Altruist crept, then leaped, then leapfrogged over Pershing, the No.3 custodian in practice count, by leveraging Pershing as a chief accomplice to help usurp its ranking. The Los Angeles RIA custody fought and scratched to 1,747 RIAs – with 400% growth in 2022 – in the first five years since its 2018 start-up, before announcing it is swallowing its larger, older 1,600-RIA competitor, Shareholders Service Group (SSG).