Our last post, Who Audits Broker-Dealers, discussed the auditor market share of broker-dealers simply by the number of clients audited.
The total assets of a company provides a general idea of how large a company is, and we use this metric to look at the broker-dealer market from a different perspective- market share by total assets.
Despite not auditing a significant percent of broker dealers as a whole, the Big Four firms audit many of the larger broker-dealers. Ten percent of the broker-dealer population has greater than $50 million in total assets and the Big Four firms audit 72% of this subset. The Big Four, together with RSM US, lead the way with the most number of broker-dealer clients with assets greater than $50 million.
The largest broker-dealer with assets greater than $50 million is Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC with $424,649 million in total assets. Goldman Sachs is audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. PwC audits seven of the largest 13 broker-dealers (in terms of total assets).
When looking at the market share of broker-dealers with less than $50 million in total assets, the data becomes much more congested.
While the Big Four still has clients in the smaller markets, many of the non-Big Four firms provide stiffer competition. Breard & Associates has 119 clients with less than $50 million in assets (the clear leader of smaller market). Edward Richardson Jr CPA, a Michigan firm specializing in broker-dealer audits, has 88 clients with less than $50 million in assets. Only two of the Big Four firms (PwC and KPMG) reside in the top five of the smaller market share subset.
The largest broker-dealer with assets less than $50 million is MTG, LLC with $49,968,574 in total assets, and they are audited by Friedman LLP.
76 firms have at least ten clients with less than $50 million in assets. Meanwhile, PwC has a balanced allocation of broker dealer clients: 86 clients with greater than $50 million in assets and 97 clients with less than $50 million in assets. Ninety percent of the broker-dealer population has less than $50 million in total assets and the Big Four firms audit roughly 10% of this subset.
Overall, the Big Four firms dominate the broker dealer market for larger companies, while market share is much more balanced among the smaller sized broker dealers.
For more information on the Audit Analytics Broker-Dealer database, please email us at info@auditanalytics.com or call (508) 476-7007.