The Big Get Bigger: Top 10 Brokers Now Take ~60% of the Agency Commission Wallet
Key Takeaways
- Top 10 brokers captured 59.7% of the ~$4.0B U.S. agency wallet (July 2025), up from 55.3% five years earlier.
- This is largely a Top 100 accounts story: Top 100 allocate 62.1% to the Top 10 vs 42.9% for everyone else.
- Inside the biggest accounts, the long tail is shrinking: about $47M shifted away from non–Top 10 brokers (2022 → July 2025).
The Largest Commission Payers are Driving the Shift
The consolidation trend is most pronounced among the largest commission spenders. The Top 100 accounts—ranked by their aggregated agency commission wallet—represent 87.6% of the U.S. Fund/ETF wallet (~$3.51B of ~$4.00B) in the latest trailing 12-month period, and they allocate 62.1% of that spend to the Top 10 brokers.
By contrast, the remaining 871 accounts account for just 12.4% of total spend (~$0.50B), while directing 42.9% of their commissions to the Top 10 brokers.
Over a five-year window, the Top 100 accounts’ concentration rose from 57.1% to 62.1%, a 5.0-point increase, while the rest of the market remained essentially flat in the low-40% range. In practical terms, the overall market’s rising Top 10 share is being pulled upward primarily by the routing behavior of the largest managers rather than by smaller accounts becoming uniformly more concentrated.
A shrinking “long tail” at the top end of the market
Post Covid, from 2022 through July 2025, the Top 100 accounts’ total agency commission wallet increased by roughly $298 million, but the portion directed to the Top 10 rose by about $345 million, implying that around $47 million shifted away from non–Top 10 brokers within that cohort even as overall spend grew.
By contrast, among the smaller accounts (not Top 100 wallets), the non–Top 10 agency broker portion expanded over the same period, consistent with a segment that remains more diversified in broker usage.
Who are the Top 10 agency brokers for U.S. Funds and ETFs?
In the latest 12 month period, the Top 10 agency commissions brokers of SEC regulated funds/ETFs/VA/etc were BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Securities, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Citigroup, Jefferies, Barclays, RBC Capital Markets, and TD Cowen. The top four brokers alone are recipients of roughly one-third of the total agency commission wallet, underscoring how concentrated the market has become.
3 key takeaways (the “so what”)
- The U.S. agency wallet is concentrated at the top, and it’s measurable. In the latest period (July 2025), the Top 10 brokers captured 59.7% of the total aggregated U.S. agency commission wallet (~$4.0B). Five years earlier, that share was 55.3%. That’s a +4.4 point move; roughly $174M of annual commissions at today’s wallet size shifting into the Top 10 (all else equal).
- This is largely a “Top 100 managers” story, not a broad-based shift across smaller accounts. The Top 100 accounts represent 87.6% of the market wallet in the latest period, and their Top 10 agency broker concentration is 62.1%. Everyone else (871 accounts) is far less concentrated at 42.9%, and that “Everyone else” group has barely moved over the last 5 years (roughly ~41–44%).
- The long tail is shrinking inside the biggest accounts, even while total commissions rise. From July 2022 through July 2025, the Top 100 accounts’ total wallet grew by ~$298M, but the commissions routed to the Top 10 grew by ~$345M, implying ~$47M shifted away from non–Top 10 brokers within the Top 100 cohort.
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