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Two SEC filings sit at the center of most institutional prospecting workflows. The Form 13F shows what an RIA owns. The Form ADV shows who they are, how they operate, and what they are built to invest in. Most distribution teams default to one or the other. The ones building the best prospect lists use both together.
In this article, we cover what each filing actually is, what each one tells you, where each falls short, and how to use them together to build a more complete picture of any RIA prospect.
What Each Filing Actually Is
The Form 13F is a quarterly holdings disclosure. Every institutional investment manager with $100 million or more in qualifying U.S. securities must file it within 45 days of each quarter end. It lists every long position in Section 13(f) securities (stocks, ETFs, closed-end funds, certain options) by name, share count, and dollar value.
The Form ADV is a registration and disclosure document filed by registered investment advisers. It covers the firm's business model, client types, AUM, fee structures, ownership, disciplinary history, and investment strategies. Unlike the 13F, the ADV is updated annually… and on an interim basis whenever material changes occur.
Side by Side: How They Work
Different Questions, Different Answers
The ADV tells you the firm is theoretically capable of buying your fund. The 13F tells you they already have.
Intent vs. Behavior
The Form ADV describes intent, meaning what a firm says it invests in, who its clients are, and what strategies it employs. An ADV that lists alternative investments or private funds as a stated strategy is a signal worth noting. But stated strategies are broad, self-reported, and updated annually at most.
The 13F records behavior. It shows what the firm actually bought, held, and trimmed (in public securities) over the last quarter. An RIA that has steadily grown its allocation to BDCs, senior loan ETFs, or closed-end income funds over eight consecutive quarters is demonstrating a pattern, not describing one. Understanding what actually qualifies as a reportable 13F position helps your team read those patterns correctly.
For prospecting purposes, behavioral data almost always outperforms stated intent. A firm that says it invests in alternatives on its ADV but holds no alternative-related securities on its 13F is a fundamentally different conversation than one with eight quarters of consistent exposure.]
What Neither Filing Shows
Dakota’s holding data connects 13F position data and Form ADV firm profiles to verified decision-maker contacts across 8,000+ RIA accounts. Book a demo to see for yourself.
The Stronger Signal Is Both
The most actionable prospect profile combines ADV context with 13F behavior. An RIA with $2 billion in AUM (ADV), a stated focus on income-generating strategies (ADV), and six quarters of growing closed-end fund exposure (13F) is a high-confidence prospect. The ADV establishes capacity and authorization. The 13F confirms execution.
Used alone, either filing leaves gaps. The ADV alone risks chasing firms that describe strategies they rarely execute. The 13F alone misses firms with strong capacity and strategic fit that haven't yet entered a particular structure. The structural problems with raw 13F data run deep enough that layering in ADV context is one of the most reliable ways to improve prospect quality.
Matching the Filing to the Question
For timing your outreach around 13F filing signals, the quarter-over-quarter comparison is where the real intelligence lives.
How Dakota’s Holding Data Brings Both Together
The 13F and Form ADV are both free, public, and updated regularly. Together they answer the two most important questions in RIA prospecting: is this firm capable of investing in our strategy, and are they already doing it? The filings exist. The challenge is connecting them to the right contact at the right firm at the right time.
Dakota’s holding data connects 13F holdings data to Form ADV firm profiles across 8,000+ verified RIA accounts — with decision-maker contacts attached to each one. Every 13F position is tagged across 19 asset classes and 236 sub-asset classes. Every account is linked to AUM, client type, and investment strategy data from the ADV. And every firm is connected to confirmed, active contacts: names, roles, and outreach information.
That means your team is not choosing between behavioral data and firm context — you get both, connected and contact-ready, in a single workflow that flows directly into Salesforce, HubSpot, Backstop, or DealCloud.
Book a demo of Dakota Marketplace to see how 13F and Form ADV data work together across your target RIA universe.
