How to find new private fund adviser prospects

Decide which event you need

A firm can move from state registration or exempt reporting to SEC registration after operating for years. For definitions and date distinctions, see Registration categories and dates.

Find candidates in the SEC monthly files

1. Download two dated releases of the SEC Investment Adviser Information Reports. Each release includes separate registered-adviser and exempt-reporting-adviser files, each a ZIP containing one CSV. State-only registrations are outside these reports.
2. Match advisers by the Organization CRD# column, the firm's CRD number from Form ADV Item 1.E. Keep the registered and exempt-reporting categories alongside the match.
3. Look for advisers newly appearing in either category. Check the other category, and IAPD, before calling one a new firm: an adviser can move from an 802- to an 801- file number while retaining its CRD number, and it can drop out of the exempt file before its registration takes effect, so it appears in neither release for a month.
4. Read the dates for what they are. SEC Status Effective Date is when the adviser's current SEC status took effect; Latest ADV Filing Date is its most recent Form ADV filing, which can be weeks earlier or later. The files also carry SEC Current Status ("Approved", "120-Day Approval" or "ERA - Active") and fund counts by type.
5. Confirm each candidate's identity, status and history on IAPD: the firm summary lists its SEC registration status with an effective date and any earlier exempt reporting, including withdrawals. A difference between releases identifies a candidate; it does not by itself establish the cause of the change.
6. Record the two release dates, the confirmed event, its source and the date you checked it.

Confirm that the adviser reports the fund types you serve

In Form ADV Part 1A, Schedule D, Section 7.B.(1), Q10 records the reported fund type. It covers hedge, private equity, venture capital, real estate, liquidity, securitized asset and other private funds. Exempt reporting advisers complete this fund reporting too.

Use the definitions the form points to in Instruction 6 of the Part 1A instructions in the Form ADV instructions; the hedge fund definition, for example, is in 6.e.(2). A fund's name or marketing description is not enough to classify it.

There are coverage limits: a fund reported by another adviser may appear only in Section 7.B.(2), which has no fund-type answer, and certain non-U.S. funds may be omitted. Missing data is not evidence that the adviser has no relevant funds.

Check what its funds already report

For each candidate, record:

• The private funds it reports and the fund types relevant to your service.
• The administrators and auditors reported for each fund, using Q26 and Q23. The provider lookup guide explains negative and missing answers.
• The location, scale measure and filing dates you use to qualify it. Apply the same prospect comparison checklist to every candidate.

Law firms and technology vendors can use these facts to qualify a prospect, but these questions do not identify its current law firm or technology vendor. A reported provider, a missing provider or a recent change does not reveal willingness to buy.

Worked example: a September 2026 registration

Comparing the SEC's August and September 2026 releases by CRD number, 207 advisers are new to the September registered-adviser file. One of them is Mara River Capital Management, LP (CRD 304145, SEC file number 801-136893). It is in neither August file, so the comparison alone suggests a first appearance.

IAPD shows that this is an exempt reporting adviser moving to SEC registration, not a new firm. It stopped reporting as an exempt adviser before its registration took effect, which is why it appears in neither August file. The effective date is the SEC approval date; the latest filing date is earlier.

For a firm serving hedge funds, it is a candidate to research further. The fund already reports an auditor and an administrator as of July 15, 2026: that tells an administrator or audit firm who the incumbents are, not whether the adviser wants to change them.

Find newly reported funds at established advisers

An established adviser can report additional funds without a new registration. Two sources help identify these candidates.

Funds newly reported in Form ADV

Compare a current fund list with an earlier filing using the private fund identification number, Q1(b). A number absent from the earlier filing identifies a fund newly reported by that adviser, not necessarily a new fund: another adviser may already have reported it.

For historical material, the SEC's Form ADV FAQ says IAPD carries an adviser's most recently filed Form ADV; older filings can be requested from the SEC through its Request for Copies of Documents or its Office of FOIA Services. Do not assume IAPD shows every historical version. Keep copies and dates of the filings you actually compare.

Form D notices

Form D is an issuer's notice of an exempt offering. A fund may file it before making a sale; the SEC's guidance generally requires it within 15 calendar days after the first sale. Separate a new notice from an amendment to an existing offering.

Its filing date is not a launch date. Its offering amount is not the fund's gross asset value or the adviser's regulatory assets under management. Form ADV Q22 can supply a Form D file number where one is reported, helping connect the records. See Form D is a different event.

Coverage and limitations

• Annual reporting creates a lag. Fund answers need not change with every Form ADV amendment. A new fund or provider change may first appear in an annual updating amendment.
• State registrations need a separate check. The SEC monthly files do not cover state-only advisers.
• A filing is a report, not verification. The SEC does not guarantee the accuracy of the submitted information.
• A candidate is not a qualified lead. Confirm that the firm's fund types, scale and geography fit your service before researching contacts.

Find registrations, newly reported funds and changes in 9AT

9AT's account features include new adviser and fund registrations and advisers' reported changes. Its Recent Registrants view lists advisers by their original registration date: expand Original Registration Date, set Date From and Date To for the period you want, and review the matching advisers. Add adviser or fund filters when you qualify prospects.

The list is not limited to hedge fund managers: it includes several adviser registration categories. A registration date is not a fund launch date, and it differs from a filing date or the date a record first appears in a database, so keep those dates separate, just as you would with the original sources. The periods and result counts shown below were captured on September 27, 2026, as an example; they are not totals.

Recent Registrants needs a 9AT account. Customers signed in with access can open it directly; for other teams, access is arranged with the 9AT team, starting with a demo. Adviser summaries are free to view. After you qualify a candidate, the decision-maker contacts guide explains how to confirm the right firm before you look for people; contact access in 9AT is also arranged with the 9AT team, and coverage varies.