# AdvisorCensus

> AdvisorCensus is a public directory of investment advisory firms in the United States (SEC- and state-registered firms and exempt reporting advisers), one page per firm, generated from the Form ADV filings the firms make with the SEC and state securities regulators. Every figure is a filed figure, shown with its filing period and a link to the firm's public record on the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site (IAPD).

AdvisorCensus is part of AdvisorSEO Max, a search and AI-visibility platform for independent advisory firms, operated by BH Monitor Services, LLC; it is AdvisorSEO Max's entry tier. AdvisorCensus is not affiliated with any government agency.

What this site does: it lists firms by metropolitan statistical area (the 387 in the 50 states and D.C., OMB Bulletin 23-01) and by state, alphabetically by default; visitors may sort by years registered or by assets band. It shows filed facts only: primary business name, city and state, registration type and status, year registered, compensation arrangements (Form ADV Item 5.E), advisory activities (Item 5.G), regulatory assets under management (Item 5.F) with the filing period, client types (Item 5.D), wrap fee participation, states registered or notice-filed, and whether the firm reports disclosure items on Item 11. A firm may claim its page and, with a paid subscription, add a logo, a photo, a plain-language description, services, client niches, credentials, a booking link, social links, and a link to its website. That content never alters or hides a filed fact and is labeled "Provided by the firm".

What this site does not do: No reviews, ratings, rankings, scores, or "top" lists. Order never depends on payment. No verification or recommendation of any firm. No lead capture and no contact requests routed through the directory; the directory links out. Lists and counts are of firms. An individual advisor appears only when a firm with an enhanced profile lists them, as provided by the firm. No owner names, no street addresses.

Fee models: fee-only means Form ADV Item 5.E limited to a percentage of assets, hourly charges, fixed fees, or subscription fees (no commissions, performance-based fees, or "other"), with no sales-related compensation ties in the same filing (no employee registered with a broker-dealer or licensed as an insurance agent, Item 5.B; no brokerage, futures, real estate, insurance, or other product sales business of its own, Item 6.A; no related broker-dealer, futures commission merchant, insurance company or agency, or real estate broker or dealer, Item 7.A; no other sales interest, Item 8.B(3); no compensation from others for client referrals, Item 8.I). Flat-fee means fixed fees are checked on Item 5.E; hourly means hourly charges are checked. Counts are of firms, not people.

Sources and cadence: SEC Investment Adviser Information Reports (the monthly roster of SEC-registered and exempt reporting advisers), the IAPD compilation feeds (state-registered advisers), and the SEC's Form ADV filing data (schedules and filing types). Rebuilt each month after the SEC posts the new roster; each page states the filing period it reflects. Firms may request removal from the directory, so counts can differ from the number of firms that file Form ADV.

License: the filed facts are public records. AdvisorCensus's compilation of them (the CSV and JSON files, counts, rates, and reports) is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): credit AdvisorCensus with a link to the page the data came from, say that it is licensed under CC BY 4.0 with a link to the license, and note any changes.

## Directory pages

- [National index](https://advisorcensus.com/advisors): the states, D.C., and U.S. territories, each with its firm count
- [State page, for example Tennessee](https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/tn): one per state, D.C., and territory, at https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/{state}
- [State by fee model, for example fee-only firms in Tennessee](https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/tn/fee-only): /fee-only, /flat-fee, and /hourly after a state address
- [Metro page, for example Nashville](https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/tn/nashville): one per metropolitan statistical area, at https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/{state}/{metro-slug}
- [City page, for example Franklin in the Nashville metro](https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/tn/nashville/franklin): firms with a principal office in the city, at https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/{state}/{metro-slug}/{city-slug}
- [Metro by fee model, for example fee-only firms in Nashville](https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/tn/nashville/fee-only): /fee-only, /flat-fee, and /hourly after a metro address
- [Metro by client niche](https://advisorcensus.com/sitemaps/metro_niche.xml): https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/{state}/{metro-slug}/{niche-slug}; this sitemap lists the ones currently indexed
- [Firm pages](https://advisorcensus.com/sitemaps/firm-1.xml): one per firm, at https://advisorcensus.com/firm/{slug} (the slug ends in the firm's CRD number and never changes on rename), listed in the firm sitemaps of the sitemap index. Advisors a firm with an enhanced profile lists (provided by the firm): https://advisorcensus.com/firm/{slug}/advisors/{advisor-slug}
- [Custodians](https://advisorcensus.com/custodians): one page per custodian, and per metro at https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/{state}/{metro-slug}/custodians/{custodian-slug} (custodians holding 10% or more of a firm's separately managed account assets, as filed on Form ADV Schedule D, Section 5.K(3))
- [Branch offices, for example Nashville](https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/tn/nashville/branch-offices): firms headquartered elsewhere that list an office in the metro on Schedule D, Section 1.F (SEC-registered firms list only their 25 largest offices, so large firms are undercounted)
- [New firms](https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/new-firms): nationally, and per metro at https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/{state}/{metro-slug}/new-firms
- [New firms feed](https://advisorcensus.com/feeds/new-firms.xml): Atom; per metro at https://advisorcensus.com/feeds/new-firms/{state}/{metro-slug}.xml
- [Metro lists in Spanish](https://advisorcensus.com/es/asesores): the 12 metro areas with the most Spanish speakers (same firms and pages as the English lists), at https://advisorcensus.com/es/asesores/{state}/{metro-slug}

## Guides and reference

- [Guides](https://advisorcensus.com/guides): how to read a firm's filing, how firms are paid, registration, disclosures, what to ask
- [Guides in Spanish](https://advisorcensus.com/es/guias)
- [Reports](https://advisorcensus.com/reports): annual and quarterly reports built from Form ADV filings (metros, fees, custodians, AI visibility, and firm formation), with an Atom feed at https://advisorcensus.com/feeds/reports.xml
- [Key numbers](https://advisorcensus.com/statistics): how many advisers, new registrations, fee-only share, custodians, disclosures, each dated and sourced
- [Key numbers as Markdown](https://advisorcensus.com/statistics.md)
- [Key numbers as CSV](https://advisorcensus.com/statistics.csv)
- [Glossary](https://advisorcensus.com/glossary): the Form ADV terms these pages use, from the SEC's definitions
- [Glossary as Markdown](https://advisorcensus.com/glossary.md)
- [Methodology](https://advisorcensus.com/methodology)
- [Data](https://advisorcensus.com/data)

## Machine access

- [Search](https://advisorcensus.com/search?q=): by firm name, city, state, ZIP code, or CRD
- [JSON, for example the Nashville list](https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/tn/nashville.json): Firm pages and list pages (national, state, metro, city, fee model, niche, and each /page/N) are also served as JSON at the same path with a .json suffix, for example https://advisorcensus.com/firm/{slug}.json
- [Filtered list, for example fee-only firms in Nashville managing $100 million to $500 million](https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/tn/nashville.json?fee=fee-only&raum=100m_500m): every state, metro, city, fee-model, and niche list takes these query parameters, one value each, in its HTML, .json, and .md versions: clients (a client type the firm reports on Form ADV Item 5.D): individuals, high_net_worth_individuals, pension_profit_sharing, charitable, corporations_other_businesses, pooled_investment_vehicles; fee (how the firm is paid: fee-only is AdvisorCensus's fee-only test, the others are Form ADV Item 5.E answers): fee-only, percentage-of-assets, hourly, subscription, flat-fee, commissions, performance-based, other; type (registration: SEC-registered, state-registered, or exempt reporting adviser): sec, state, exempt; raum (regulatory assets under management band, Form ADV Item 5.F): under_25m, 25m_100m, 100m_500m, 500m_1b, 1b_5b, over_5b, not_reported; years (years registered): under_5, 5_to_9, 10_to_19, 20_plus. sort=years lists the longest-registered firms first and sort=raum the largest first; the default is by name. Each page holds 50 firms; later pages are /page/N with the same query, and total_firms and total_pages in the JSON give the counts. Filtered pages are not indexed. Each firm's own .json carries its full filing
- [Markdown, for example the Nashville list](https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/tn/nashville.md): Every list page (national, state, metro, city, fee model, niche, and each /page/N) is also served as Markdown with a .md suffix: the answer paragraph, the market at a glance, the firms on that page as a table, questions people ask, and related pages. Every firm page is too, at https://advisorcensus.com/firm/{slug}.md: a summary, quick answers built from the filing, the enhanced profile when the firm has one, and the filed facts
- [CSV, for example the Nashville list](https://advisorcensus.com/advisors/tn/nashville.csv): every firm in a state or metro list; add .csv to a state or metro list address
- [Sitemap index](https://advisorcensus.com/sitemap.xml)
- [llms-full.txt](https://advisorcensus.com/llms-full.txt): the national, state, and metro answer paragraphs with their links

## Optional

- [About](https://advisorcensus.com/about)
- [Changelog](https://advisorcensus.com/changelog): every monthly rebuild
- [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): the license on AdvisorCensus's compilation of the filed facts