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Global ETF assets hit a record $23.08 trillion at the end of May 2026, up 16.3% year to date on record inflows of $1.07 trillion, the industry's 84th consecutive month of net inflows (ETFGI, June 2026).
Meanwhile, the BDC universe sits at roughly $500 billion, and the 13F system captures quarterly equity positions from more than 5,000 institutional managers (S&P Dow Jones Indices, January 2026; EDGAR Scout, May 2026).
These three, 13F filings, ETFs, and BDCs, show up constantly in fundraising and manager research conversations, and they get confused with each other more than almost anything else in private markets vocabulary.
This article separates what each one actually is, how it works, and why it matters to anyone raising capital or researching allocators.
The Three Fund Structures Every Fundraiser Should Know
13F: A Disclosure Requirement, Not a Fund
Worth clearing up first: a 13F isn't a type of fund at all, it's a regulatory filing. Form 13F is an SEC requirement, introduced in 1975 under Section 13(f) of the Securities Exchange Act, for any institutional investment manager exercising discretion over $100 million or more in Section 13(f) securities, a list of roughly 17,500 U.S.-listed equities, ETFs, and certain convertible securities that the SEC updates quarterly (Investor.gov; ACN Solutions, January 2026).
Once a manager crosses that $100 million threshold in any month of a calendar year, it must file Form 13F within 45 days of that year-end and within 45 days of each of the following three quarter-ends, disclosing every qualifying position by name, class, and value (Paul Hastings; Comply, February 2025). Because of the 45-day lag, 13F data always shows a manager's positions as of roughly six weeks earlier, useful for understanding what a fund held and how its book has shifted over time, not what it holds today.
13F filers span the full range of institutional capital: mutual funds, hedge funds, banks, insurance companies, pension managers, and RIAs. That breadth is exactly why 13F data is such a useful research tool for fundraisers: it's one of the only windows into what large, otherwise opaque managers actually own, and Dakota Marketplace uses it to identify RIAs and other filers who are the largest holders of liquid alternatives, including BDCs and closed-end funds, giving fund managers a way to find allocators already comfortable with alternative structures rather than cold-prospecting the entire RIA channel.
ETFs: Open-End, Exchange-Traded, and Growing Fast
An ETF, or exchange-traded fund, is an open-end investment vehicle that holds a basket of securities and trades on an exchange throughout the day like a stock, rather than pricing once daily like a mutual fund. The mechanism that keeps an ETF's price close to the value of its underlying holdings is the creation/redemption process: authorized participants can create new ETF shares by delivering a basket of the underlying securities to the fund, or redeem ETF shares for the underlying basket, which arbitrages away most premium or discount to net asset value.
The category has moved from a niche indexing tool to one of the largest structures in global finance. Global ETF assets reached $23.08 trillion by the end of May 2026, up from $19.85 trillion at the end of 2025, and the industry has now recorded 84 straight months without a net outflow (ETFGI, June 2026). Passive index funds still anchor the bulk of assets, but active ETFs are the fastest-growing corner of the market: active ETF assets hit a record $2.49 trillion in May 2026, up 28.8% year to date, with Q1 2026 active inflows of $245 billion representing a 70% jump over the prior quarterly record (ETFGI, June 2026; ETF Database, June 2026). Three providers, iShares, Vanguard, and State Street, control 59% of global ETF assets among more than 1,000 providers worldwide (ETFGI, May 2026).
ETFs are the dominant building block in RIA and wealth manager model portfolios, and the shift toward active ETFs means more fund managers are now evaluating the ETF wrapper as a distribution vehicle for strategies once only available through separate accounts or mutual funds.
Want to see which allocators are already holding these structures? Book a demo to explore Dakota's 13F, ETF, and BDC coverage firsthand.
BDCs: A Closed-End Structure Built for Private Credit
A business development company, or BDC, is a closed-end investment company Congress created in 1980 to channel capital into small and mid-sized U.S. businesses, while giving private credit managers a way to access public capital markets. Three rules define the structure: at least 70% of assets must sit in "eligible portfolio companies," generally private U.S. operating businesses; the vehicle must distribute at least 90% of taxable income to shareholders to maintain pass-through tax treatment; and leverage is capped at 200% asset coverage (a 1:1 debt-to-equity ratio), or 150% for BDCs that elect the reduced threshold under the 2018 Small Business Credit Availability Act (SEC; Dechert LLP).
BDCs have become the public-market face of the private credit boom. The BDC universe, listed and non-traded combined, holds roughly $500 billion in assets, with publicly traded BDCs accounting for $175-180 billion of that total, a small slice of the broader $2 trillion-plus U.S. private credit market but the part investors can buy on an exchange (S&P Dow Jones Indices, January 2026; Federal Reserve FEDS Notes, May 2025). We covered the 10 largest publicly traded BDCs, and how the structure compares to non-traded BDC vehicles, in our dedicated BDC guide.
BDC managers and their affiliated credit platforms are themselves active allocators and co-investors, showing up on sponsor cap tables and as permanent-capital buyers of middle-market credit, a distinct channel from both the traditional LP universe and the ETF-driven wealth management channel.
How the Three Overlap
These structures aren't fully separate categories, they intersect constantly:
- A 13F filing can disclose a manager's ETF holdings and its BDC holdings side by side, since both are Section 13(f) securities once listed on an exchange.
- RIAs, the largest channel Dakota tracks through 13F data, are simultaneously the biggest buyers of ETFs for client portfolios and a growing source of demand for listed BDCs as a private credit access point.
- BDC shares themselves are exchange-traded securities, meaning institutional BDC ownership is visible through 13F filings, the same disclosure mechanism used to track ETF ownership.
For a fund manager, that overlap means the same 13F dataset can be used to answer three different questions: who owns our category of ETF, who already holds BDC or private credit exposure, and which RIAs or institutions are increasing alternatives allocations over time.
Put This to Work in Your Next Fundraise
Understanding which of these three structures a target allocator is using, and why, changes how you position a strategy. An RIA that's 90% allocated to ETF model portfolios is a different conversation than one already holding BDC positions disclosed on its 13F. Knowing the mechanics, the disclosure lag on 13F data, the creation/redemption process behind ETF pricing, the 70%/90%/leverage rules behind BDCs, is what separates a generic pitch from one that speaks to how the allocator's book is actually built.
That's exactly the gap Dakota Marketplace's 13F Holdings module is built to close. Instead of a raw filing that only tells you what an institution owned six weeks ago, Dakota enriches every position across 19 asset classes and 236 sub-asset classes, matches it to a known allocator, and surfaces confirmed contacts, so you're not just seeing who holds BDC or ETF positions, you know who to call. Coverage extends into the BDC universe itself, with 40+ publicly traded BDCs tracked at the loan level so you can see total exposure and ranked lenders behind any middle-market borrower, not just the equity ownership visible on a 13F.
Filter by filer type, position size, share of portfolio in alternatives, and direct contacts for the teams making allocation decisions.
Book a demo to see our 13F, ETF, and BDC coverage in action.
