If you’re part of a sales or distribution team, you already know this much: success depends on understanding who you’re selling to. But when it comes to navigating the financial advisor landscape, two key groups often get overlooked or misunderstood: banks and broker-dealers.
Both play essential roles in how investment products are allocated and distributed, and both offer meaningful opportunities for growing your AUM.
The challenge?
Knowing where to find them, who to talk to, and how they operate.
And let’s be honest… without the right data, separating these channels (and figuring out who’s actually active) can feel like a guessing game.
Outdated spreadsheets, generic lists, and clunky third-party tools often miss the mark. They don’t tell you which firms are actively allocating capital or distributing investment products, let alone who’s behind those decisions.
That’s exactly why we built Dakota FAs. To give sales teams quick, affordable access to clean, verified data on the firms and contacts that matter most. No guesswork. No friction.
In this article we’re breaking down the definition of a bank and a broker-dealer. By the end of this, you’ll have a better understanding of how to approach them.
What is a Bank?
A bank is a licensed financial institution that accepts deposits, issues loans, and offers a range of services to individuals, businesses, and institutions.
But within many banks, there are trust departments and private banking teams… and that’s where things get interesting for fundraising teams. These groups manage wealth for high-net-worth individuals, families, foundations, and endowments, and often serve as allocators, placing client assets with external managers.
In other words, these aren’t just banks. They’re potential partners.
From a sales standpoint, bank trust departments represent a high-value, often under-the-radar channel. They manage billions in investable assets and take fiduciary responsibility seriously, but they can be hard to find without the right tools.
That’s where Dakota FAs comes in. You can easily search by geography, firm type, asset range, and more to help you spot the trust departments worth reaching out to and build a more targeted outreach strategy.
What is a Broker-Dealer?
Broker-dealers are firms or individuals licensed to buy and sell securities, either on behalf of clients (as brokers) or for their own accounts (as dealers). But more importantly for your business, they’re distribution powerhouses.
They connect investment products, like mutual funds, ETFs, and alternatives, to advisors and end investors. That means they’re a critical link in the chain between you and new flows.
Broker-dealers range in size and structure. Some are small independents, others are regional firms, and many are part of large national wirehouses. Most employ registered representatives… the frontline professionals who build relationships with clients and advisors.
If you’re calling on this channel, knowing which broker-dealers are active, what products they distribute, and who their key contacts are can turn scattershot outreach into meaningful conversations.
Dakota Marketplace FA gives you complete visibility into this landscape — with verified contacts, metro-level filters, and firm intelligence that helps you sell smarter, faster, and with more confidence.
Why It Matters
Banks and broker-dealers play different but complementary roles in the investment ecosystem.
- Banks act as allocators — directing client capital toward asset managers they trust.
- Broker-dealers act as distributors — helping get your product into the hands of advisors and investors.
Together, they represent two of the most powerful and scalable channels for growing AUM, but only if your team can find them, understand them, and connect with them efficiently.
We built Dakota FAs with one goal in mind: to make selling to financial advisors, banks, and broker-dealers simpler, faster, and more effective… especially for the teams focused solely on these channels.
With Dakota FAs, you get:
- Clean, verified data
- Easy search by business type, region, or AUM
- Self-serve access for just $75/month — no contract, no catch
Whether you’re looking to uncover new relationships, expand into new geographies, or streamline your outreach to the right types of firms, Dakota FAs gives you the clarity and confidence to move forward.
