Data sourced from Dakota Marketplace, the global LP and GP intelligence platform trusted by thousands of investment professionals. Learn More | Book a Demo
Gold had a record 2025. The World Gold Council reports that gold-backed ETFs pulled in roughly $90 billion globally last year, the largest annual inflow on record, pushing global holdings to an all-time peak and total ETF assets to nearly $560 billion, about double where they stood at the end of 2024 (World Gold Council, January 2026). North America drove more than half of that inflow, its strongest year on record for the asset class. Spot gold was trading above $4,300/oz as of early September 2026, up more than 20% year over year on top of a rally that exceeded 60% in 2025 (Trading Economics; Business Standard, November 2025).
Dakota Marketplace tracks 13F filings across the RIA landscape, giving a direct view into how independent registered investment advisors, the intermediaries managing capital for millions of retail and high-net-worth households, are actually positioned in gold. Below: the gold ETFs RIAs hold most widely, the RIAs with the largest dollar exposure to gold, and what both tell us about how this rally is being expressed at the advisor level.
The Data
This analysis draws on Dakota Marketplace's RIA-focused 13F holdings data against six major physically-backed gold ETFs: SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), iShares Gold Trust (IAU), SPDR Gold MiniShares (GLDM), GraniteShares Gold Trust (BAR), Goldman Sachs Physical Gold ETF (AAAU), and VanEck Merk Gold Trust (OUNZ), as of the most recent complete reporting quarter with substantive coverage in Marketplace. Close to 200 unique RIAs reported a position in at least one of these funds, together holding just over $1.2 billion in combined reported value.
Top 5 Gold ETFs by Number of RIA Holders
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Rank
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ETF
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Breadth of RIA Adoption
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1
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IAU, iShares Gold Trust
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Held by the broadest slice of RIAs in this dataset
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2
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GLD, SPDR Gold Shares
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Essentially tied with IAU on adoption, just behind
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3
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OUNZ, VanEck Merk Gold Trust
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Held by roughly a quarter of the RIAs tracked
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4
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GLDM, SPDR Gold MiniShares
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Meaningful but secondary adoption
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5
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AAAU, Goldman Sachs Physical Gold ETF
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A small foothold, far behind the leaders
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Why IAU edges out GLD on the number of RIAs holding it, despite GLD carrying more total dollars: IAU charges a lower expense ratio than GLD, and that gap tends to matter more to an advisor building a model portfolio's gold sleeve for the long term than to someone trading in and out of size. GLD still holds more total dollars because it's the older, larger, more liquid fund, so RIAs sitting on bigger or longer-held gold positions are more likely to be in legacy GLD allocations. Between them, GLD and IAU account for the large majority of the dollars in this dataset; everything else is a rounding error by comparison.
OUNZ's placement is the more interesting anomaly. It shows up in roughly a quarter of RIA portfolios in this data, but at the smallest dollar total of any ticker tracked. OUNZ's differentiator is physical redemption, the ability for an investor to actually take delivery of gold bars or coins. RIAs appear to be using it in small, symbolic sizes, most likely for clients who specifically want that optionality, not as a core allocation.
GLDM and AAAU are the newer, cheaper entrants still building distribution. GLDM carries meaningfully more RIA adoption than AAAU despite similar expense ratios, most likely because SPDR's existing GLD relationships make GLDM an easy line extension for advisors already using the sponsor, while AAAU launched later with thinner distribution into the RIA channel.
Top 5 RIAs by Dollar Exposure to Gold
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Rank
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RIA
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Approximate Firm Size
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Gold as Share of the Firm's Book
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1
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Perigon Wealth Management
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A multi-billion dollar national RIA
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A sliver of the total book, well under 1%
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2
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FourPath Capital Management
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A firm just over $1 billion in assets
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A real, high-conviction position, above 6%
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3
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Benefit Financial Services Group
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A firm in the $1-2 billion range
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A moderate allocation, around 3%
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4
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Tradewinds Capital Management
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A firm under $1 billion in assets
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A high-conviction position, above 5%
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5
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Kaydan Wealth Management
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A firm under $1 billion in assets
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Concentrated almost entirely in a single fund, just under 5%
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The largest dollar exposure isn't the most concentrated bet. Perigon tops the list in absolute dollars, but gold is a very small piece of its overall book, spread across several different tickers, consistent with a large, diversified, multi-office RIA running a standardized model portfolio across thousands of accounts. Its size, not its conviction, puts it at the top.
The real conviction shows up further down the list, and it scales inversely with firm size. FourPath, at roughly a tenth the size of Perigon, has a materially larger share of its own book in gold, several times the proportion Perigon carries. Tradewinds and Kaydan, both smaller independent shops, are running similarly outsized gold weightings. Kaydan stands out as the most concentrated of the five: its entire gold exposure sits in a single fund rather than spread across products, the opposite of a diversified toe-hold. Smaller, independent RIAs in this dataset appear more willing to treat gold as a genuine, high-conviction sleeve of the portfolio than the largest multi-billion-dollar platforms, which tend to treat it as a modest diversifier spread across several products.
What This Means
The 2025 gold rally shows up differently depending on where you look in the RIA channel. At the largest platforms, gold reads as a small, diversified line item, present but immaterial to firm-level performance. At smaller, more independent shops, it can be a genuinely high-conviction allocation running a meaningful share of total assets, often concentrated in just one or two of the cheapest, most liquid products. Product choice tells a similar story: RIAs are not primarily shopping for the lowest expense ratio, they default to whichever fund they or their clients already know, chiefly GLD and IAU, with lower-cost share classes like GLDM picking up real but secondary share, and physical-delivery products like OUNZ used in small, symbolic sizes rather than as core exposure.
Data Note
Dakota Marketplace's 13F coverage here reflects filings across the RIA landscape specifically. The same six ETFs are also held by banks, insurers, and pension funds that file 13Fs but sit outside this RIA-focused view. Quarter-over-quarter filer counts in this dataset should not be read as a trend line: 13F amendments and late filings continue to populate older quarters for months after the fact, so the figures above reflect a single point-in-time snapshot from the most recent complete quarter, not a growth curve.
Dakota’s Robust Data Collection
The RIAs in the tables above aren't cold prospects for a gold or precious metals strategy, they've already made the conviction call, just not necessarily on your product. Dakota Marketplace currently tracks 193 RIA accounts with 13F-reported gold ETF exposure, the same dataset behind this analysis, each filterable by ticker held, firm AUM, metro area, and named contact. If you manage a gold, precious metals, or real assets strategy, that's a call list of advisors already sold on the asset class, waiting to be sold on you.
To learn more about Gold ETFs, book a demo here!
