SEC Filings/Ownership & insiders
13F Value vs AUM: Why a Fund's 13F Is Not Its Total Assets
Why a fund's 13F portfolio value is not its assets under management, what Form 13F leaves out, and where total AUM is actually reported (Form ADV).
The short version
A 13F filing reports the US-listed stocks, certain options and a few other exchange-traded securities that an investment manager held at the end of a quarter. Adding up the market values in that filing gives a 13F portfolio value. It is a useful number, but it is not the firm's assets under management (AUM).
AUM is everything a manager runs for clients: stocks, bonds, cash, private funds, real estate, loans, foreign shares and more. A 13F only captures one slice of that. For a long-only US stock fund the two numbers can be close. For a pension manager, a real estate investor or a multi-strategy hedge fund they can be far apart.
If you want a manager's total regulatory AUM, the document to read is usually Form ADV, not Form 13F. This guide explains why the numbers differ, works through an example, and shows where each figure comes from.
What a 13F portfolio value counts
Form 13F is required under Section 13(f) of the Securities Exchange Act from institutional investment managers with investment discretion over at least $100 million in "Section 13(f) securities". The SEC publishes the official list of those securities each quarter. In practice the list covers:
- shares listed on a US exchange (including ADRs and ETFs),
- certain equity options and warrants on those shares,
- certain convertible securities and closed-end fund shares.
Each holding is reported with its share count and its market value at quarter end. The filing is due within 45 days of the quarter's close. Since January 2023 the value column is reported in dollars; older filings reported it in thousands of dollars, so a value read from a pre-2023 filing has to be multiplied by 1,000 before comparing.
The total of the long positions in that table is what most websites, including Signal8, show as a manager's 13F portfolio value.
What a 13F leaves out
Anything not on the 13(f) securities list is simply absent from the filing. That includes:
| Asset type | In a 13F? |
|---|---|
| US-listed common stock and ETFs | Yes |
| Listed equity options (puts and calls) | Yes, reported separately |
| Cash and money market funds | No |
| Government and corporate bonds (non-convertible) | No |
| Real estate and infrastructure | No |
| Private equity and venture stakes | No |
| Shares listed only outside the US | No |
| Short positions | No |
A 13F also lags. A filing made in mid-August describes holdings on June 30, so even the slice it does cover can be six or more weeks old. And managers can ask the SEC for confidential treatment of some positions, which removes them from the public version.
A worked example
Take a hypothetical manager, Company X Capital, that runs $10 billion for clients:
| Holding (hypothetical) | Value | Reported on 13F? |
|---|---|---|
| US-listed stocks | $1,500,000,000 | Yes |
| US-listed ETFs | $500,000,000 | Yes |
| Corporate bonds | $2,000,000,000 | No |
| Private real estate funds | $3,500,000,000 | No |
| Infrastructure stakes | $1,500,000,000 | No |
| Non-US listed shares | $800,000,000 | No |
| Cash | $200,000,000 | No |
| Total AUM | $10,000,000,000 |
Hypothetical figures, for illustration only.
Company X's 13F would show $1.5 billion of stocks plus $0.5 billion of ETFs: a 13F portfolio value of $2.0 billion. That is 20% of its actual AUM:
Someone who searched for "Company X Capital AUM" and read only the 13F total would understate the firm by $8 billion, and would learn nothing about its real estate or infrastructure exposure, because none of it is in the filing.
Where total AUM is reported
Most SEC-registered investment advisers file Form ADV. Part 1A, Item 5.F, asks for regulatory assets under management, split into discretionary and non-discretionary accounts. Regulatory AUM follows its own counting rules (for example, it is measured gross of outstanding debt for private funds), so it can differ from the AUM a firm quotes in its marketing. It is still the closest thing to an official, comparable total.
Form ADV is filed with the SEC through the Investment Adviser Registration Depository and is searchable on the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site. Firms update it at least annually.
A few practical differences between the two documents:
| Form 13F | Form ADV | |
|---|---|---|
| Who files | Managers with $100M+ in 13(f) securities | Most registered investment advisers |
| What it measures | Listed equity holdings, position by position | Total regulatory AUM, plus business details |
| How often | Quarterly, 45 days after quarter end | At least annually |
| Shows individual holdings | Yes | No |
So the two answer different questions. Form ADV tells you how big the manager is. Form 13F tells you which US-listed stocks it owned at quarter end.
When the two numbers are close, and when they are not
The gap depends on what kind of manager it is:
- Long-only US equity managers and index fund sponsors. Most assets are US-listed stocks, so the 13F value is a reasonable proxy for AUM.
- Hedge funds. Leverage, shorts, credit, futures and foreign positions are all outside the 13F, so the gap can be large in either direction. Option positions can make the reported notional look larger than the capital actually deployed.
- Pensions, insurers and endowments. Large bond, real estate and private-market allocations mean the 13F covers only part of the portfolio.
- Real estate, infrastructure and private equity firms. Often file a small 13F or none at all, even when their AUM is in the billions.
Option positions deserve a note of their own. A 13F reports puts and calls by the market value of the underlying shares. That is a measure of exposure, not of money invested, so adding it to the long book overstates the portfolio. Signal8 shows the long-equity value and the option notional as separate figures for that reason.
How to check an institution on Signal8
- Open the institutions directory and pick a manager. Its page shows the reporting period of the latest 13F and the positions in it. The 13F portfolio value and position count are shown with a free Signal8 account.
- Read the holdings table for the positions behind that total, and the quarter-over-quarter changes to see what was bought or sold.
- For a stock you follow, the ownership section of its company page lists institutions that reported holding it.
- For total AUM, use Form ADV on the SEC's adviser search. Signal8's figure is labelled as a 13F value because that is what it measures.
FAQ
Is 13F value the same as assets under management?
No. A 13F portfolio value adds up the US-listed stocks, ETFs and certain options a manager reported at quarter end. Assets under management also include bonds, cash, private funds, real estate, foreign shares and anything else the firm manages. For a US stock fund the two can be close; for a pension or real estate manager the 13F can be a small fraction of AUM.
Where can I find a fund's total AUM?
For SEC-registered investment advisers, Form ADV Part 1A Item 5.F reports regulatory assets under management. You can search it on the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website. Regulatory AUM has its own counting rules, so it can differ from the figure a firm uses in marketing material.
Why does a big firm show a small 13F?
Because its assets are mostly in categories Form 13F does not cover, such as bonds, private equity, real estate, infrastructure or shares listed outside the US. The form only asks about Section 13(f) securities, which are mainly US exchange-listed equities and related options.
Why do 13F values look 1,000 times too small in old filings?
Before January 2023 the 13F value column was reported in thousands of dollars. From 2023 onward it is reported in whole dollars. When comparing an older filing with a newer one, multiply the pre-2023 values by 1,000 first.
Terms in this guide
- Form 13F
- Form 13F is the quarterly SEC report in which institutional managers with at least $100 million in qualifying US securities list their long holdings, filed within 45 days of quarter end.
Try it on Signal8
See this in live data with Institutional holdings (13F).
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Educational content only. Signal8 is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security.