Data sourced from Dakota Marketplace, the global LP and GP intelligence platform trusted by thousands of investment professionals. Learn More | Book a Demo
Fundraising and raising capital is hard. Dakota makes it easier.
Regulatory AUM tells you how big an adviser is. It doesn’t tell you how the firm actually operates or who sits behind it. That information lives in the Form ADV, but pulling it from the SEC’s site and piecing it together across multiple sources is slow work that most people skip before a call.
In this article, we’ll walk through how Form ADV data built directly into Dakota Marketplace account pages surfaces ownership, private fund activity, and SMA business details in one place, and how to use it to qualify advisers and find the decision makers behind them.
What Form ADV Data Actually Shows You
Form ADV filings are pulled directly onto Marketplace account pages, giving you a firm’s regulatory AUM, fee structure, client base breakdown, and custody arrangements without leaving the platform or visiting the SEC’s site. Beyond the base filing, the tab surfaces three deeper views:
- Owners: the full Schedule A/B ownership table, with name, ownership %, title/status, CRD number, and control person flag
- Private Funds: fund type, gross asset value, number of beneficial owners, and a fund-of-funds flag
- SMA Business: custody of cash and securities, qualified custodian status, and total SMA client count
The coverage is broad. Marketplace holds 84,800+ Form ADV filings, with 27,500+ filed so far in 2026 and 24,300+ reporting $1B+ in regulatory AUM.
4 Use Cases for Form ADV in Dakota Marketplace
Use It to Qualify an Adviser Before the Call
The base filing gives you the size and shape of a firm: regulatory AUM, fee structure, and the mix of clients it serves. The Owners, Private Funds, and SMA Business views add how the firm actually operates. Checking these before a call means you can tailor your pitch to what the adviser really does, instead of opening with questions you could have answered yourself. One team told us during onboarding that they were fans of the Form ADV API pull, since it put this regulatory context in front of them immediately.
Book a demo to see Form ADV data for the advisers on your target list.
Use It to Find Advisers Running Private Funds
If your strategy is a fit for advisers that run private funds, the Private Funds view gives you a quick way to find them. You can see fund type, gross asset value, and the number of beneficial owners, along with a fund-of-funds flag. One firm reacted to the feeder funds visibility inside Form ADV by telling us that what we’re building is great, since that level of structural detail is normally hard to see without digging through the filing yourself.
Use It to Find the Decision Makers Behind a Firm
The Owners view shows you who sits behind a firm, with ownership percentage, title or status, CRD number, and a control person flag. That gives you a direct path to the people who make decisions, rather than guessing at who to contact. Pairing ownership data with the contacts already in Marketplace helps you build outreach around the people with real influence.
Use It to Pull the Latest Filings Straight From the Account Page
You don’t need to leave the platform to get the documents themselves. One IR team called Form ADV access directly from Marketplace a key feature, and later highlighted downloading the latest Form ADV and Part 2 Brochure straight from account pages, including detailed financial and client data. Keeping the filing and the account profile side by side means less switching between tabs and sources.
Check the Filing Before You Reach Out
Before your next adviser call, open the account page and review the Form ADV tab. Look at regulatory AUM, then check the Owners, Private Funds, and SMA Business views to see how the firm operates and who runs it.
Book a demo to see Form ADV ownership, private fund, and SMA data for the firms you cover.
FAQs
What does Form ADV data show in Dakota Marketplace? A firm’s regulatory AUM, fee structure, client base breakdown, and custody arrangements, plus three deeper views: Owners, Private Funds, and SMA Business.
What is in the Owners view? The full Schedule A/B ownership table, including name, ownership %, title/status, CRD number, and control person flag.
What can I see about an adviser’s private funds? Fund type, gross asset value, number of beneficial owners, and whether the fund is a fund-of-funds.
How many Form ADV filings does Dakota Marketplace track? 84,800+ filings, including 27,500+ filed so far in 2026.
