Best Brokerage Firms for High Net Worth Individuals of 2024 (2024)

Did you know that over 70% of assets at Schwab come from high and ultra high net worth clients? I didn’t until recently, but I’m not surprised, as Schwab has the most integrated suite of tools, reports, and services for high net worth investors, all supported by a dedicated cadre of exceptionally qualified wealth advisors. The acquisition of TD Ameritrade brought over new features, including one of my favorite trading platforms, thinkorswim. Read review.

Merrill Edge was my choice for the Best for High Net Worth award last year, and it’s still an exceptional firm for wealthy customers with diverse needs such as bringing a company public. I am particularly impressed by its compelling reward program for high net worth clients and its convenient tie-in with Bank of America. Some clients may need to establish new relationships outside the self-directed Merrill Edge to accomplish all their goals. Read review.

Fidelity has a top-notch reputation and delivers a wide range of well-organized and high-quality content that addresses high net worth concerns. The primary issue that led me to rank Fidelity third for high net worth is that it doesn’t have the banking resources available at Schwab and Merrill Edge. The Fidelity service model I evaluated also seems geared toward the mass affluent, those with $100,000 to $1 million in liquid assets. There are private wealth services for folks who park at least $2 million of their at least $10 million smackers with Fidelity, but I may need to wait on testing that until my futures options trading really pays off. It might be a while. Read review.

Based on our analysis, Charles Schwab is the best broker for self-directed high net worth investors. Its newly rolled out Private Client Services (high net worth) and Private Wealth Services (ultra high net worth) offer a winning combination of support, perks, and comprehensive reporting.

The brokerage industry generally classifies individuals with between $1 million and $10 million of investable (liquid) assets as high net worth investors.

High net worth individuals usually have diversified portfolios of a variety of investments. They are typically less concerned about growth and more concerned with maintaining their purchasing power, minimizing taxes, and preserving their assets.

It’s likely safe, but it’s not optimal. The maximum coverage offered by the Securities Investors Protection Corporation is $500,000 per individual, of which a maximum of $250,000 cash can be cash. Some brokerages can automatically sweep cash balances into several FDIC insured accounts at partner banks.

Sam Levine, CFA, CMT, the lead writer for StockBrokers.com, has over 30 years of investing experience and actively trades stocks, ETFs, options, futures, and options on futures. He's held roles as a portfolio manager, financial consultant, investment strategist and journalist. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and the Chartered Market Technician (CMT) designations and served on the board of directors of the CMT Association.

Sam's expertise is backed by a team of fellow veteran traders, data auditors, editors and project managers who work to ensure that StockBrokers.com's guides are the most unbiased and complete in the industry.

For this guide:

• We used our own brokerage accounts for testing. For several brokers, we also used test accounts that were provided to us.
• We researched and compared relevant services offered by 17 stock brokers.
• We interviewed senior brokerage firm executives.

The StockBrokers.com editorial staff assessed the product offerings, educational content, and service models provided by 17 brokers, taking the perspective of high net worth households, which we define as those having $1-$10 million in liquid, investable assets. Some key criteria include cost, integration of services, availability of personalized advice and service, and the quality and quantity of educational content addressing intergenerational wealth transfers, tax minimization strategies, wealth preservation, and philanthropy.

StockBrokers.com uses a variety of computing devices to evaluate trading platforms. Our reviews were conducted using the following devices: iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, MacBook Pro M1 with 8 GB RAM running the current MacOS, and a Dell Vostro 5402 laptop i5 with 8 GB RAM running Windows 11 Pro. In testing platforms and apps, our reviewers place actual trades for a variety of instruments.

As part of our data check process, we sent a data profile link to each broker summarizing the data we had on file and the data they provided us last year, with a field for entering any data that had since changed. For the brokers that filled out these profiles, we audited the information for any discrepancies between our data and the broker’s data to ensure accuracy.

As part of our review process, all brokers had the opportunity to provide updates and key milestones in a live meeting that took place in the fall. Meetings with broker teams also took place throughout the year as new products rolled out. Insights gathered from these calls helped steer our testing efforts to ensure every feature and tool was assessed.

We tested 17 online trading platforms for this guide:

• Ally Invest review
• Charles Schwab review
• eToro review
• E*TRADE review
• Fidelity review
• Firstrade review
• Interactive Brokers review
• J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing review
• Merrill Edge review
• Public.com review
• Robinhood review
• SoFi Invest review
• tastytrade review
• TradeStation review
• Tradier review
• Vanguard review
• Webull review