How can I compare prospective adviser clients?

How to compare investment advisers as prospects

Build a shortlist of private fund adviser prospects using the same criteria for every firm: fund types, location, scale and reported providers. This guide is for administrators, audit firms, law firms and technology vendors deciding which firms to research next.

By Lisa Arking Published September 28, 2026

In brief

Match each prospect to the correct legal entity and identifiers.
Apply the same criteria: fund types, reported fund count, location, scale and providers.
Keep the measure, reporting scope and filing date with every fact.
Record why each adviser qualifies before researching decision-maker contacts.

See this in 9AT

Start with the business question: which advisers fit the service your firm sells? A useful comparison explains why a prospect belongs on your shortlist and what still needs checking.

Resolve each adviser to one entity

Match the legal name, SEC file number and CRD number before comparing figures. An 801- file number identifies an SEC-registered adviser; an 802- number identifies an exempt reporting adviser. CRD and SEC file numbers are different identifiers.

Keep the reporting level consistent. An adviser, one of its private funds and a corporate group are not interchangeable. Under an umbrella registration, one Form ADV can cover a filing adviser and its relying advisers. See Fund-level and adviser-level information.

Qualify each prospect against a checklist

Set criteria that reflect your firm's service before looking at the candidates. For example, decide which fund types and jurisdictions you serve, which scale measure matters and whether your sales approach includes funds with existing providers.

Check	Where to look	What to record
Fund types	Schedule D, Section 7.B.(1), Q10	The reported types your firm serves
Number of funds	The adviser's reported fund entries	What was counted and any master-feeder grouping
Location	Item 1.F; fund jurisdiction in Q2	Which office or jurisdiction matters for your service
Scale	Item 5.F RAUM or fund Q11 gross asset value	One named measure, its scope and source date
Providers	Each fund's Q23–Q28 answers	The role and provider, fund by fund
Recency	The Form ADV filing history	Filing date and annual-amendment date where available

References follow Form ADV Part 1A, SEC 1707 (07-24).

Fund types and number of funds

Q10 distinguishes hedge, private equity, venture capital and the other private fund types covered by the form. Count the reported sections consistently: a permitted combined master-feeder entry counts once, while separately managed series may have separate entries. Funds reported by another adviser can appear in Section 7.B.(2) without the same details.

Label the result as reported fund entries, not a guaranteed count of every fund the business operates.

Location

Use the adviser's principal office for an adviser-location comparison, or the fund's jurisdiction for a fund-location comparison. They can differ. State which one your qualification criterion uses.

Scale

Keep adviser regulatory assets under management (RAUM), private fund gross asset value and Form D offering amounts separate. They answer different questions. Form 13F holdings are not a substitute for total adviser assets.

Exempt reporting advisers that are not also registering with a state do not complete Item 5. A missing Item 5.F value therefore does not mean zero assets. Asset measures explains the alternatives and their scope.

Reported service providers

Read the answers for the relevant fund, not the adviser as a whole. An explicit No to Q26(a) means no administrator other than the adviser's own firm was reported. A missing answer does not prove an unserved opportunity.

Form ADV reports specified provider roles, including administrators and auditors, but not a fund's lawyers or technology vendors. Those businesses can still use fund types, scale and provider context to qualify prospects. The provider lookup guide explains how to read the answers.

Line up filing dates

Compare similar reporting periods and keep a filing date with every fact. The Form ADV instructions require annual updates within 90 days after fiscal year end, but not every answer must be refreshed in an intervening amendment.

A filing date also need not be the valuation date of an asset figure. Record any separately disclosed valuation date and avoid implying that two amounts were measured on the same day simply because their filings share a date.

Build a prospect list from the comparison

Shortlist against your criteria. Keep advisers whose reported fund types, location and scale fit your service.
Record the reason. Use one row per adviser with its identifiers, relevant facts, sources, dates and gaps.
Research the next step. Identify the role involved in buying your service, then check available contacts.
Refresh the record. Recheck after a new filing or other material information, particularly before outreach.

If you need candidates to compare, start with new private fund adviser prospects.

Worked example: two hedge fund advisers

Suppose an administrator's criteria are U.S.-based advisers that report only hedge funds and have more than $1 billion of RAUM. Armistice Capital LLC and Universa Investments L.P. are both single SEC-registered advisers without an umbrella registration, and both filed annual amendments on March 31, 2026.

Criterion	Armistice Capital LLC (801-100464)	Universa Investments L.P. (801-68696)
Reported fund entries (Q10)	1 hedge fund: a master fund with two feeders reported in its entry	More than 40, all hedge funds
Principal office (Item 1.F)	New York, NY	Miami, FL
Item 5.F.(2)(c) RAUM	$4,724,705,592	$21,349,131,206
Administrator (Q26)	SS&C Technologies, Inc	Stone Coast Fund Services, in every fund entry
Auditor (Q23)	KPMG, LLP (New York and Grand Cayman offices)	Ernst & Young LLP or Ernst & Young Ltd

Sources: each adviser's annual amendment filed March 31, 2026, on IAPD, and the SEC's September 2026 adviser report for the fund-type counts.

Both meet the stated criteria, so both enter the shortlist with their source dates. Universa's larger RAUM and many more fund entries do not make it the better prospect. Armistice's one entry covers a master fund and its feeders, so the numbers of entries are not like for like. Both report outside administrators and auditors: for an administrator or audit firm, these are incumbents, not signs of an intention to change. The next step is to research the business fit and the appropriate people to approach.

What the comparison cannot show

These filings do not establish a prospect's provider fees, budget, contract expiry, satisfaction or intention to switch. They also do not measure investment performance or provider quality. The SEC notes that it does not guarantee the accuracy of submitted Form ADV information.

What HedgeFundDB profiles show

HedgeFundDB's adviser profiles provide an initial identity, location and filing-recency check. The fields shown depend on the record's coverage and status. The current profiles do not publish fund lists, asset figures or provider relationships; their absence is not a finding that the adviser has none.

Where a profile links to the adviser's free 9AT summary, you can continue your research there. HedgeFundDB does not publish personal contact details.

Compare prospects in 9AT

Open the matching adviser summaries in 9AT, which are free to view, and keep the entity and reporting level consistent. Apply the same checklist to the figures a summary shows, including source dates and the distinction between RAUM and fund gross asset value.

To see several advisers side by side, open an adviser's profile in 9AT, choose Similar advisers, select the firms you want and choose Compare; 9AT adds the adviser you started from. The example below compares Armistice Capital LLC with Leadenhall Capital Partners and Skyview Investment Advisors, LLC on team size: the number of employees and those in investment advisory functions. It illustrates the view; it is not a recommended shortlist. Check each firm's underlying filing and its date before you read anything into a difference.

Comparing advisers side by side, fund-level provider details and contact information need a 9AT account. Customers signed in with access can open the example comparison directly; for other teams, access is arranged with the 9AT team, starting with a demo. Contact coverage varies by adviser.

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