Using AI to Target RIAs Based on ETF Holdings

The easiest sell is to an advisor who is already moving money into your category. FINTRX tracks quarter over quarter allocation shifts across more than 100 ETF categories, so instead of guessing who is rotating into fixed income, small cap, or thematic ETFs, you can ask directly.

Example prompt:

The output is a firm-level list with the allocation trend already validated, plus the actual decision-maker to reach out to. No SEC filing spreadsheets, no manual 13F comparisons. A wholesaler covering a bond ETF suite can turn this into a call list before their first coffee.

2. Target RIAs holding a competitor ETF as replacement candidates

This is the sharpest use case for distribution teams: finding firms already invested in a rival product. If a firm holds a competitor's fund in a category you compete in, they've already made the case for the category internally. The only remaining question is why they picked that fund over yours.

Example prompt:

To put a number behind this: FINTRX currently shows 1,806 RIA firms holding iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) in their 13F filings. That is 1,806 firms who have already decided fixed income core ETF exposure belongs in their book. For a competing issuer, that is not a cold list, but a replacement campaign built from firms with proven category conviction and a specific, named alternative to displace.

3. Target early adopters of newly launched ETFs

Some advisors wait for a three-year track record before touching a new fund. Others build a position in the first two quarters after launch. For issuers rolling out a new product, that second group is the difference between a slow ramp and a fast one, and they are identifiable in the data.

Example prompt:

This surfaces the advisors who behave like early adopters as a pattern, not a one-time coincidence. When a new fund launches, that segment becomes the first call list, because they've already shown they move before the crowd, not after it.

4. Target RIAs with concentrated exposure to a single competitor provider

Some firms don't just hold a competitor ETF, they've built most of their ETF book around one issuer. That concentration is a different kind of opportunity than a single-position replacement. It's a whitespace conversation: the advisor already believes in ETFs as a vehicle, they've just never had a reason to diversify away from the provider to whom they've always defaulted.

Example prompt:

A firm this concentrated is easy to reach and easy to pitch. The message isn't "replace what you have," it's "you're overexposed to one shop, here's a second option."

5. Target RIAs shifting between active and passive ETF styles

Style migration is one of the clearer directional signals in the ETF data. A firm quietly moving its book from passive to active (or the reverse) over the last few quarters is telling you something about how its investment committee is thinking, well before that shift shows up in a press release or a conference conversation.

Example prompt:

For an issuer with an active suite, this list catches firms mid-decision instead of after they've already picked a provider. For a passive issuer, running the inverse query surfaces firms drifting toward simplicity and lower fees, which is its own kind of opening.

Why this matters for distribution teams

None of these five prompts require a data science background or a custom SQL query against a 13F database. They are plain English requests against live FINTRX data, and the output comes back as a workable list: firm names, AUM, holdings detail, and the actual contact to reach out to, not just an anonymized aggregate.

FINTRX AI enables this key shift in research strategy for distribution and asset raising teams. ETF holdings data used to live in static reports that were stale by the time anyone acted on them. Now it is queryable in real time, in the same conversational interface a marketer or wholesaler already uses to draft an email or build a call list. The targeting layer that used to take a research team days to assemble now takes as long as it takes to type a sentence.

If you're building distribution strategy around ETF flows, category rotation, or competitive displacement, the data is already there. The only step left is asking the right question.

See these queries run on your own target list. Book a FINTRX demo and turn your ETF distribution targeting into a single prompt.