Data sourced from Dakota Marketplace, the global LP and GP intelligence platform trusted by thousands of investment professionals. Learn More | Book a Demo
Every quarter, institutional investment managers with $100 million or more in 13(f) securities report their holdings to the SEC (SEC Form 13F FAQ). The filings are public but not built for prospecting: each is one firm's list of issuer names, share counts and values, with no asset class tags and no quarter-over-quarter comparison. Finding which RIAs hold a given ETF means pulling filings firm by firm and doing the matching yourself.
Dakota Marketplace does that work for you. Its 13F tab holds 2,621,000+ holdings, including 938,000+ ETF positions, searchable by ticker, asset class and product structure, with Status fields that flag each position as New, Increased, Decreased or Sold-Out versus last quarter.
We used that data to find which Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) ETFs the most RIAs actually own. The answer is short-term TIPS. Vanguard Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities (VTIP) is held by 46 RIAs for the quarter ending December 31, 2025, followed by iShares 0-5 Year TIPS Bond (STIP) at 40 and Schwab U.S. TIPS (SCHP) at 38. Inflation is still running above the Fed’s target, with consumer prices up 2.7% over the 12 months ending December 2025 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2026).
In this article, we’ll rank the 10 TIPS ETFs held by the most RIAs, show where the dollars concentrate, and break down what a short-duration inflation hedge means for managers pitching inflation-protection strategies.
The Top 10 TIPS ETFs Held by RIAs
Ranked by the number of distinct RIAs reporting a position in 13F filings for the quarter ending December 31, 2025.
|
Rank
|
Ticker
|
ETF
|
Category
|
RIA holdings
|
|
1
|
VTIP
|
Vanguard Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities ETF
|
Short-term TIPS
|
46
|
|
2
|
STIP
|
iShares 0-5 Year TIPS Bond ETF
|
Short-term TIPS
|
40
|
|
3
|
SCHP
|
Schwab U.S. TIPS ETF
|
Broad TIPS
|
38
|
|
4
|
TIP
|
iShares TIPS Bond ETF
|
Broad TIPS
|
36
|
|
5
|
DFIP
|
Dimensional Inflation-Protected Securities ETF
|
Broad TIPS (active)
|
13
|
|
6
|
SPIP
|
SPDR Portfolio TIPS ETF
|
Broad TIPS
|
7
|
|
7
|
TDTT
|
FlexShares iBoxx 3-Year Target Duration TIPS Index Fund
|
Short-term TIPS
|
6
|
|
8
|
STPZ
|
PIMCO 1-5 Year U.S. TIPS Index ETF
|
Short-term TIPS
|
6
|
|
9
|
IVOL
|
Quadratic Interest Rate Volatility and Inflation Hedge ETF
|
TIPS plus rate options
|
3
|
|
10
|
TIPX
|
SPDR Bloomberg 1-10 Year TIPS ETF
|
Intermediate TIPS
|
3
|
Source: Dakota Marketplace 13F holdings data, quarter ending December 31, 2025. TDTT and STPZ tie at 6 RIAs. IVOL and TIPX tie at 3. Ties are ordered by RIA dollars held.
What the Ranking Shows
1. RIAs Keep TIPS Short (60% of Dollars)
The two most widely held TIPS ETFs are both short-term funds. Across VTIP, STIP, TDTT and STPZ, 78 RIAs hold $524M, about 60% of all RIA TIPS ETF dollars.
Long TIPS barely register. Only two RIAs hold a long-duration TIPS fund. Most RIAs want inflation protection without taking on much interest rate risk.
2. RIAs Split Into Two Camps (42 Short, 38 Broad)
119 RIAs hold a TIPS ETF. 42 hold only short-term TIPS funds, 38 hold only broad-maturity funds, and 36 hold both.
Some of that overlap is duplication. 13 RIAs hold both VTIP and STIP, and 13 hold both SCHP and TIP, pairs of funds that do largely the same job. 52 RIAs hold two or more TIPS ETFs.
3. TIPS Are One of Several Inflation Hedges (94 of 119)
RIAs rarely rely on TIPS alone. 94 of the 119 TIPS holders also hold a real asset ETF, most often gold, and 92 hold a Treasury ETF.
That positions TIPS as part of a broader inflation sleeve alongside gold and commodities, not the whole hedge.
Want to see which RIAs in your territory hold these funds? Book a demo of Dakota Marketplace.
Breadth vs. Dollars: Where RIA Assets Concentrate
The ETFs held by the most RIAs are not always the ones holding the most RIA money. RIAs reported $862M in the top 10 TIPS ETFs for the quarter ending December 31, 2025.
|
Ticker
|
ETF
|
RIA holding
|
RIA holdings
|
|
STIP
|
iShares 0-5 Year TIPS Bond ETF
|
40
|
$237M
|
|
VTIP
|
Vanguard Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities ETF
|
46
|
$208M
|
|
TIP
|
iShares TIPS Bond ETF
|
36
|
$132M
|
|
SCHP
|
Schwab U.S. TIPS ETF
|
38
|
$112M
|
|
TDTT
|
FlexShares iBoxx 3-Year Target Duration TIPS Index Fund
|
6
|
$55M
|
|
DFIP
|
Dimensional Inflation-Protected Securities ETF
|
13
|
$47M
|
STIP holds more RIA money than VTIP with six fewer holders, but its total is concentrated: one RIA accounts for 46% of it. VTIP’s dollars are spread more evenly, with a median position of $1.4M, the highest among the top four.
The biggest tickets go to a targeted fund. TDTT reaches only six RIAs but averages $9.2M per firm, the largest in the top 10. At the RIA level, the median TIPS allocation is $2.2M, and 80 of 119 RIAs hold $1M or more.
Source: Dakota Marketplace 13F holdings data, quarter ending December 31, 2025.
What This Means for Investment Firms Pitching RIAs
RIAs treat TIPS as a short-duration, low-risk inflation hedge held next to gold and Treasuries. That sets the bar for any inflation-protection pitch.
-
Lead with duration. Short-term TIPS hold most of the money. A broad or long-duration TIPS strategy needs to explain why the extra rate risk is worth it.
-
Call the broad-TIPS holders for active strategies. The 38 RIAs holding only broad-maturity TIPS have already accepted duration in their inflation sleeve. They are a better fit for active or duration-flexible TIPS managers than the short-only group.
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Sell the whole inflation sleeve. With 94 TIPS holders also owning real asset ETFs, real return and multi-asset inflation strategies can position themselves as one allocation that combines what these RIAs now hold in separate funds.
-
Use duplicate positions as an opening. RIAs holding both VTIP and STIP, or SCHP and TIP, own two funds doing the same job. That’s a natural conversation about consolidating into one differentiated strategy.
Turn 13F Holdings Into a Prospect List
Every number in this post came from the 13F tab in Dakota Marketplace. Members filter 2,621,000+ holdings by account name, investment strategy, ticker, asset class, sub-asset class, product structure, fund balance range and filing period, and switch between a By Investor and a By Fund view.
Seven new fields make the data faster to act on:
- Quarter-over-quarter change on any holding: Previous No. of Shares, Previous Quarter Value and Status (New, Increased, Decreased, Equal Shares or Sold-Out) show who is adding or trimming a position, with no filing to open and no math to do.
- ETF exposure on every account: ETF AUM, ETF AUM %, Active ETF AUM and Passive ETF AUM answer "does this RIA use ETFs, and how much?" right on the account page.
That gives investment firms three ways to build a sharper list:
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Find who holds a competitor's fund. Search a ticker and pull every firm reporting it.
-
Spot momentum. Filter by Status to see which RIAs bought or added to a position last quarter, and which sold out.
-
Target real holdings, not stated mandates. An RIA that leans active in its ETF book is a very different conversation than one that runs almost entirely passive.
Members can now build and save their own 13F lists with Create a List and My Lists, then export any list to Excel to share or print.
Find the RIAs Behind the Holdings
Dakota Marketplace tracks 8,700+ RIAs and 48,300+ RIA contacts, with 13F holdings attached to each firm profile. Filter by ETF ticker or asset class held, by RIA AUM, by metro area, or by decision-maker title such as CIO or portfolio manager.
Book a demo of Dakota Marketplace to know what an RIA already owns before you pitch what it should add.
