Average account balances across participant accounts increased nearly 8% during the second quarter of 2025.
According to Charles Schwab’s latest SDBA Indicators Report, average account balances finished at $362,302 in Q2 2025, up 7.9% compared to the first quarter and 8.1% year-over-year. Advised accounts averaged $555,653 while non-advised accounts averaged $319,078.
Baby Boomers came in with the highest average account balance at $599,314. Gen Xers had $378,972, followed by Millennials with $141,067.
Gen Xers led in SDBA participants, with 46.9% investing in self-directed brokerage accounts (SDBAs). Millennials and Boomers followed at 27% and 22.8%, respectively. The Sandwich generation also had the most advised accounts, at 52.4%, with Millennials trailing at 25% and Boomers coming in at 20.7%.
Overall, trading volumes were similar to Q1 2025 numbers and averaged at 15.4 trades per account. Charles Schwab notes that while the second quarter started with a volatile market environment due to global trade concerns, the stock market ultimately rebounded with the S&P 500 gaining 10.9% following strong technology and communication sector performances and a solid corporate earnings report.
Allocation trends
Equities persisted as the largest asset category with 34.8% of participant holdings, with information technology coming in again as the largest sector with 37.9% of equity assets. The top individual stock positions were NVIDIA, Apple, Tesla, Amazon, and Microsoft.
Exchange-traded funds (ETF) surpassed mutual funds as the second most popular investment vehicle, rising to 27.9% of total assets. ETF holdings were largely comprised of U.S. equity ETFs (49.4%), followed by U.S. fixed income ETFs (13%) and international equity ETFs (11.9%).
Mutual funds recorded 26.3% of participant assets, mainly led by large-cap stock funds at 33.9%, money market funds at 17.9%, and taxable bond funds at 14.3%.
Finally, cash and equivalents reported 7.2% of participant assets, meanwhile fixed income comprised at 3.9% of assets.
The SDBA Indicators Report includes data from 315,000 retirement plan participants with balances between $5,000 and $10 million in their Schwab Personal Choice Retirement Account.
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