Real-world research workflows

Start with the question. Follow the evidence.

Turn public filings into repeatable research, with identifiers, dates, and official records attached.

Solutions by team

Start with the outcome your team owns.

These solution paths connect the detailed use cases below to distribution, diligence, private-market research, data-product, and service-provider objectives.

For distribution teamsFind advisers that fit your distribution strategy.

Discover firms and funds, qualify the fit, and see the filing change that makes a record worth reviewing now.

For asset managersBenchmark competitors and spot new product activity.

Track competitor filings, offerings, funds, and reported holdings without confusing a regulatory disclosure with a commercial result.

For RIAsInvestigate sponsors, offerings, and disclosures.

Move from a sponsor name to the entities, people, funds, offerings, disclosures, and source documents behind the public record.

For data and engineering teamsAutomate monitored datasets with provenance.

Replace one-off filing pipelines with documented records, stable joins, explicit dates, and delivery that fits your stack.

For service providersIdentify firms and funds that may need your services.

Find organizations that fit your market, understand their disclosed relationships, and spot changes that create a reason to research now.

Market intelligence and business development

Find the firms and market activity worth investigating.

Build a market view from filed facts, then keep the dates and official records close enough to verify every important result.

Distribution · partnerships · service providers

Build an adviser target universe

The question

Which adviser firms match our territory, size, client mix, and service criteria—and what has changed recently?

Workflow and interpretation

Records used

Adviser firms
Form ADV history
CRD identifiers
Reported assets
Clients and offices

How the workflow works

Filter firms by source-reported characteristics, compare recent filings, and carry the filing date and official profile into a qualified target list.

What it produces

A source-dated market map, prospect list, territory review, or CRM-ready research feed.

Keep in mindReported assets and client counts describe a filing. They do not prove product demand, commercial intent, or sales readiness.

Explore adviser research

Private markets · fundraising · competitive intelligence

Monitor private offering activity

The question

Which issuers filed new exempt offerings, amended an existing notice, or reported a change in the offering?

Workflow and interpretation

Records used

Form D
Form D/A
Issuers
Offering amounts
First-sale dates
Related people

How the workflow works

Track new notices and amendments, compare source-dated offering details, and connect sponsors or advisers only when identifiers and the underlying records support the relationship.

What it produces

A new-offering watchlist, sponsor-activity brief, market trend, or recurring alert feed.

Keep in mindForm D is a notice filed by the issuer. It is not audited proof of capital raised, fund quality, performance, or suitability.

Explore offering records

Adviser and private-fund diligence

Move from a firm profile to the relationships and disclosures behind it.

Follow the private funds, service providers, fees, conflicts, and narrative disclosures reported by the adviser, with every observation attached to its filing or document version.

Private markets · operations · service providers

Map an adviser’s private-fund ecosystem

The question

Which private funds, related vehicles, advisers, administrators, auditors, custodians, marketers, and prime brokers appear together?

Workflow and interpretation

Records used

Form ADV Schedule D
Private fund IDs
Fund types and gross assets
Service providers
Master-feeder relationships
Form D links

How the workflow works

Start with the adviser or private-fund ID, follow master-feeder and subadviser relationships, compare filing versions, and join a Form D record only when identifiers and source evidence support it.

What it produces

A sponsor map, private-fund roster, provider network, new-fund monitor, or service-provider opportunity list.

Keep in mindSchedule D fields are adviser-reported regulatory disclosures. Gross assets, minimums, classifications, and provider relationships are source-dated and are not performance claims.

Explore private-fund data

Adviser diligence · compliance · procurement

Compare adviser services, fees, and conflicts

The question

How does an adviser describe its services, fee practices, investment methods, conflicts, disciplinary history, and retail relationship—and what wording changed?

Workflow and interpretation

Records used

Form ADV Part 2A
Part 2B supplements
Form CRS
Filed and effective dates
Document versions
Extracted sections

How the workflow works

Resolve the adviser by CRD, order brochure and relationship-summary versions by date, compare like sections, and retain the official document behind each material observation.

What it produces

A disclosure comparison, fee-and-conflict inventory, diligence memo, or document-change review queue.

Keep in mindThese documents contain adviser-authored narrative disclosures. A wording change requires human interpretation, and an absent phrase is not proof that an activity or conflict does not exist.

Explore adviser documents

Adviser people and registrations

Build a source-linked history for an adviser representative.

Keep registration observations, firm relationships, qualifications, and identity evidence separate so a research signal never becomes an unsupported conclusion.

Recruiting · compliance · adviser intelligence

Follow representative registrations and movement

The question

Where has an investment adviser representative been registered or associated, and how have jurisdictions, qualifications, designations, activities, or disclosures changed?

Workflow and interpretation

Records used

Individual CRD
Firm affiliations
State registrations
Examinations
Professional designations
Other activities and disclosures

How the workflow works

Resolve the individual by CRD and source identity, order source-dated registration and firm observations, compare jurisdictional changes, and open the official public profile before acting on a match.

What it produces

A representative-movement feed, recruiting map, registration-footprint review, tenure analysis, or source-linked diligence file.

Keep in mindA regulatory record is not a complete employment or background history. Registration status, firm association, disclosure status, and current employment are distinct facts.

Explore representative records

Registered-fund product and operating research

Follow a fund from registration into its reported portfolio.

Resolve the legal registrant, series, and class before comparing product disclosures or portfolio reports, and preserve the date and document behind every change.

Product research · platform diligence · fund distribution

Follow a registered fund or ETF through its filing history

The question

How did a registrant, series, share class, ticker, prospectus, fee disclosure, strategy, or product structure change across filings?

Workflow and interpretation

Records used

Form N-1A
Rule 485 filings
Registrants
Series and classes
Tickers
Prospectus records

How the workflow works

Resolve the legal registrant and product identifiers, follow registration statements and post-effective amendments in filing order, compare the relevant disclosures, and retain the official document behind each observed change.

What it produces

A product timeline, new-launch watchlist, share-class comparison, platform diligence brief, or filing-change monitor.

Keep in mindRegistration and prospectus filings describe the product and its disclosures. Filing, effectiveness, market availability, performance, and investor suitability are separate questions.

Explore registered funds

Fund research · ETF analysis · risk research

Compare a fund’s portfolio across reporting periods

The question

How did reported positions, concentration, asset classifications, debt terms, derivatives, counterparties, or securities-lending activity change across comparable periods?

Workflow and interpretation

Records used

Form N-PORT
Registrant and series IDs
Reporting periods
Portfolio positions
Debt and derivative terms
Counterparties and lending

How the workflow works

Resolve the fund series, align comparable source-reporting periods, normalize securities without losing as-filed identity, calculate changes from reported observations, and inspect significant differences in the source filings.

What it produces

A portfolio-overlap study, concentration trend, asset-mix comparison, derivatives review, or source-linked research table.

Keep in mindN-PORT observations are periodic and public availability follows regulatory schedules. They are not a real-time portfolio, performance record, or complete account of activity between reporting dates.

Explore fund portfolio data

Institutional holdings research

Compare reported positions without pretending they are live portfolios.

Analyze Form 13F history from the manager side or the security side while preserving the report period, amendment status, as-filed security identity, and source filing.

Manager research · competitive analysis · investment research

Compare an institutional manager across quarters

The question

Which reported positions appeared, increased, decreased, remained, or exited between comparable Form 13F periods?

Workflow and interpretation

Records used

Form 13F-HR
13F amendments
Report periods
Reported values
Quantities
Voting authority

How the workflow works

Match the filing manager, select comparable report periods, account for amendments, and group position-level changes with both source filings attached.

What it produces

A quarterly change analysis, concentration review, peer comparison, or manager-monitoring report.

Keep in mindForm 13F is periodic and covers specified securities. A difference between snapshots is not proof of a trade or a complete portfolio view.

Compare Form 13F records

Security research · ownership analysis · market intelligence

Research reported institutional ownership of a security

The question

Which filing managers reported a security, how concentrated was the reported ownership, and how did that set change by quarter?

Workflow and interpretation

Records used

CUSIP and ticker references
Issuers
Reporting managers
Reported holdings
Report periods
Source filings

How the workflow works

Start from the as-filed security identity, resolve it carefully, compare reporting managers across periods, and inspect unusual changes in the underlying filings.

What it produces

An ownership map, manager-overlap analysis, position trend, or source-linked research table.

Keep in mindA Form 13F reporting manager is not necessarily the beneficial owner, and identifier, issuer-name, or security-class changes require careful resolution.

Research holdings by security

From research to operations

Use the same evidence wherever the work happens.

Start with a one-off question, turn it into a repeatable process, and keep the same identifiers, reporting dates, and source metadata across every interface.

Web platformInvestigate an entity or question

Search, filter, compare, and open the official evidence in a browser.

REST APIRepeat the analysis in your product

Use stable records and documented endpoints in internal tools and data pipelines.

MCPAsk from an AI research workflow

Let a connected assistant query structured records and return the source behind an answer.

Data feedsKeep a monitored universe current

Receive recurring snapshots or changes through SFTP, Amazon S3, or Azure Blob Storage.

Bring your own question

Research it once. Build on it when it matters.

Explore the records in the web platform, or connect AUMSearch to a recurring research, product, or data workflow.

Open AUMSearch Connect your workflow