Where is everyone buying their stocks? Popular juggernauts like Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and Vanguard offer feature-packed investing apps. Each player wants your business.
You know what they say: there can only be one winner.
The winner of the wallet wars can be sliced two ways: the brokerage with the most money under management, and the brokerage with the most accounts active. A May 2024 study by The Motley Fool Ascent reveals which of the most popular brokerages are winning your friends’ portfolios.
Charles Schwab has the most assets under management
Charles Schwab has $9.57 trillion of assets under management, more than any other brokerage surveyed by The Ascent.
Charles Schwab is one of the biggest and most well-known brokerages in the world. It manages trillions of dollars worth of investment. Of all the brokerages examined in the study, Vanguard is the only one that comes close, at $9.30 trillion under management.
The biggest investors are trusting Charles Schwab with huge deposits. You may want to open a Schwab account if you have thousands (or millions) of dollars of investments to manage.
Fidelity has the most active brokerage accounts
Fidelity has 51.5 million active brokerage accounts, more than any other brokerage surveyed by The Ascent.
Despite managing less money on its platform than Charles Schwab, Fidelity is winning more business from investors. It has more active accounts than competitors. That said, it’s a close race. Schwab has 35.7 million active accounts, the second most of brokerages studied.
More people are trusting Fidelity with their investments than competitors, including Schwab, Robinhood, and Coinbase. Fidelity has a stellar reputation and a solid investing platform you can use on desktop or mobile. But how does Fidelity’s accounts stack up to Schwab?
Schwab vs. Fidelity: Which is better?
Schwab and Fidelity are the two most popular online brokerage firms by assets managed and active brokerage accounts. (See the following table for a comparison)
| Charles Schwab | Fidelity | |
|---|---|---|
| Assets under management | $9.57 trillion | $5.5 trillion |
| Active brokerage accounts | 35.7 million | 51.5 million |
Data source: The Ascent research, “The Largest Brokerage Firms”
These two heavyweight brokerages are similar, but there are differences. One may be better-suited to your needs, offering better features or lower fees.
Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab is best suited to investors who trade more than the basics (or plan on it). It offers many account types, investment types, and deep platforms, including ones tailored to advanced or beginner investors. Its thinkorswim platform is unique to Schwab, and extremely popular.
Schwab’s disadvantage is that you might get overwhelmed by features. There’s a lot to choose from. It may be easier to get started with simpler investing apps.
Just getting started? Learn more about how the best investing apps for beginners make it easy to open an account and invest in stocks — minus the trading commissions.
Fidelity
Fidelity is best suited to investors who want low fees. The brokerage gives you a variety of account types and investments, plus deep research. Its miscellaneous fees are lower than competitors like Schwab — therefore, it’s unlikely to charge you fees you’ve never heard of.
The downside of Fidelity is it lacks modern perks offered by smaller, innovative brokers. For example, Webull and Robinhood offer some version of deposit match, which adds more money to your brokerage deposits.
Open an account with a popular brokerage for reliability
Charles Schwab and Fidelity are popular because they’re reliable. Unlike newer competitors, they’ve been in the investing business for decades. If you can’t trust them with your money, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any brokerage reputable enough to open an account with.
Many brokers cover your brokerage balance with SIPC insurance. But the most reliable are supported by decades of history and big balance sheets, plus strong customer support.
Is using a reliable brokerage a priority? If so, consider opening an account with Fidelity or Schwab. They’re relatively safe places to invest your money, and their customer service is as good as it gets. It’s hard to go wrong. They’re both great brokers with lots of overlap on features and perks — the choice is yours.
