At a glance
- The responses were collected between January and March 2025.
- The study covers the operational topics a practice owner faces: asset and revenue growth, the sources of new clients, products and pricing, staffing and compensation, marketing, technology, and financial performance.
- A firm wondering whether its fee schedule or headcount is out of line can measure itself against peers of similar size and business model.
Schwab has published its 2025 RIA Benchmarking Study, based on responses from 1,288 advisory firms that custody with the firm. Those firms hold more than $2.4 trillion in combined client assets. The responses were collected between January and March 2025.
The study covers the operational topics a practice owner faces: asset and revenue growth, the sources of new clients, products and pricing, staffing and compensation, marketing, technology, and financial performance. Schwab says the data is self-reported, not independently verified, and calls it the RIA industry's leading study.
Comparison is the point. A firm wondering whether its fee schedule or headcount is out of line can measure itself against peers of similar size and business model. The study lives in Schwab Business Consulting and Education, the custodian's practice-management arm.
The caveat is in the design. The firms are all Schwab-custodied — a broad but particular slice of the independent market — and the answers are advisors' own claims, not audited figures. For a principal weighing a hire, a fee change, or a marketing budget increase, the study is a baseline. The self-reported, Schwab-only pool is the asterisk; read it that way, and the study earns its place in the annual planning binder.
Reported by the Practice management desk from Schwab Advisor Services News. Published . Corrections