth management statistics
The 2024 figures use several related but nonidentical concepts: assets under administration, assets under management, client assets, discretionary assets, flows, net new assets, gross assets, custody balances, and average daily transaction values. The measurement date also varies. Some figures describe the full year ended in 2024, while others are measured at year-end 2024.
Company annual reports provide firm-level indicators for Fidelity, Ameriprise, Schwab, and BNY. The Investment Adviser Association provides industry-level statistics, including adviser counts, clients, employees, firm size, and alternative-investment growth. Because the source labels and scopes differ, these numbers are most useful for understanding the breadth of wealth management rather than for adding every asset figure into one market total.
The statistics in this article come from existing research labeled Fidelity 2024 Annual Report, IAA Industry Statistics, Ameriprise 2024 Annual Report, Schwab 2024 Annual Report, and BNY 2024 Annual Report. The underlying research was legacy research and was not independently verified; the original measurement dates, source labels, and scope limitations are retained here.