Managed Account Advisors leads 10 selected wealth-focused RIAs by regulatory AUM

How we determined this list

1. Asset test. We add the regulatory AUM in Form ADV Item 5.D.(3)(a), individuals other than high-net-worth individuals, and 5.D.(3)(b), high-net-worth individuals. We divide that sum by total regulatory AUM in Item 5.F.(2)(c). At least 75% qualifies. We use assets, not the number of clients. We checked both items in the same downloaded filing and reconciled its populated client-asset categories to the total. See the SEC’s Form ADV Part 1A.
2. Selection and order. This report displays the ten largest qualifying firms among the 21 legal-entity filings reviewed for this comparison. The review covers the 17 firms in our initial AUM comparison plus LPL, Corient, Mariner and Mercer. It does not establish coverage of every U.S. registered adviser. Each displayed row represents one CRD; parent and affiliate assets are not consolidated. Rank means size by total regulatory AUM within this reviewed selection, not performance, service quality or a recommendation. Qualifying Mariner and Mercer fall below Corient’s displayed cutoff.
3. Business-model exclusions. We exclude market makers and third-party turnkey asset management platforms (TAMPs). Envestnet PMC passes the asset test at 94.12% but is excluded because of its adviser-facing outsourced portfolio-management offering, described in its PMC overview. Broker-dealer affiliation, bank ownership and retirement services are not automatic exclusions. Managed Account Advisors is retained as Merrill’s affiliated portfolio manager, identified in Merrill’s relationship summary; this scope includes in-house advisory platforms and does not claim the ten firms are independent or fee-only. Focus Partners Wealth is the wealth entity, not a separately registered asset-strategy affiliate.
4. Source dates and amendments. We checked the latest publicly available Form ADV documents on September 30, 2026. The filing date shown belongs to the downloaded document. An other-than-annual amendment does not, by itself, establish an AUM restatement or require updated Item 5 figures; see SEC Form ADV General Instruction 4. We have not established a uniform asset valuation date across firms. The linked “latest” PDFs can change after publication; this report preserves the amounts and document dates we checked.
5. Why other large firms are absent. The same-file asset test is below 75% for Strategic Advisers (40.97%), CAPTRUST (7.76%), Parametric (56.00%), J.P. Morgan Private Investments (65.84%), NISA (0.11%), Edelman Financial Engines (54.92%), Creative Planning (62.24%) and Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors (0.50%). Size alone does not qualify a firm. The linked filings below support these exclusions; no ownership or blanket broker-dealer restriction is applied.
6. What the amounts mean. Regulatory AUM follows the ADV reporting framework. It is not revenue, a firm’s own balance-sheet assets, brokerage assets or assets under advisement. Do not add different advisers’ totals to estimate unique industry assets: advisory relationships can overlap. Our regulatory AUM guide explains the measure and its limits.

Exclusion evidence, Item 5.D.(3) and 5.F.(2): Strategic Advisers; CAPTRUST; Parametric; J.P. Morgan Private Investments; NISA; Edelman Financial Engines; Creative Planning; Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors; Envestnet PMC. Below-cutoff qualification evidence: Mariner and Mercer.