Wealth Management Industry Statistics 2026: Assets and Trends

Global financial wealth grew 10.7% in 2025 to reach $333 trillion, according to the Boston Consulting Group’s Global Wealth Report 2026. Capgemini’s World Wealth Report 2026 counts 25.3 million high-net-worth individuals holding a record $98.3 trillion, after the millionaire population grew by nearly 2 million. These wealth management industry statistics also track the firms that manage this money, from second-quarter bank filings to August activity reports.

Record wealth has not produced record loyalty, and the adviser pipeline is not keeping pace with demand. Only 19% of HNWIs worked with a single firm in 2025, down from 39% in 2019. McKinsey’s analysis points to a shortage of 90,000 to 110,000 US advisors by 2034 at current productivity levels. The data below covers market size, regional growth, selected large firms, advisor supply, client behavior, and the coming wealth transfer.

Key Takeaways

• Western Europe’s financial wealth rose 15.3% in 2025, while North America delivered a more measured rise of 7.4%.
• More than half of FINRA-registered representatives, 331,802 individuals, held dual registration as of year-end 2025.
• Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Management added a record $148 billion in net new assets in the second quarter of 2026, of which just over half represented IPO-related Workplace inflows.
• Advisory assets made up 60.8% of LPL Financial’s total assets in August 2026, up from 57.8% a year ago.
• Only 17% of HNWIs describe their advisory experience as seamless and personalized, and 42% have had to restate their goals multiple times to the same firm.
• Cerulli projects that US wealth transferred through 2048 will total $124 trillion, with $105 trillion expected to flow to heirs.

Editor’s Choice

• Global financial wealth: Global financial wealth reached $333 trillion in 2025, and global net wealth including real assets climbed to nearly $550 trillion.
• Assets managed by SEC-registered advisers: Assets under management rose from $144.6 trillion to $176.8 trillion in 2025.
• Charles Schwab client assets: Total client assets equaled $13.41 trillion as of month-end August 2026.
• FINRA registered representatives: The ranks of registered representatives climbed to 639,723 in 2025.
• CFP professionals: The number of CFP® professionals reached an all-time high of 107,529 as of December 31, 2025.
• Ultra-high-net-worth population: The UHNWI global population stood at roughly 250,000 in 2025, a 9.4% increase year-over-year.

Wealth Management Industry Statistics: Global Market Size

• Financial wealth is projected to grow at a 7% compound annual rate through 2030, though the pace assumes an easing of geopolitical tensions and energy disruptions in the second half of 2026.
• Equities surged 13.2% in 2025 while real assets expanded 7.4%, and gold rose roughly 44%.
• Global HNWI wealth increased 8.7% in 2025, the largest single-year increase since 2018.
• Global UHNWI wealth grew 9.7% year-over-year, outpacing the broader HNWI segment.
• Cross-border wealth rose 8.4% globally to $15.7 trillion, with the top ten booking centers capturing almost 90% of new offshore flows.
• The net worth of US households and nonprofit organizations increased by $12.8 trillion to $195.9 trillion in the second quarter of 2026.

Source: Boston Consulting Group, Capgemini, Federal Reserve

About This Data

Figures come from 19 sources: 7 company earnings releases and activity reports, 3 regulator and central bank publications, and 9 industry and research reports. Source publication dates run from 2024 to September 2026. Only official company, regulator, and named research publisher data qualified. Figures are reviewed on a rolling basis and updated when sources publish new editions.

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How big is the wealth management industry?

Boston Consulting Group puts global financial wealth at $333 trillion for 2025. SEC-registered investment advisers managed $176.8 trillion in 2025 and served 73.7 million clients. Those two numbers measure different things, but together they show the scale of assets that wealth and asset managers compete to advise.

Financial Wealth Growth by Region

• Western Europe was the positive surprise of 2025, with financial wealth rising 15.3% on favorable currency movements and a persistently high household savings rate.
• Mainland China’s financial wealth expanded by 15% in 2025 and is projected to grow at 9% annually through 2030.
• In the Middle East and Africa, nominal wealth grew 12.3% in line with a broader rally in emerging markets.
• The rest of Asia-Pacific grew by 9.2% in 2025.
• North America delivered a more measured rise of 7.4%, as a weaker US dollar offset strong equity gains.
• Hong Kong overtook Switzerland for the first time as the world’s largest cross-border wealth hub, with cross-border wealth booked there rising 10.7% to $2.9 trillion.

Recent Developments

• September 24, 2026: LPL Financial reported total client assets of $2.60 trillion at the end of August and organic net new assets of $13.5 billion, a 6.4% annualized growth rate.
• September 15, 2026: The Charles Schwab Corporation reported core net new assets of $64.8 billion for August, up 46% versus August 2025.
• September 11, 2026: The Federal Reserve’s quarterly release showed that the ratio of household net worth to disposable personal income reached a record high of 8.28 in the second quarter.
• September 9, 2026: Wealthfront reported Total Platform Assets up 12% year-over-year to $99.0 billion and said it surpassed $100 billion as of the end of August.
• July 29, 2026: UBS reported Global Wealth Management net new assets of $36 billion in the second quarter and $73 billion in the first half.
• July 15, 2026: Morgan Stanley said total client assets across Wealth and Investment Management reached the $10 trillion milestone.

Global Personal Wealth Growth by Year

• The UBS Global Wealth Report shows global personal wealth rising 10.8% in USD terms in 2025, well ahead of 4.6% in 2024 and 4.2% in 2023.
• Wealth growth was strongest in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at 17.5%, followed by the Americas at 8.5% and Asia-Pacific at 5.9%.
• The number of USD millionaires rose by 1.5% in 2025, equivalent to nearly one million new millionaires globally, or more than 2,600 per day.
• The United States accounted for almost half of newly created millionaires, adding more than 440,000 individuals.
• The proportion of adults in the lowest wealth band, below $10,000, dropped from almost 75% in 2000 to just over 41% in 2025.

UBS counts USD millionaires, and Capgemini counts high-net-worth individuals under different wealth definitions, so their totals and growth rates are not directly comparable.

Worth noting: UBS says regional differences partly reflect currency movements, most notably the depreciation of the US dollar, which amplified wealth increases outside the United States. The 10.8% headline is a dollar-denominated figure, so part of the 2025 jump reflects exchange rates rather than new savings or market gains alone.

High-Net-Worth Individual Population Statistics

• Asia-Pacific posted the highest regional growth in wealth of 10.5% and population growth of 9.4%, with Japan and China adding 436,000 and 154,000 millionaires, respectively.
• The United States added 736,000 new millionaires, more than any other country worldwide, as its HNWI population grew by 9.2% to 8.7 million.
• Europe’s HNWI population grew 6.5% in 2025 after a decline in 2024, with Luxembourg up 13.5% and Germany up 11.1%.
• The Middle East’s HNWI population contracted 1.4% amid lower oil prices and regional conflict.
• The top 1% of HNWIs account for 34.8% of HNWI wealth.

Source: Capgemini World Wealth Report 2026

Average Wealth per Adult by Country

• Adults in North America remained the wealthiest on average, with average wealth per adult of $660,000, followed by Australia and New Zealand at almost $590,000.
• Switzerland continued to top the ranking for average wealth per adult at $910,382, followed by the United States and Luxembourg.
• Western Europe reached over $330,000 in average wealth per adult.
• Luxembourg led the median wealth ranking at $394,005 per adult, ahead of Belgium at $277,166.

Averages flatter markets with many very wealthy residents, which is why the wealth inequality statistics matter when reading these rankings.

Selected Wealth Management Firms by Client Assets

• Charles Schwab’s total client assets equaled $13.41 trillion as of month-end August, up 19% from August 2025. The Charles Schwab client asset data tracks the firm’s longer history.
• JPMorgan Chase’s Asset & Wealth Management client assets were $7.7 trillion, up 19%, and assets under management were $5.1 trillion, up 18%.
• Bank of America’s Global Wealth and Investment Management held client balances of $4.9 trillion, up 12%, and $2.3 trillion of AUM balances, up 17%.
• Advisory assets made up 60.8% of LPL Financial’s $2.60 trillion in total client assets at the end of August, up from 57.8% a year ago.
• Wealthfront’s Total Platform Assets were $99.0 billion at the end of the quarter, with funded clients up 14% to 1.5 million. The Wealthfront robo-advisor statistics cover its fee and account data.

Source: Charles Schwab, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Bank of America, LPL Financial and Wealthfront company releases, 2026

Each firm defines its asset base differently, so these figures show scale rather than a like-for-like league table. Bank of America, for example, reports client balances for its wealth division only, while Morgan Stanley’s milestone spans Wealth and Investment Management combined.

Wealth Management Net New Assets and Margins

• Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Management reported net revenues of $8.9 billion compared with $7.8 billion a year ago, and pre-tax income of $2.7 billion resulted in a pre-tax margin of 30.5%.
• JPMorgan Chase’s Asset & Wealth Management net revenue was $6.9 billion, up 19%, and net income was $2.0 billion, up 33%.
• Bank of America’s wealth division earned net income of $1.4 billion on revenue of $6.9 billion, up 16%, as asset management fees rose 19% to $4.4 billion.
• Bank of America’s AUM flows were $14 billion for the quarter and $78 billion since 2Q25.
• UBS Global Wealth Management’s underlying transaction-based income rose 23% year over year in 2Q26.
• Schwab’s core net new assets reached $64.8 billion in August, a record for the month of August.

Source: Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab, UBS, Bank of America and LPL Financial company releases, 2026

By the numbers: Morgan Stanley’s strong net new assets for the quarter were $148 billion, of which just over half represented inflows related to IPOs of certain clients in its Workplace channel. Event-driven money of that kind can swell a single quarter, so the Morgan Stanley wealth statistics over several quarters give a steadier read on organic growth.

US Investment Adviser Industry Statistics

• The number of advisers rose to 16,544 in 2025, while the number of clients served by those advisers increased by 7.7% to 73.7 million.
• Assets under management gained 22.3% from $144.6 trillion to $176.8 trillion, while non-clerical employment grew 7.5% to reach 1.1 million employees.
• Advisers focused on individuals as clients averaged just 8 employees and $424 million in assets under management.
• Assets in hedge funds managed by SEC-registered advisers gained 18.5% in 2025.

Source: Investment Adviser Association and Comply, Investment Adviser Industry Snapshot 2026

Financial Advisor Workforce Statistics

• The ranks of registered representatives climbed for the fourth year in a row to 639,723 in 2025, a 5% increase since 2021.
• Between 40,000 and 45,000 people now enter the industry annually.
• As of year-end 2025, 331,802 individuals maintained dual registration as both registered representatives and investment adviser representatives, while 94,562 held investment adviser-only registrations and 307,921 held broker-dealer-only registrations.
• In 2025, 11,294 broker-dealer-only registered representatives added investment adviser registration to become dual-registered.
• The number of CFP® professionals rose 4.3% over 2024, and 11,037 people sat for the exam in 2025.
• Women CFP® professionals reached a record 25,601, representing 23.8% of all CFP® professionals.

Dual registration is now the most common of the three paths in FINRA’s Industry Snapshot. The firms that employ these professionals are consolidating even as headcount grows:

• The number of FINRA member firms fell roughly 6% to 3,184 in 2025, with small firms dropping to 2,832 from 3,048.
• While 163 firms exited FINRA membership, 98 new firms joined, all entering at the small-firm level.
• Firms are nearly 12% larger since 2021, with 203 affiliated registered reps on average, and total revenue reached $776.8 billion in 2025, nearly doubling from $398.5 billion in 2021.

Key finding: McKinsey estimates that revenues from fee-based advisory relationships grew from approximately $150 billion in 2015 to $260 billion in 2024, and that advised relationships could reach 67 million to 71 million by 2034, up from 53 million in 2024. Demand is rising faster than the advisor bench.

Is there a financial advisor shortage?

Yes, by McKinsey’s estimate. The US industry could face a shortage of 90,000 to 110,000 advisors, or 30 to 37% of current headcount, by 2034 at current productivity levels. An estimated 110,000 advisors, representing 42% of total industry assets, are expected to retire in the next decade. More context sits in the financial advisor headcount statistics.

HNWI Portfolio Allocation Statistics

• Equity allocations increased to 25% of HNWI portfolios as of January 2026, a three-percentage-point increase from last year.
• Fixed income holdings expanded to 20%, up two percentage points, as bond markets delivered their strongest returns since 2020.
• Alternative investments declined to 12%, reflecting the relative outperformance of public equities.
• Two in three HNWIs (68%) indicate an intention to increase their exposure to private equity.

Equities lead the three classes shown, which do not sum to 100%, so the remainder sits in categories outside this table. The appetite for private markets is the bigger signal for product teams, and the alternative investment industry data tracks where that money goes.

Client Loyalty and Advisory Experience Statistics

• Exclusive client relationships have halved in the past six years: in 2019, 39% of HNWIs worked with a single firm, and in 2025 that figure shrank to just 19%.
• Just 17% of HNWIs call their advisory experience seamless and personalized, while 42% have had to restate their goals multiple times to the same firm.
• Nearly all firms (97%) still segment clients primarily by assets under management, and 60% of wealth management executives acknowledge their firms lack a unified client view.
• With 41% of advisors’ time consumed by operational tasks, 76% want AI-enabled systems to automate routine work.
• When firms get customer experience right, 53% of HNWIs recommend their firm to others, and 47% consolidate their assets.
• Capgemini estimates that between 2022 and 2025, $1.5 trillion in new assets flowed to competitors of traditional firms.

What are the current trends in the wealth management industry?

HNWIs are spreading assets across more providers, with WealthTechs, single-family offices, and robo-advisory platforms increasingly capturing market share from incumbents. Boston Consulting Group finds AI-first wealth managers could unlock 25% to 30% capacity gains across key workflows while increasing revenue per advisor by 15% to 20%. The AI in wealth management statistics track how firms are adopting these tools.

Great Wealth Transfer Statistics

• Cerulli projects that US wealth transferred through 2048 will total $124 trillion, with $105 trillion expected to flow to heirs and $18 trillion going to charity.
• Projections show $54 trillion will be passed on to spouses first, with nearly $40 trillion of these spousal transfers going to widowed women in the Baby Boomer and older generations.
• Millennials will inherit the most of any generation over the next 25 years ($46 trillion), while Gen X stands to inherit $14 trillion in the next 10 years, compared with Millennials’ $8 trillion.

Source: Cerulli Associates, 2024

Why it matters: Capgemini’s 2025 research found that 81% of inheritors plan to switch firms within one to two years of inheritance, as $83.5 trillion is set to change hands over the next two decades. Firms that hold today’s assets have no guarantee of keeping them once they pass to heirs.

Conclusion

Global financial wealth stands at $333 trillion. Charles Schwab alone reports $13.41 trillion in total client assets. The growth story is real, but the data points to two pressure points: clients are spreading assets across more firms, and the advisor supply is not keeping pace with demand for advice.

The next test is the wealth transfer. Cerulli’s $124 trillion US projection and Capgemini’s finding on inheritor switching suggest market share will move toward firms that build relationships with heirs before the money moves. Our asset management statistics track the product side of the same shift.