A higher number of clients and assets under management generally indicates a more established and successful investment firm with more resources to work with, which could be to your benefit. However, having more clients and assets under management doesn’t mean that an investment firm will be the best fit for your needs – and we’ll explain why.

If you're considering hiring a financial advisor and, by extension, working with the investment firm where that advisor works, one factor to consider when making your decision is the firm’s number of clients as well as the amount of client assets they have under their management. 

For instance, leading investment firms like Morgan Stanley, Edward Jones and Goldman Sachs have enormous amounts of clients and client assets under management, while small to mid-size firms have quite a bit less – which may be a benefit, depending what you’re looking for in an advisor.

This metric can provide insights into the firm's reputation, expertise and ability to manage your investments effectively, but we’ll explain why it’s not a be-all and end-all. We will explore what the amount of clients and client assets that an investment firm has actually indicates, as well as how you can use that info to decide which firm to work with and choose a financial advisor. Want to compare firms on your own? Get a free AdvisorCheck membership.

How Many Clients and Client Assets Do Large Investment Firms Have?

Before we address the question of what these metrics actually mean, we’ll provide some context by showing you exactly where three of the largest and best-known investment firms stand as of March 2023. We’ll include not only their number of clients and assets under management, but also some additional metrics that help to illustrate the massive scale of these firms:

Morgan Stanley

Number of clients: 2,086,037

Number of employees: 26,500 total and 15,000 registered

Client ratio: 139 clients per registered employee

Assets under management (AUM): $1,311,934,806,306 (more than $1.3 trillion)

Average account size: $409,498 for all individuals and $12,134,751 for HNWIs (i.e., high-net-worth individuals, meaning those with at least $1 million in liquid assets)

Percentage of clients that are HNWIs: 1.29 percent 

Edward Jones

Number of clients: 3,242,810

Number of employees: 26,014 total and 19,444 registered

Client ratio: 167 clients per registered employee

Assets under management (AUM): $654,235,011,481 (more than $654 billion)

Average account size: $135,651 for all individuals and $643,089 for HNWIs

Percentage of clients that are HNWIs: 12.27 percent

Goldman Sachs

Number of clients: 52,620

Number of employees: 4,084 total and 2,479 registered

Client ratio: 21 clients per registered employee

Assets under management (AUM): $219,725,184,688 (more than $219 billion)

Average account size: $17,589 for all individuals and $1,882,203 for HNWIs

Percentage of clients that are HNWIs: 36.22 percent

To make it easier for you to cross-compare the statistics for these three firms, here’s that same info in table form:

Firm	# of clients	# of employees	Client ratios	AUM	Avg. account size	% of HNWI clients
Morgan Stanley	2,086,037	Total: 26,500 Registered: 15,000	139 clients per registered employee	>$1.3 trillion	All individuals: $409,498  HNWIs: $12,134,751	1.29%
Edward Jones	3,242,810	Total: 26,014 Registered:  19,444	167 clients per registered employee	>$654 billion	All individuals: $135,651HNWIs: $643,089	12.27%
Goldman Sachs	52,620	Total: 4,084 Registered: 2,479	21 clients per registered employee	>$219 billion	All individuals: $17,589HNWIs: $1,882,203	36.22%

These statistics demonstrate some notable differences between these three major investment firms. For instance:

• Goldman Sachs has significantly fewer clients than the other two firms (about 52,000, compared to millions), but their total assets under management are still quite high because more than a third of their clients are high-net-worth individuals (meaning they have a minimum of $1 million in liquid assets).
• The fact that they have so few clients is also why Goldman Sachs’ client ratios are so much lower, with 21 clients per registered employee, versus more than 100 clients per registered employee for the other two firms. 
• Morgan Stanley has greater total AUM than Goldman Sachs, but only about 1 percent of their clients are HNWIs. 
• However, Morgan Stanley’s average HNWI account size is over $12 million, while HNWIs at Goldman Sachs have an average account size of only ~$1.9 million.
• Meanwhile, Edward Jones falls somewhere in the middle, with about 12 percent of their clients possessing HNWI status, and these HNWIs’ average account size being significantly smaller than those of the other two firms at about $640k.

“When you see stark numbers like this where Goldman Sachs only has ~52,000 clients while Edward Jones has over 3 million, you can see that some firms are more selective than others when it comes to the clients they let into their network,” says Leonard Kim of AdvisorCheck. “These data points, along with what the average account size for each client, will help you be able to pick and choose which firm is best suited to help you with your financial future,” Leonard continued.   

Should You Work with a Small Firm or a Big Firm?

At this point, you may be asking yourself: do I want to work with a large investment firm that has, for instance, more than 100,000 clients and a client ratio of about 100 or more clients per advisor, or a smaller firm with a client ratio of something like 10 clients per advisor?

Similarly: do I want to work with a firm whose clients are all very wealthy and have an average account size of e.g. $10 million, or a firm with more middle-class clients and an average account size closer to $50,000? 

We’ll explain how to make this decision and what the number of clients/client ratio really means as well as the significance of firms’ average account sizes.

The First Hurdle: Minimum Asset Thresholds

For starters, you’ll need to find a firm that is willing to work with you based on your net worth. Some firms might have minimum asset thresholds of $50,000, $100,000 or even $500,000 to $1 million. On the other hand, other firms won’t mind if you start an account with just a few hundred dollars. If there’s an investment firm you’re interested in working with that has minimum asset thresholds, you may need to save up to get to that point before you start working with them. 

The Existence of Minimum Asset Thresholds ≠ Those With Limited Assets Shouldn’t Hire a Financial Advisor

Be sure not to interpret the existence of minimum asset thresholds as an indication that those with limited assets wouldn’t benefit from working with a financial advisor. It just means that some firms and financial advisors aren’t willing to work with clients who have smaller pools of investable assets, but every firm has different requirements, and those across the financial spectrum can benefit from professional guidance and advice. 

Just take it from Robert R. Johnson, professor of finance at the Heider College of Business at Creighton University: “I would contend that a financial professional provides a 25-year-old with limited assets more value than a 65-year-old with ample assets . . . When we get sick, we go to the doctor. When we get into legal trouble, we hire a lawyer. Yet somehow people believe that they should be able to navigate the ever increasingly perilous financial waters without professional help. Financial mistakes, particularly early in life, can be difficult to overcome and many people wait too long to establish a relationship with a qualified financial advisor. Making a few good financial decisions early in life can make the difference between a secure retirement and one fraught with difficulties.” 

Rather than using total assets as a metric for whether or not to hire an advisor, Scott Schleicher, financial planning specialist group manager and senior financial advisor at Personal Capital argues that the most important factors to consider in this decision are:

1. The complexity of your finances
2. The amount of free time you have to spend on managing your own money
3. Whether you already have some finance-related expertise

Comparison: Smaller Firms vs. Larger Firms

Here are some of the key differences between smaller and larger firms:

Smaller Firms	Larger Firms
Don’t always have the resources to meet all their clients’ needs in-house	More resources at their disposal and a wider range of in-house experts (e.g., specialized attorneys), so they don’t have to refer clients to external specialists as often
Tend to have less of a back-up system if your advisor is absent (e.g., while they’re on vacation) or stops working there	Typically have more robust back-up systems and succession plans if your advisor is absent or stops working there
Limited access to certain kinds of investment opportunities	More access to some kinds of valuable investment opportunities, such as initial public offerings
Allow clients to “get the personalized service and advice they deserve,” according to certified financial planner Howard Pressman	Large size can make their clients feel like a number, with less personalized service and more cookie-cutter advice
Have more time for their smaller clients	Tend to focus more on big clients (HNWIs) and pay less attention to their smaller clients
May have lower minimum asset thresholds, or none at all	Often have higher minimum asset thresholds
They “might have more flexibility to deal with the idiosyncrasies of your portfolio,” according to Christine Benz, director of personal finance for Morningstar	Have less flexibility in the investment opportunities that they can offer
Benefit your local economy by supporting a small business	Offer fewer benefits to local economy
More likely to be “well versed in community issues regarding taxes and incentive programs” (source)	Less familiarity with community-specific taxes and incentive programs
Less likely to offer investment products that create a conflict of interest	May offer investment opportunities/products that create a conflict of interest if they offer commissions for the broker
Clients are less likely to be offered products they don’t need to satisfy shareholders	Clients may be offered products due to “the need to earn a quarterly profit to satisfy shareholders,” which “can translate into pressure to sell products, regardless of whether clients need those products,” writes Forbes
The Wealth Management Luxury Brand Status Index survey found that smaller firms have “reputations for honesty and superior client service”	Less reputation for honesty among consumers
Often have lower overhead costs, which means clients pay lower fees	Higher fees due to higher overhead costs on average
More nimble, meaning they can react more quickly to changes in the market, taking advantage of investment opportunities and avoiding potential pitfalls	Less nimble and thus less able to react quickly to market changes

Use AdvisorCheck to Find Skilled Financial Advisors at Your Investment Firm of Choice – and Then Compare Them

At this point, once you’ve assessed factors like their AUM, average account size, number of clients and client ratios (among others), perhaps you’ve decided to work with a particular investment firm. The next step is going to be to select and hire a financial advisor who works at that firm. AdvisorCheck is the most effective tool for locating financial advisors in your area based on their associated firm, as well as on their credentials, their disclosures and other potential criteria. 

Drawing on an array of top-quality sources, AdvisorCheck allows you to tap into a vast database of more than a million financial advisors. Once you’ve made a free account and used the site to find potential advisors in your area who work at the firm you’ve chosen, you can save them to your profile (you can find your saved listings here) and use the site’s Compare tool to weigh their histories against each other.

How do you do this? Start by heading to AdvisorCheck’s advisor search page and entering your location and the firm you’ve chosen. While you’re scrolling through the results, add up to three advisor profiles to the Compare tool at a time by clicking the scales symbol at the bottom of each advisor’s listing. Then, navigate to the Compare page by clicking the link on the left-hand sidebar. You’ll see a detailed comparison of the advisors you’re considering, including:

• Basic information, including their location, number of disclosures, years of experience, credentials, etc.
• Advisor profile, including contact info, languages they speak, minimum assets, areas of expertise, type(s) of compensation, etc.
• Firm information (which won’t be relevant in this comparison as they all work at the same firm, but is very useful when comparing advisors who work at different firms)

All of this info is enormously helpful when you’re deciding which advisor fits the criteria for what to seek out in a financial advisor, as well as what to avoid. By providing the most essential details laid out in an easy-to-read comparison, the AdvisorCheck Compare tool could slash an estimated 80 percent (or even more!) off the time you spend researching.

And once you’ve hired an advisor, AdvisorCheck even makes it easy to keep track of any changes to their profile. Saving your advisor to your AdvisorCheck profile means you can see when something like a disclosure is added to their history, so you can monitor the person you’ve entrusted with managing your money on an ongoing basis and enjoy greater financial peace of mind. 

Empowering yourself with information is the most effective way to ensure that the financial advisor you choose is skilled and trustworthy – someone who consistently prioritizes their clients’ best interests. AdvisorCheck makes it possible to choose an advisor who can effectively manage your finances, maximize your investment potential, establish practical short- and long-term plans and serve as a springboard to achieving your financial goals. Claim your free AdvisorCheck membership and start comparing financial advisors and their firms now. 

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Written by Billy Quirk

Fact checked by Luke Jara

Reviewed by KJ Kim

Disclosure

The information provided in this article was written by the research and analysis team at AdvisorCheck.com to help all consumers in their financial journeys, by providing the resources and the insights to help improve one’s financial health, make it through recessionary and inflationary periods of time, and save their earnings to use them towards building a secure financial future. 

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