Form 485BPOS Files Dataset

The Form 485BPOS Files Dataset is a comprehensive archive of every Form 485BPOS filing submitted to EDGAR from January 1994 to the present. Form 485BPOS is a post-effective amendment to a Securities Act registration statement filed under Rule 485(b), the automatic-effectiveness track for non-material amendments, and is the standing vehicle by which open-end mutual funds, insurance-company separate accounts, and certain unit investment trusts keep their prospectuses and statements of additional information current. Each record in the dataset is one complete 485BPOS filing rooted at a single SEC accession number and packaged as a folder containing a metadata.json manifest, the primary inline-XBRL prospectus document, and all non-graphic exhibits (material contracts, legal opinions, auditor consents, 18f-3 plans, and codes of ethics). The dataset ships as monthly ZIP containers covering the full 1994-to-present post-effective amendment corpus for registered investment companies filing under Rule 485(b).

Update Frequency
Daily
Updated at
2026-04-29
Earliest Sample Date
1994-01-01
Total Size
49.8 GB
Total Records
1,005,230
Container Format
ZIP
Content Types
TXT, JSON, HTML, PDF, XFD
Form Types
485BPOS

Dataset APIs

Programmatically retrieve the full list of dataset archive files, download URLs and dataset metadata.

Dataset Index JSON API

Download the entire dataset as a single archive file.

Download Entire Dataset:

Download a single container file (e.g. monthly archive) from the dataset.

Download Single Container:

Dataset Files

388 files · 49.8 GB
Download All
2026-04.zip583.8 MB9,457 records
2026-03.zip67.7 MB1,152 records
2026-02.zip302.9 MB3,195 records
2026-01.zip144.0 MB2,104 records
2025-12.zip185.7 MB2,413 records
2025-11.zip93.4 MB1,227 records
2025-10.zip125.1 MB2,032 records
2025-09.zip141.7 MB1,644 records
2025-08.zip88.5 MB1,169 records
2025-07.zip142.5 MB1,886 records
2025-06.zip88.6 MB1,283 records
2025-05.zip52.1 MB1,295 records
2025-04.zip693.8 MB9,593 records
2025-03.zip63.6 MB1,077 records
2025-02.zip289.5 MB3,137 records
2025-01.zip133.8 MB2,029 records
2024-12.zip183.3 MB2,345 records
2024-11.zip84.8 MB1,335 records
2024-10.zip134.4 MB2,348 records
2024-09.zip100.8 MB1,404 records
2024-08.zip80.5 MB1,260 records
2024-07.zip141.2 MB1,804 records
2024-06.zip74.8 MB1,337 records
2024-05.zip52.0 MB923 records
2024-04.zip734.9 MB10,048 records
2024-03.zip56.2 MB1,134 records
2024-02.zip243.5 MB2,491 records
2024-01.zip126.1 MB1,990 records
2023-12.zip155.4 MB2,087 records
2023-11.zip82.1 MB1,467 records
2023-10.zip112.5 MB1,724 records
2023-09.zip136.7 MB1,794 records
2023-08.zip84.0 MB1,350 records
2023-07.zip95.2 MB1,243 records
2023-06.zip82.7 MB1,220 records
2023-05.zip65.3 MB1,691 records
2023-04.zip699.7 MB9,490 records
2023-03.zip55.4 MB934 records
2023-02.zip224.7 MB2,514 records
2023-01.zip124.9 MB1,888 records
2022-12.zip144.4 MB1,979 records
2022-11.zip83.4 MB1,301 records
2022-10.zip96.6 MB1,517 records
2022-09.zip134.0 MB1,620 records
2022-08.zip73.3 MB1,018 records
2022-07.zip97.7 MB1,404 records
2022-06.zip78.2 MB1,228 records
2022-05.zip41.2 MB777 records
2022-04.zip780.6 MB10,543 records
2022-03.zip56.0 MB938 records
2022-02.zip227.7 MB2,627 records
2022-01.zip124.0 MB2,023 records
2021-12.zip146.7 MB2,199 records
2021-11.zip80.3 MB1,190 records
2021-10.zip104.4 MB1,836 records
2021-09.zip140.6 MB1,937 records
2021-08.zip69.6 MB1,004 records
2021-07.zip94.3 MB1,510 records
2021-06.zip80.9 MB1,300 records
2021-05.zip46.2 MB859 records
2021-04.zip902.0 MB10,548 records
2021-03.zip58.8 MB1,108 records
2021-02.zip211.2 MB2,536 records
2021-01.zip125.5 MB2,052 records
2020-12.zip155.7 MB2,337 records
2020-11.zip76.5 MB1,349 records
2020-10.zip116.0 MB1,774 records
2020-09.zip141.2 MB2,427 records
2020-08.zip70.3 MB1,388 records
2020-07.zip89.6 MB1,756 records
2020-06.zip79.3 MB1,403 records
2020-05.zip43.9 MB1,338 records
2020-04.zip1.1 GB9,430 records
2020-03.zip47.4 MB1,390 records
2020-02.zip232.4 MB3,734 records
2020-01.zip121.2 MB2,422 records
2019-12.zip133.9 MB2,166 records
2019-11.zip75.1 MB1,393 records
2019-10.zip96.1 MB1,831 records
2019-09.zip112.9 MB1,970 records
2019-08.zip59.4 MB1,338 records
2019-07.zip84.0 MB1,641 records
2019-06.zip72.5 MB1,446 records
2019-05.zip72.7 MB1,610 records
2019-04.zip1.1 GB9,096 records
2019-03.zip51.1 MB1,351 records
2019-02.zip197.9 MB2,791 records
2019-01.zip142.3 MB2,301 records
2018-12.zip135.2 MB2,332 records
2018-11.zip72.6 MB1,477 records
2018-10.zip91.9 MB1,810 records
2018-09.zip111.2 MB2,034 records
2018-08.zip63.1 MB1,726 records
2018-07.zip85.3 MB1,667 records
2018-06.zip167.2 MB2,271 records
2018-05.zip54.5 MB1,482 records
2018-04.zip1.1 GB9,466 records
2018-03.zip49.4 MB1,358 records
2018-02.zip204.5 MB3,096 records
2018-01.zip131.1 MB2,669 records
2017-12.zip143.9 MB2,820 records
2017-11.zip73.3 MB1,500 records
2017-10.zip102.9 MB2,248 records
2017-09.zip115.3 MB2,084 records
2017-08.zip62.4 MB1,370 records
2017-07.zip84.9 MB1,754 records
2017-06.zip76.9 MB1,471 records
2017-05.zip65.6 MB1,990 records
2017-04.zip1.1 GB11,041 records
2017-03.zip95.6 MB2,597 records
2017-02.zip226.5 MB3,599 records
2017-01.zip109.0 MB2,255 records
2016-12.zip136.2 MB2,719 records
2016-11.zip83.3 MB1,926 records
2016-10.zip91.1 MB2,050 records
2016-09.zip110.4 MB2,137 records
2016-08.zip72.1 MB1,527 records
2016-07.zip81.4 MB1,481 records
2016-06.zip70.3 MB1,362 records
2016-05.zip67.9 MB1,754 records
2016-04.zip1.0 GB9,928 records
2016-03.zip65.1 MB1,709 records
2016-02.zip197.4 MB3,145 records
2016-01.zip111.5 MB2,127 records
2015-12.zip132.8 MB2,905 records
2015-11.zip79.9 MB1,687 records
2015-10.zip98.6 MB2,529 records
2015-09.zip102.7 MB2,225 records
2015-08.zip74.5 MB1,602 records
2015-07.zip89.5 MB1,817 records
2015-06.zip78.7 MB1,443 records
2015-05.zip51.2 MB1,584 records
2015-04.zip944.8 MB11,068 records
2015-03.zip55.7 MB1,483 records
2015-02.zip177.7 MB2,813 records
2015-01.zip107.6 MB2,076 records
2014-12.zip130.8 MB2,513 records
2014-11.zip76.3 MB1,632 records
2014-10.zip82.1 MB1,898 records
2014-09.zip104.1 MB2,277 records
2014-08.zip96.5 MB2,325 records
2014-07.zip87.7 MB1,900 records
2014-06.zip68.4 MB1,440 records
2014-05.zip64.9 MB1,502 records
2014-04.zip844.6 MB10,510 records
2014-03.zip51.1 MB1,402 records
2014-02.zip175.4 MB2,857 records
2014-01.zip99.3 MB2,171 records
2013-12.zip121.4 MB2,744 records
2013-11.zip75.1 MB1,564 records
2013-10.zip98.3 MB2,760 records
2013-09.zip104.8 MB2,591 records
2013-08.zip67.2 MB1,646 records
2013-07.zip91.5 MB1,692 records
2013-06.zip77.0 MB1,306 records
2013-05.zip56.4 MB1,601 records
2013-04.zip905.5 MB9,989 records
2013-03.zip48.6 MB1,391 records
2013-02.zip176.8 MB2,722 records
2013-01.zip97.3 MB1,963 records
2012-12.zip146.9 MB2,814 records
2012-11.zip80.8 MB1,622 records
2012-10.zip76.7 MB1,839 records
2012-09.zip108.9 MB2,033 records
2012-08.zip88.0 MB2,029 records
2012-07.zip93.0 MB1,679 records
2012-06.zip76.4 MB1,402 records
2012-05.zip53.2 MB1,430 records
2012-04.zip845.1 MB11,171 records
2012-03.zip52.7 MB1,671 records
2012-02.zip161.8 MB3,068 records
2012-01.zip105.7 MB2,141 records
2011-12.zip112.1 MB2,583 records
2011-11.zip70.6 MB1,597 records
2011-10.zip81.2 MB1,782 records
2011-09.zip92.9 MB1,841 records
2011-08.zip63.9 MB1,601 records
2011-07.zip78.6 MB1,542 records
2011-06.zip66.3 MB1,306 records
2011-05.zip70.6 MB1,752 records
2011-04.zip775.2 MB9,858 records
2011-03.zip49.3 MB1,340 records
2011-02.zip142.5 MB2,644 records
2011-01.zip96.5 MB1,913 records
2010-12.zip136.1 MB2,363 records
2010-11.zip67.0 MB1,239 records
2010-10.zip108.2 MB1,652 records
2010-09.zip85.0 MB1,652 records
2010-08.zip56.4 MB1,487 records
2010-07.zip101.9 MB1,393 records
2010-06.zip63.3 MB1,303 records
2010-05.zip75.8 MB1,282 records
2010-04.zip697.7 MB8,752 records
2010-03.zip44.5 MB995 records
2010-02.zip142.4 MB2,077 records
2010-01.zip74.2 MB1,221 records
2009-12.zip100.3 MB2,087 records
2009-11.zip61.0 MB1,328 records
2009-10.zip78.1 MB1,643 records
2009-09.zip60.9 MB1,509 records
2009-08.zip58.9 MB1,294 records
2009-07.zip81.5 MB1,697 records
2009-06.zip48.6 MB973 records
2009-05.zip68.4 MB1,537 records
2009-04.zip647.1 MB9,591 records
2009-03.zip48.2 MB1,062 records
2009-02.zip127.6 MB2,301 records
2009-01.zip82.7 MB1,692 records
2008-12.zip104.9 MB2,423 records
2008-11.zip62.4 MB1,256 records
2008-10.zip87.1 MB2,029 records
2008-09.zip92.0 MB1,887 records
2008-08.zip57.3 MB1,324 records
2008-07.zip87.8 MB1,930 records
2008-06.zip57.3 MB1,257 records
2008-05.zip92.7 MB1,336 records
2008-04.zip609.6 MB10,056 records
2008-03.zip58.6 MB1,114 records
2008-02.zip145.5 MB2,683 records
2008-01.zip80.6 MB1,806 records
2007-12.zip95.2 MB2,428 records
2007-11.zip70.4 MB1,729 records
2007-10.zip72.1 MB1,888 records
2007-09.zip71.0 MB1,976 records
2007-08.zip60.1 MB1,135 records
2007-07.zip79.4 MB1,932 records
2007-06.zip51.0 MB1,582 records
2007-05.zip47.4 MB1,344 records
2007-04.zip603.5 MB11,107 records
2007-03.zip57.7 MB1,135 records
2007-02.zip129.5 MB2,662 records
2007-01.zip81.1 MB1,879 records
2006-12.zip98.4 MB2,426 records
2006-11.zip58.7 MB1,421 records
2006-10.zip57.9 MB1,739 records
2006-09.zip78.0 MB1,736 records
2006-08.zip58.1 MB1,063 records
2006-07.zip71.5 MB1,547 records
2006-06.zip44.9 MB1,242 records
2006-05.zip119.0 MB1,915 records
2006-04.zip566.7 MB10,108 records
2006-03.zip65.7 MB1,488 records
2006-02.zip122.3 MB2,392 records
2006-01.zip84.6 MB1,911 records
2005-12.zip91.0 MB2,092 records
2005-11.zip56.3 MB1,266 records
2005-10.zip76.3 MB2,418 records
2005-09.zip67.1 MB1,523 records
2005-08.zip37.0 MB1,086 records
2005-07.zip58.7 MB1,331 records
2005-06.zip40.5 MB1,077 records
2005-05.zip77.6 MB1,198 records
2005-04.zip479.5 MB9,068 records
2005-03.zip63.9 MB842 records
2005-02.zip114.4 MB2,485 records
2005-01.zip50.9 MB1,208 records
2004-12.zip61.0 MB1,613 records
2004-11.zip54.7 MB1,747 records
2004-10.zip60.8 MB1,582 records
2004-09.zip58.2 MB1,313 records
2004-08.zip36.1 MB1,085 records
2004-07.zip60.3 MB1,510 records
2004-06.zip31.4 MB699 records
2004-05.zip58.9 MB1,018 records
2004-04.zip443.5 MB9,521 records
2004-03.zip44.4 MB1,045 records
2004-02.zip109.9 MB2,118 records
2004-01.zip60.9 MB1,598 records
2003-12.zip136.2 MB2,819 records
2003-11.zip52.7 MB1,452 records
2003-10.zip94.7 MB2,358 records
2003-09.zip58.2 MB1,390 records
2003-08.zip45.4 MB1,366 records
2003-07.zip57.5 MB1,662 records
2003-06.zip43.1 MB964 records
2003-05.zip55.7 MB1,498 records
2003-04.zip375.1 MB9,319 records
2003-03.zip35.4 MB973 records
2003-02.zip92.8 MB2,305 records
2003-01.zip59.6 MB1,619 records
2002-12.zip73.2 MB1,970 records
2002-11.zip59.2 MB1,427 records
2002-10.zip67.3 MB2,202 records
2002-09.zip66.8 MB1,568 records
2002-08.zip42.2 MB1,282 records
2002-07.zip63.6 MB1,557 records
2002-06.zip25.3 MB877 records
2002-05.zip77.2 MB1,886 records
2002-04.zip330.9 MB9,648 records
2002-03.zip48.8 MB1,116 records
2002-02.zip92.3 MB2,304 records
2002-01.zip75.6 MB1,918 records
2001-12.zip70.8 MB2,702 records
2001-11.zip53.1 MB1,712 records
2001-10.zip68.1 MB2,250 records
2001-09.zip48.5 MB1,541 records
2001-08.zip39.4 MB1,353 records
2001-07.zip53.3 MB1,491 records
2001-06.zip36.3 MB977 records
2001-05.zip60.1 MB1,910 records
2001-04.zip276.3 MB9,538 records
2001-03.zip48.8 MB2,004 records
2001-02.zip84.7 MB2,740 records
2001-01.zip61.1 MB2,046 records
2000-12.zip87.9 MB3,146 records
2000-11.zip53.7 MB1,760 records
2000-10.zip64.5 MB2,286 records
2000-09.zip57.6 MB2,137 records
2000-08.zip47.9 MB1,706 records
2000-07.zip59.5 MB2,196 records
2000-06.zip44.3 MB1,625 records
2000-05.zip77.3 MB2,757 records
2000-04.zip237.3 MB9,433 records
2000-03.zip46.6 MB2,220 records
2000-02.zip82.1 MB2,696 records
2000-01.zip69.4 MB2,246 records
1999-12.zip56.2 MB1,773 records
1999-11.zip47.3 MB1,439 records
1999-10.zip57.3 MB1,774 records
1999-09.zip51.7 MB1,648 records
1999-08.zip42.6 MB1,372 records
1999-07.zip51.0 MB1,654 records
1999-06.zip32.6 MB1,198 records
1999-05.zip53.3 MB2,615 records
1999-04.zip191.5 MB10,071 records
1999-03.zip35.9 MB2,555 records
1999-02.zip66.1 MB3,259 records
1999-01.zip48.2 MB2,194 records
1998-12.zip50.7 MB2,409 records
1998-11.zip50.6 MB2,976 records
1998-10.zip65.3 MB3,540 records
1998-09.zip49.6 MB2,989 records
1998-08.zip42.6 MB2,179 records
1998-07.zip65.2 MB3,077 records
1998-06.zip52.5 MB2,350 records
1998-05.zip67.7 MB3,334 records
1998-04.zip198.0 MB12,280 records
1998-03.zip47.1 MB3,228 records
1998-02.zip81.6 MB4,469 records
1998-01.zip71.5 MB4,172 records
1997-12.zip83.0 MB4,106 records
1997-11.zip52.1 MB2,505 records
1997-10.zip79.3 MB4,530 records
1997-09.zip54.1 MB3,139 records
1997-08.zip56.9 MB3,153 records
1997-07.zip78.7 MB3,858 records
1997-06.zip56.8 MB3,050 records
1997-05.zip56.3 MB3,305 records
1997-04.zip176.5 MB11,616 records
1997-03.zip37.1 MB2,360 records
1997-02.zip81.2 MB4,271 records
1997-01.zip65.7 MB3,410 records
1996-12.zip66.8 MB3,530 records
1996-11.zip51.5 MB2,513 records
1996-10.zip69.5 MB3,710 records
1996-09.zip57.2 MB2,885 records
1996-08.zip59.7 MB3,142 records
1996-07.zip63.8 MB2,898 records
1996-06.zip52.8 MB2,469 records
1996-05.zip66.7 MB3,718 records
1996-04.zip170.8 MB10,644 records
1996-03.zip43.9 MB2,870 records
1996-02.zip82.1 MB3,996 records
1996-01.zip74.0 MB3,698 records
1995-12.zip59.0 MB2,759 records
1995-11.zip52.4 MB2,502 records
1995-10.zip64.6 MB3,153 records
1995-09.zip54.2 MB2,507 records
1995-08.zip60.9 MB2,766 records
1995-07.zip63.9 MB3,271 records
1995-06.zip57.5 MB2,558 records
1995-05.zip55.2 MB2,713 records
1995-04.zip78.8 MB4,296 records
1995-03.zip35.3 MB1,862 records
1995-02.zip49.9 MB2,270 records
1995-01.zip48.2 MB1,776 records
1994-12.zip48.0 MB1,802 records
1994-11.zip43.4 MB1,382 records
1994-10.zip53.7 MB2,207 records
1994-09.zip49.0 MB1,698 records
1994-08.zip46.6 MB763 records
1994-07.zip48.4 MB919 records
1994-06.zip51.0 MB945 records
1994-05.zip41.7 MB818 records
1994-04.zip45.5 MB1,014 records
1994-03.zip28.5 MB718 records
1994-02.zip41.4 MB917 records
1994-01.zip43.8 MB754 records

What This Dataset Contains

The dataset packages the complete EDGAR submission associated with every Form 485BPOS filing: the post-effective amendment document itself — almost always an updated mutual fund prospectus and, where applicable, a statement of additional information (SAI) — alongside every non-graphic exhibit filed with the amendment. Form 485BPOS is the post-effective amendment mechanism defined by Rule 485(b) of the Securities Act of 1933, and it is the form under which the overwhelming majority of ongoing mutual-fund disclosure updates are delivered. The dataset covers the entire eligible filer population: open-end management investment companies registered on Form N-1A, insurance-company separate accounts registered on Forms N-3, N-4, and N-6, and unit investment trusts registered on Form S-6, all of which may use Rule 485(b) for automatically effective post-effective amendments.

Time coverage starts January 1994, when the EDGAR phase-in for investment company filings was underway; pre-1994 post-effective amendments exist only in paper form and are outside the corpus. The dataset is distributed as monthly ZIP containers. For each accession number, the archive includes a metadata.json sidecar plus every document from the original EDGAR submission except image files, covering the primary amendment document and any attached exhibits. The file-types found in the dataset are TXT, JSON, HTML, PDF, and XFD, although in practice modern filings consist almost exclusively of HTM/HTML documents plus the JSON manifest; the rarer types appear only for unusual exhibit content and older-era submissions. Each filing typically contains an updated prospectus disclosing fund objectives, investment strategies, risk factors, fee tables, performance data, and portfolio management information as required under the underlying registration statement's instructions.

Content Structure of a Single Record

What one record represents

A single record is one complete Form 485BPOS filing as submitted to EDGAR, rooted at one SEC accession number. Physically, the dataset ships as monthly ZIP containers; inside each container every record is a folder named after the 18-digit accession number with dashes stripped (for example, 000089418925004231 corresponds to accession 0000894189-25-004231). That folder contains a metadata.json sidecar plus the full set of documents from the original EDGAR submission, with image/graphic attachments excluded. One folder equals one filing equals one post-effective amendment event.

A filing/document distinction matters when reading monthly index counts. Per-container record counts frequently equal the number of underlying document files (primary document plus exhibits across all filings), not the number of distinct filings. The canonical record key is the accession folder name (18-digit no-dash form); the canonical in-data identifier is metadata.json.accessionNo (dashed form) or the opaque id hash.

What the underlying filing is

Form 485BPOS is a post-effective amendment to a registration statement filed under Rule 485(b) of the Securities Act of 1933. It is the standing vehicle by which open-end management investment companies — principally mutual fund trusts, variable-contract separate accounts, and unit investment trusts — keep previously effective registration statements current. Under Rule 485(b), qualifying amendments become effective automatically on a designated date provided they do not contain material changes that would trigger staff review; the "POS" suffix denotes post-effective status and the "B" denotes the 485(b) automatic-effectiveness track. Because prospectuses and statements of additional information (SAIs) must be updated at least annually and must also reflect intra-year "sticker" changes (new portfolio managers, new fee arrangements, new share classes, strategy updates, refreshed financial highlights), 485BPOS is the form under which the overwhelming majority of ongoing mutual-fund disclosure updates are delivered.

A 485BPOS almost always amends a registration statement previously filed on Form N-1A (open-end funds), Form N-2 (continuously offered closed-end funds), Form N-3 / Form N-4 / Form N-6 (insurance-company separate accounts offering variable contracts), or Form S-6 (unit investment trusts). The amendment inherits the structural conventions of whichever underlying form registered the securities, and typically delivers an updated prospectus and, where applicable, an updated SAI, accompanied by the lettered exhibits required by that form's instructions.

Record layout inside one accession folder

A record is composed of three logical layers, all present in the same accession folder:

  1. A filing-level manifest in metadata.json describing the accession, filer entities, the registered fund series and share classes, and an inventory of every document associated with the submission (both shipped-local and reference-only).
  2. A primary 485BPOS document: a single large .htm file carrying the updated prospectus and, where applicable, the SAI, encoded as inline-XBRL XHTML with financial facts tagged inline.
  3. Zero or more exhibit .htm documents, each preserved with the original EDGAR SGML <DOCUMENT> wrapper.

Additional artifacts — graphic images, XBRL taxonomy linkbases, and the concatenated EDGAR .txt submission bundle — are enumerated in the manifest but ship by URL reference only; they are not copied into the folder.

The file types found in the dataset are TXT, JSON, HTML, PDF, and XFD. In practice, modern filings consist almost exclusively of HTM/HTML documents plus the JSON sidecar; the rarer types appear only for unusual exhibit content and older-era submissions.

Component-by-component breakdown

metadata.json — the filing manifest

Every accession folder contains exactly one metadata.json. The manifest carries the following intentional, structured fields:

  • formType — always the literal "485BPOS" for this dataset.
  • accessionNo — SEC accession number in dashed canonical form, e.g. "0001104659-25-054984".
  • id — a 32-character opaque hexadecimal hash uniquely identifying the record across the dataset.
  • filedAt — ISO-8601 timestamp with timezone marking the moment the submission reached EDGAR.
  • effectivenessDate — date-only string naming the day the post-effective amendment takes effect under Rule 485(b); typically within one to sixty days of filedAt, depending on the designation the filer elected.
  • description — human-readable form label, usually "Form 485BPOS - Post-effective amendment [Rule 485(b)]".
  • linkToFilingDetails — URL to the primary document on EDGAR, frequently wrapped through the /ix?doc= inline-XBRL viewer.
  • linkToHtml — URL to the EDGAR filing-index HTML page.
  • linkToTxt — URL to the concatenated submission .txt bundle on EDGAR.
  • linkToXbrl — usually an empty string for this form type, because XBRL data is embedded inline in the primary XHTML rather than delivered as a standalone instance document.
  • documentFormatFiles — ordered array of document descriptors, one per submitted document. Each descriptor carries sequence (numeric string, with a blank entry for the submission bundle), size in bytes, an absolute documentUrl, a type field carrying the SEC exhibit-type code (e.g. "485BPOS", "EX-99.(I)", "EX-99.B(H)(5)", "GRAPHIC"), and a description. The final element with blank type and sequence: " " consistently points at the <accession>.txt full-submission bundle.
  • dataFiles — array enumerating the XBRL taxonomy attachments that ship with the filing on EDGAR (EX-101.SCH, EX-101.CAL, EX-101.DEF, EX-101.LAB, EX-101.PRE, plus a trailing XML entry pointing at the extracted inline-XBRL instance <...>_htm.xml). Field shape mirrors documentFormatFiles. These files are listed for discoverability but are not copied into the local folder.
  • entities — array of filer-entity records. Each entry carries cik, companyName (often annotated with " (Filer)"), type (mirrors formType), fileNo (the SEC file number, e.g. "811-22980" for an Investment Company Act registration or "333-197427" for a Securities Act registration statement), filmNo, irsNo, act ("33" for Securities Act, "40" for Investment Company Act), and commonly stateOfIncorporation and fiscalYearEnd in MMDD form. It is normal for the same filer to appear twice with different act/fileNo pairs, reflecting the joint 1933-Act and 1940-Act character of a mutual-fund registration amendment — these are not duplicates.
  • seriesAndClassesContractsInformation — array describing every fund series and share class covered by the amendment. Each series object exposes series (SEC series ID such as "S000048360"), name (the fund name), and classesContracts, an array of { ticker, name, classContract } objects in which classContract is the SEC share-class ID (e.g. "C000152733"). A single trust-level 485BPOS commonly covers many series and many tickers — six series and ten to eleven share-class tickers are realistic magnitudes.

Treat this manifest as the authoritative index of what the filing is, who filed it, which funds and share classes it covers, and where every document — shipped-local or remote — actually lives.

The primary 485BPOS document

The document referenced by the sequence: "1" / type: "485BPOS" entry is always a single large .htm file: the updated prospectus (and, where applicable, the SAI) that the amendment delivers. It is encoded as inline-XBRL XHTML, not as an SGML-wrapped HTML body. The first line is an XML declaration; the root <html> element carries the full set of XBRL namespaces — xbrli, xbrldi, ix, ixt, ixt-sec, dei, oef, country, srt — plus a registrant-specific namespace. The <body> opens with an <ix:header> block declaring <ix:hidden> facts (such as dei:AmendmentFlag, dei:DocumentType = 485BPOS, dei:EntityCentralIndexKey), XBRL contexts keyed per share class (for example AsOf<date> and From<date><date>_custom_S...Member_custom_C...Member), and a <link:schemaRef> pointing at the taxonomy .xsd that ships separately on EDGAR.

The visible narrative content mirrors the structure of the underlying registration form (most commonly N-1A):

  • Risk/return summary (Form N-1A Items 2-8, per series/class combination): investment objective, fee table with shareholder fees and annual fund operating expenses, a standardized cost example, portfolio turnover, principal investment strategies, principal risks, performance bar chart and average-annual-total-return table, investment adviser and portfolio manager information, purchase and sale procedures, tax information, and payments to broker-dealers for distribution.
  • Statutory prospectus body: expanded treatment of investment objectives, strategies and associated risks; portfolio-holdings disclosure policy; management (investment adviser, sub-advisers, portfolio managers, advisory-fee tables); shareholder-account information (pricing, purchase, redemption, exchange mechanics, distribution and Rule 12b-1 arrangements); distributions and taxes; financial highlights tables; and any appendices such as intermediary-specific sales-charge waivers.
  • Statement of Additional Information (when delivered in the same document): fund history, additional strategies and associated risks, fundamental and non-fundamental investment restrictions, trustees and officers tables, control persons and principal holders, compensation tables, codes of ethics, proxy voting policies, brokerage allocation, capital stock, custodian and auditor identification, and financial statements typically incorporated by reference.
  • Signatures page — signatures required by the underlying form's instructions (registrant signatures, signatures on behalf of trustees, and attorney-in-fact signatures under powers of attorney).
  • Part C material — items such as the exhibit index and undertakings appear either in the primary document or as part of the exhibit set, following the underlying form's Part C conventions.

Numeric financial figures and many structured narrative elements (expense ratios, waiver amounts, performance figures, risk/return summary elements) are wrapped in <ix:nonFraction> and <ix:nonNumeric> tags so they can be extracted programmatically as XBRL facts against the Risk/Return taxonomy (the rr- and oef- namespaces). Primary documents commonly range from a few hundred kilobytes for single-series filings up to several megabytes; 3.5–3.9 MB is typical for multi-series trust-level filings.

Exhibit documents

Every non-graphic entry in documentFormatFiles with sequence ≥ 2 is a separate .htm exhibit shipped alongside the primary document in the same accession folder. Exhibit .htm files are SGML-wrapped: the EDGAR <DOCUMENT> envelope (with <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, <DESCRIPTION>, <TEXT>) is preserved around an HTML body. The primary 485BPOS document does not carry this wrapper; exhibits do. A parser must branch on wrapper format when walking the folder.

Exhibit type codes follow the lettered schedule of Form N-1A Item 28 (or the corresponding exhibit schedules of N-2, N-3, N-4, N-6). Frequently observed types include:

  • EX-99.(H)(x) / EX-99.B(H)(x) — "Other material contracts": expense-limitation agreements, servicing agreements, administration agreements, and related side letters.
  • EX-99.(I) / EX-99.B(I) — opinion and consent of counsel supporting the legality of the securities being registered.
  • EX-99.(J) / EX-99.B(J) — consent of the independent registered public accounting firm.
  • EX-99.B(N)Rule 18f-3 multiple-class plan describing differential fees and services across classes.
  • EX-99.B(P)(x)code of ethics for the trust, the adviser, the sub-adviser(s), and the principal underwriter.
  • Less common but legitimate lettered exhibits also appear (for example advisory-contract exhibits, distribution-plan exhibits, custody agreements, and power of attorney), depending on what the underlying form's Item 28 (or equivalent) schedule currently lists.

EDGAR occasionally truncates type labels (for example "EX-99.I LEGAL OPININ"), and the B prefix on exhibit letters is applied inconsistently across filers (EX-99.(I) versus EX-99.B(I)). The reliable way to identify a file's role is through documentFormatFiles[].type and .description in metadata.json — not through filenames. Filenames follow no uniform convention (e.g. ex99i2.htm, tm258749d1_ex99-bxj.htm, angeloak485blegalopinionan.htm, regan_485bpos.htm), so join file-to-role via the manifest.

What is included in the dataset record

Each accession folder includes:

  • Exactly one metadata.json with the structured fields enumerated above.
  • The primary 485BPOS inline-XBRL XHTML document (updated prospectus and, where applicable, SAI).
  • All non-graphic exhibit documents filed with the submission, as SGML-wrapped .htm files, covering the full set of lettered exhibits present (material contracts, legal opinion, auditor consent, 18f-3 plan, codes of ethics, and any other lettered exhibits supplied).

Because inline-XBRL tags live inside the primary .htm, the tagged numeric and narrative data is preserved in the record even though the separate XBRL instance and linkbases are not shipped locally.

What is excluded or ships by reference only

The manifest enumerates several artifacts that are not physically copied into the folder but remain retrievable via the documentUrl fields on EDGAR:

  • GRAPHIC entries — logos, performance charts rendered as images, and any other embedded graphics. Excluded from the dataset copy by design.
  • The full submission bundle referenced by the blank-type / sequence: " " entry ending in <accession>.txt. Reachable via linkToTxt.
  • All dataFiles entries: the XBRL schema (EX-101.SCH), calculation linkbase (EX-101.CAL), definition linkbase (EX-101.DEF), label linkbase (EX-101.LAB), presentation linkbase (EX-101.PRE), and the extracted inline-XBRL instance <...>_htm.xml. Listed for discoverability but not shipped locally.

A downstream consumer that needs the standalone XBRL instance, the taxonomy linkbases, embedded images, or the concatenated SGML submission can fetch them directly from the URLs in the manifest.

Evolution of required content and form structure

Because a 485BPOS's required content tracks the instructions of the underlying form it amends, structural evolution of 485BPOS content is effectively the evolution of Forms N-1A, N-2, N-3, N-4, N-6, and S-6 over time. Several regulatory changes materially shaped what the record looks like:

  • 1998 plain-English and Risk/Return Summary rewrite of Form N-1A (effective for fiscal years beginning on or after June 1, 1998). Introduced the standardized Risk/Return Summary at the front of every prospectus — investment objective, fee table, example, principal strategies, principal risks, performance information, management, purchase/sale, tax information — and imposed plain-English drafting requirements. Post-1998 filings therefore look structurally very different from early-1990s filings, which used older narrative prospectus conventions without the standardized summary.
  • 2009 Summary Prospectus framework (Rule 498). The SEC restructured N-1A into Items 2–8 (the summary section) and later items (the statutory prospectus), enabling a short-form summary prospectus backed by the full statutory prospectus. Post-2009 485BPOS filings consistently carry the Item 2–8 summary block per series/class.
  • 2009 interactive-data (XBRL) tagging of risk/return summaries. Open-end funds were required to tag the risk/return summary portion of their prospectuses in inline XBRL. Early-2010s 485BPOS filings carry either standalone XBRL instance documents or, later, inline-XBRL tagging embedded directly in the prospectus XHTML.
  • 2020 Variable-contracts summary prospectus (Rule 498A). Variable insurance product filings on N-3/N-4/N-6 acquired their own summary-prospectus framework, reshaping the front-matter organization of 485BPOS amendments to those forms.
  • 2022–2024 Tailored Shareholder Reports and related disclosure rule-making. Introduced further front-section disclosures and tagging requirements that affect the content of recent 485BPOS filings.

The lettered exhibit schedule has also grown: new exhibit letters were added to N-1A Item 28 as regulation created new required contracts and plans (for example, Rule 18f-3 plans under EX-99.(N) and code-of-ethics filings under EX-99.(P)), so filings from the 1990s show a shorter exhibit list than those from the 2010s and 2020s.

Evolution of wire format

485BPOS filings have existed continuously on EDGAR since 1994, and their wire format has evolved through three distinguishable eras:

  • ASCII/SGML era (1994 through the late 1990s). Filings were delivered as a single SGML-wrapped .txt submission containing plain-text prospectus content with the SGML <DOCUMENT>/<TEXT> envelopes around each exhibit. Tables were rendered as fixed-width monospaced ASCII; image exhibits, when present, were uuencoded inside the text stream.
  • HTML era (late 1990s through the early 2010s). Registrants migrated to HTML-formatted prospectus documents wrapped inside the same EDGAR <DOCUMENT> envelopes. Graphics became separate GRAPHIC attachments rather than inline ASCII art. The overall submission was still stitched together into a master .txt bundle.
  • Inline-XBRL era (early 2010s to present). Risk/return summary XBRL tagging initially arrived as separate XBRL instance documents accompanying an HTML prospectus. Under the subsequent inline-XBRL mandate that reached open-end funds, the primary 485BPOS document became an inline-XBRL XHTML file with all namespaces, contexts, <ix:hidden> facts, and <ix:nonFraction> / <ix:nonNumeric> tags embedded directly in the prospectus markup. Exhibits retained the older SGML-wrapped HTML form and did not move to inline XBRL.

In modern records, the primary document is inline-XBRL XHTML with no SGML wrapper, while exhibits continue to carry the SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope around a plain HTML body. A parser must expect both wrapper conventions in the same folder.

Interpretation and extraction notes

  • A single 485BPOS commonly covers many fund series and many share-class tickers within one trust. seriesAndClassesContractsInformation is the authoritative in-filing index linking SEC series IDs, class-contract IDs, fund names, and tickers. Do not infer the set of covered products from the prospectus text alone.
  • Two entities entries with the same CIK and different act/fileNo pairs are normal, not duplicates — they reflect the dual 1933-Act / 1940-Act registration structure of a mutual fund.
  • The id hash and accessionNo are both stable record identifiers. The accession folder name is the 18-digit no-dash form of the accession number.
  • The primary document is inline-XBRL XHTML without an SGML wrapper; every exhibit is SGML-wrapped HTML. Folder-walking code must branch on wrapper format and cannot assume a uniform document shell.
  • Filenames carry no semantics. Map file to exhibit role by joining documentFormatFiles[].documentUrl (or its tail filename) against metadata.json. Expect truncated type labels and inconsistent use of the B prefix.
  • Because Rule 485(b) effectiveness is automatic, effectivenessDate is a scheduled date, not a staff-action date; it generally falls within one to sixty days of filedAt based on the filer's designation.
  • Rule 485(b) amendments cannot carry material changes. A filing that would introduce material changes is instead made on Form 485APOS (pre-effective amendment subject to staff review) or on Form 497 (sticker supplement). This dataset is scoped strictly to 485BPOS and therefore excludes 485APOS, 485BPOS/A, and 497-series filings; downstream analyses that need the full amendment lifecycle must join to those form-type datasets separately.
  • Financial statements of the fund itself are typically incorporated by reference from the most recent annual report (Form N-CSR) rather than re-printed in full inside the 485BPOS; the auditor consent (EX-99.(J)) is the visible trace of that incorporation. Consumers seeking complete audited financials must follow the N-CSR reference trail, not the 485BPOS content alone.
  • Inline-XBRL extraction targets the risk/return summary and cover-page taxonomies (rr-, oef-, dei-), not the full line-item financial taxonomy used by operating-company 10-K/10-Q filings. Expect fact density around fees, returns, and portfolio turnover rather than a full income statement or balance sheet.

Who Files or Publishes This Dataset, and When

Who files the record

Each record in this dataset is a single Form 485BPOS submission to EDGAR: a post-effective amendment to an already-effective Securities Act registration statement, filed by a registered investment company under Rule 485(b). The filer of record is the registrant entity whose registration statement is being amended, not the individual fund or share class. One 485BPOS from a large trust can update the prospectus and statement of additional information (SAI) for many series and classes at once.

The eligible filing population is narrow:

  • Open-end management investment companies (mutual funds) registered on Form N-1A. This is the dominant filer class. The registrant is typically a Delaware statutory trust, Massachusetts business trust, or Maryland corporation serving as an umbrella for multiple series and share classes.
  • Insurance company separate accounts that issue variable annuity or variable life contracts and register on Form N-4, N-6, or N-3. The separate account, sponsored by a life insurer, is the registrant.
  • Certain unit investment trusts registered on Form N-8B-2 / S-6 that use Rule 485(b) for post-effective amendments.

Closed-end funds, BDCs, ETPs organized as grantor trusts or commodity pools, and operating companies are not eligible for Rule 485 and do not file 485BPOS. They update registration statements through post-effective amendments to Form N-2, Form S-1, Form S-3, Form F-1, or similar forms.

When the record is created

Form 485BPOS is filed whenever an eligible registrant needs to update its effective registration statement with changes that do not require SEC staff review. Rule 485(b) grants automatic effectiveness to such amendments. Common triggers:

  • Annual prospectus update. Section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act requires that prospectus information not be more than sixteen months old when used. Mutual funds satisfy this by filing an annual post-effective amendment, typically within 60 to 120 days of fiscal year-end, to incorporate updated audited financials, fee tables, performance data, and refreshed disclosures. When the update contains no material changes, it is filed as a 485BPOS.
  • Addition of a new series or share class under Rule 485(b)(1)(vii), where permitted without staff review.
  • Non-material changes to investment strategies, risk factors, fees, portfolio managers, sub-advisers, or service providers that fall within the scope of Rule 485(b).
  • Final filing after staff comments. A registrant that filed a 485APOS (Rule 485(a)) often re-files at effectiveness as a 485BPOS to incorporate agreed staff comments and set the effective date.
  • Technical or conforming updates such as revised financial highlights, expense examples, or performance tables.

Rule 485(b) amendments become effective immediately upon filing or on a date the registrant designates in the filing (commonly up to 60 days later). The registrant chooses the effective date; there is generally no Commission declaration of effectiveness. A Rule 485(b) filing must include an officer certification that the amendment contains no disclosures making it ineligible for automatic effectiveness.

For insurance separate accounts, the cadence mirrors the mutual fund cycle but aligns with the separate account's fiscal year and the underlying contract cycle. Because one registrant may encompass dozens or hundreds of series and contracts, a single 485BPOS submission can be very large.

Important distinctions

  • 485BPOS vs. 485APOS. Both are post-effective amendments under Rule 485. 485APOS filings are under Rule 485(a) and are subject to a staff review window (typically 60 or 75 days) before effectiveness. 485BPOS filings are under Rule 485(b) and go effective automatically. A major update cycle often starts as 485APOS and is finalized as 485BPOS.
  • Registrant vs. underlying fund. The CIK on a 485BPOS is the registrant trust or corporation, not the individual series. Series and class identifiers appear in EDGAR's series/class metadata within the filing.
  • Initial registration vs. post-effective amendment. Form 485BPOS is used only after the registration statement (or the relevant series) is already effective. Initial registrations use the underlying form (N-1A, N-2, N-3, N-4, N-6) as a new registration submission.
  • Non-investment-company issuers excluded. Operating companies never file 485BPOS. They amend S-1, S-3, S-11, F-1, or F-3 registration statements through their own post-effective amendment regimes.
  • Foreign funds. Non-U.S. funds generally cannot use Form N-1A and therefore do not file under Rule 485.
  • Rule 485(b)(1)(vii) new-series filings. Not every 485BPOS is a pure update to existing shares; some launch new series under an existing registrant's umbrella where staff review is not required.

Earliest records

The dataset's digital coverage begins January 1994, when EDGAR phase-in for investment company filings was underway. Rule 485 itself was adopted in 1981, creating the split between Rule 485(a) review amendments and Rule 485(b) automatically effective amendments. Pre-1994 post-effective amendments exist only in paper form and are not part of the EDGAR corpus.

How This Dataset Differs From Similar Datasets or Filings

Form 485BPOS sits within the investment company registration regime under the Securities Act of 1933. The most useful comparisons are to the other post-effective amendment types (485APOS, 485BXT), the initial N-series registration forms that 485BPOS amends, and Rule 497 prospectus supplements. Shareholder reports, holdings reports, and proxy-voting filings cover the same funds but a different disclosure dimension entirely.

Form 485APOS. The direct sibling. 485APOS is filed under Rule 485(a) when the amendment contains material changes, triggering an SEC review period (typically 60 or 75 days) before effectiveness. 485BPOS is filed under Rule 485(b) and becomes effective automatically because the changes are non-material or of a type the rule expressly permits (annual updates, performance refreshes, conforming changes). Content structure is nearly identical (prospectus, SAI, exhibits); the distinction is the effectiveness mechanism and whether the changes require staff review.

Form 485BXT. A post-effective amendment filed under Rule 485(b)(1)(iii) solely to redesignate the effective date of a previously filed 485APOS. It is procedural, typically short, and does not carry a full updated prospectus. 485BPOS, by contrast, carries the operative disclosure document.

Initial registration statements: N-1A, N-3, N-4, N-6 (and N-2, S-6). These create the original prospectus and SAI: N-1A for open-end mutual funds and most ETFs, N-3/N-4/N-6 for insurance-company separate accounts, N-2 for closed-end funds, S-6 for unit investment trusts. A 485BPOS is an amendment to an already-effective N-1A, N-3, N-4, or N-6 (closed-end funds and UITs use different amendment mechanics). The initial filing happens once at launch; dozens of 485BPOS filings may follow over a fund's life. Combined, they form the full historical prospectus record.

Form 497 and 497K. Rule 497 filings deliver definitive-form prospectuses, SAIs, and interim supplements ("stickers") between annual amendments; Form 497K is the summary prospectus form under Rule 498. 497 does not amend the registration statement itself, while 485BPOS does. The two are complementary: 485BPOS establishes the annual baseline prospectus, 497 captures mid-year changes (new portfolio managers, fee waiver extensions, added risks). A complete view of a fund's live prospectus on any date generally requires the most recent 485BPOS plus any subsequent 497 stickers.

Form N-CSR / Form N-CSRS. Certified annual and semi-annual shareholder reports containing financial statements, schedules of investments, and performance discussion. Backward-looking and financial; 485BPOS is forward-looking prospectus disclosure (strategies, risks, fees). Same funds, different regime, not substitutes.

Form N-PORT and Form N-MFP. Structured portfolio holdings reports (N-PORT for most registered funds monthly; N-MFP for money market funds monthly). 485BPOS describes investment strategy and principal risks but contains no actual holdings data. Researchers needing portfolio composition must use N-PORT or N-MFP.

Form N-PX. Annual proxy-voting record. Useful alongside 485BPOS only when matching a fund's stated governance policies (found in the SAI) to actual voting behavior.

Form 24F-2NT. Annual fee-reconciliation notice under Rule 24f-2, tied to the same registration statement 485BPOS amends but containing no prospectus content.

Boundary summary

Form 485BPOS is the automatically effective, non-material post-effective amendment that delivers the updated prospectus and SAI for already-registered open-end funds and insurance-company separate accounts. It is distinct from 485APOS (material changes, requires staff review), 485BXT (procedural date redesignation), the initial N-series and S-6 filings (one-time registration creation), and 497/497K (interim supplements that do not amend the registration statement). Shareholder reports, holdings reports, proxy-voting reports, and fee-reconciliation notices cover the same registrants but entirely different disclosure content and are not interchangeable with 485BPOS.

Who Uses This Dataset

Form 485BPOS amendments update mutual fund prospectuses and SAIs on a rolling basis, so the Form 485BPOS Files Dataset draws users across fund legal, operations, compliance, product, distribution, and research functions.

Investment company attorneys

Fund counsel and outside securities lawyers draft and review 485BPOS amendments and benchmark drafting against peer complexes. They compare risk-factor language, principal strategy disclosures, 12b-1 plan terms, fundamental restrictions, derivatives disclosures under Rule 18f-4, and liquidity program descriptions. Historical filings reconstruct the language in effect on a given date for disclosure liability analysis and staff-comment responses.

Fund administrators

Administrators service fund boards and track effective prospectus dates, fee schedules, expense limitation agreements, share-class structures, and benchmarks across serviced funds. The fee table, financial highlights, and waiver disclosures drive expense-cap reconciliation, advisory-fee accruals, blue-sky coordination, and distribution of updated prospectuses to transfer agents and intermediaries.

Fund compliance officers

CCOs at advisers and fund complexes reconcile marketing materials, fact sheets, and sales literature against current prospectus and SAI content. They focus on principal strategies, principal risks, fee tables, portfolio manager identification, and concentration policies to support Rule 38a-1 reviews, Rule 482 performance-advertising checks, and verification that sub-adviser changes or strategy shifts moved through the correct amendment mechanism.

Fund accountants and auditors

Fund accounting teams and external auditors tie disclosed fee tables, expense caps, and financial highlights to booked expenses. Expense examples, expense limitation exhibits, breakpoint schedules, CDSC grids, and distribution-plan terms are central. The 1994-forward archive supports multi-year audits and fund reorganizations.

Product strategy and competitive intelligence at asset managers

Product, pricing, and competitive intelligence teams track how peer complexes price share classes, structure breakpoints, and launch new vehicles. They extract fees, minimums, share-class lineups, benchmarks, and strategy language to inform pricing committees, share-class rationalization, Names Rule compliance, target-date glidepath revisions, and active-ETF conversions.

Fund distribution platforms

Operations teams at broker-dealers, wirehouses, bank trust platforms, and RIA custodians refresh share-class availability, sales-load schedules, breakpoint rules, redemption fees, and 12b-1 payments from 485BPOS content. The dataset supports prospectus-delivery compliance, FINRA Rule 2341 sales-charge supervision, and platform-level fund eligibility screens.

Fund data aggregators and reference-data vendors

Commercial fund databases, security-master vendors, and analytics platforms parse 485BPOS filings to maintain structured expense, fee, strategy, benchmark, and portfolio-manager fields at the share-class level. The historical depth supports survivorship-bias-aware backfills used by downstream research tools and retirement recordkeepers.

Academic and quantitative researchers

Finance and law researchers, and buy-side quant groups, study fund fees, share-class proliferation, liquidity and derivatives disclosure, prospectus readability, and manager turnover. Fee tables, principal strategy and risk sections, performance tables, and manager rosters are the main extraction targets, with long-horizon coverage enabling panel studies linking disclosure changes to flows and performance.

Variable-contract product teams

Insurance carriers issuing variable annuities and variable life contracts align contract-level prospectuses with the underlying funds offered through separate accounts. Teams track underlying-fund fees, objectives, and principal risks to support menu reviews, multi-manager prospectus assembly, and fund-substitution applications.

Prospectus-delivery and fintech vendors

Vendors handling electronic delivery, summary prospectus assembly, householding, and fulfillment ingest 485BPOS filings to maintain current document inventories keyed to CIK, series, and class identifiers. Effectiveness dates, summary prospectus availability, and required exhibits drive Rule 498 delivery workflows and investor document portals.

LLM and retrieval-system builders

Teams building RAG systems and domain models for fund disclosure use the corpus to fine-tune and evaluate extraction on fee and strategy fields and to power adviser-facing copilots grounded in authoritative fund documents.

Specific Use Cases

The records support operational workflows across fund legal, compliance, product, audit, and data-vendor functions. A few representative use cases:

  • Building share-class-level fee and expense panels. Parse the inline-XBRL rr- and oef- facts in the primary 485BPOS document together with seriesAndClassesContractsInformation to produce a time series of management fees, 12b-1 fees, acquired-fund fees, waivers, net expense ratios, and expense-cap durations keyed by CIK, series ID, and class-contract ID. Feeds pricing committees, product rationalization work, and academic fee studies.

  • Reconstructing the live prospectus in effect on any date. Join each 485BPOS effectivenessDate for a given series with subsequent Rule 497 stickers to determine the exact prospectus and SAI language governing a fund on a target date. Supports disclosure-liability analysis, staff-comment responses, and litigation discovery where counsel must prove what was in force when an investor transacted.

  • Benchmarking peer-complex risk and strategy language. Extract principal strategy, principal risk, and derivatives/liquidity-program sections (Items 4 and 9 of N-1A) across a peer set of trusts, then diff the text to inform drafting of new or revised 485BPOS amendments. Used by fund counsel and product teams when rolling out Rule 18f-4 derivatives disclosures, Names Rule changes, or active-ETF conversions.

  • Mapping share-class lineups, tickers, and series to CIK. Use seriesAndClassesContractsInformation as the authoritative link between SEC series IDs, class-contract IDs, tickers, and fund names. Reference-data vendors, distribution platforms, and security-master teams use the mapping to maintain share-class availability, sales-load schedules, and breakpoint tables under FINRA Rule 2341 supervision.

  • Tracking portfolio-manager and adviser-contract changes. Monitor management, sub-adviser, and portfolio-manager sections plus the EX-99.(H) material-contract and advisory-contract exhibits across successive 485BPOS filings for a given registrant to detect adviser terminations, sub-adviser additions, and portfolio-manager turnover. Used by compliance teams verifying that material changes moved through 485APOS where required, and by researchers studying manager turnover.

  • Auditor-consent and audit-trail extraction. Harvest the EX-99.(J) accountant consent from each filing to build a fund-by-fund auditor history and a year-over-year list of which financial statements were incorporated by reference from N-CSR. Supports auditor-change monitoring and audit-firm market-share analysis.

  • Training and evaluating fund-disclosure RAG systems. Use the full 485BPOS corpus, with inline-XBRL tags preserved in the primary document, as ground truth for fine-tuning and evaluating extraction of fee-table fields, principal-risk taxonomies, and strategy summaries in adviser-facing copilots and prospectus-question-answering systems.

Dataset Access

The dataset can be accessed through a JSON index API that exposes dataset metadata and per-container download URLs, a full archive download, and direct downloads for individual monthly containers.

Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-485bpos-files.json

This endpoint returns dataset metadata including the name, description, last updated timestamp, earliest sample date, total records and total size, covered form types, container format, and included file types. It also provides the full dataset download URL and the list of individual container files, each with its size, record count, updated timestamp, and download URL. You can poll this endpoint to monitor which containers were refreshed in the most recent run and decide on a day-by-day basis which containers to download. This endpoint does not require an API key.

Example
1 {
2 "datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-68e0-b49f-6aad1c1377a7",
3 "datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-485bpos-files.zip",
4 "name": "Form 485BPOS Files Dataset",
5 "updatedAt": "2026-04-23T02:56:43.063Z",
6 "earliestSampleDate": "1994-01-01",
7 "totalRecords": 1000649,
8 "totalSize": 49486152467,
9 "formTypes": ["485BPOS"],
10 "containerFormat": "ZIP",
11 "fileTypes": ["TXT", "JSON", "HTML", "PDF", "XFD"],
12 "containers": [
13 {
14 "downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-485bpos-files/2026/2026-04.zip",
15 "key": "2026/2026-04.zip",
16 "size": 13818783,
17 "records": 154,
18 "updatedAt": "2026-04-23T02:56:43.063Z"
19 }
20 ]
21 }

Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-485bpos-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads the entire Form 485BPOS Files Dataset as a single ZIP archive containing all monthly containers from January 1994 to the present. This endpoint requires an API key.

Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-485bpos-files/2026/2026-04.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads a single monthly container ZIP instead of the full dataset. Replace the year and month path segments to target a specific month. This endpoint requires an API key.

Frequently Asked Questions

What form does this dataset cover?

The dataset covers Form 485BPOS, a post-effective amendment to a Securities Act registration statement filed under Rule 485(b). It is the automatic-effectiveness track for post-effective amendments that do not contain material changes and is the standard mechanism for updating mutual fund prospectuses and statements of additional information.

What does one record in this dataset represent?

One record is one complete Form 485BPOS filing rooted at a single SEC accession number. Each record is packaged as a folder (named after the 18-digit accession number with dashes stripped) containing a metadata.json manifest, the primary inline-XBRL prospectus document, and every non-graphic exhibit from the original EDGAR submission.

Who is required to file Form 485BPOS?

Form 485BPOS is filed by registered investment companies whose registration statements are eligible for Rule 485: principally open-end management investment companies (mutual funds) registered on Form N-1A, insurance company separate accounts registered on Forms N-3, N-4, or N-6, and certain unit investment trusts registered on Form S-6. Closed-end funds, operating companies, and foreign funds do not file 485BPOS.

How often do registrants file 485BPOS amendments?

Rule 485(b) amendments are most commonly filed as the annual prospectus update required by Section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act (typically within 60 to 120 days of fiscal year-end), with additional filings triggered by new share classes or series, non-material strategy or fee changes, and post-comment re-filings after a 485APOS. A single large trust can file multiple 485BPOS amendments per year.

What time period does the dataset cover?

The dataset begins January 1994, when the EDGAR phase-in for investment company filings was underway, and extends to the present. Pre-1994 post-effective amendments exist only in paper form and are outside the EDGAR corpus.

What file format is the dataset distributed in?

The dataset ships as monthly ZIP containers. Inside each container, every record is a folder holding a metadata.json sidecar, the primary 485BPOS document as inline-XBRL XHTML, and exhibit documents as SGML-wrapped .htm files. The file types found in the dataset are TXT, JSON, HTML, PDF, and XFD, though modern filings are almost exclusively HTM/HTML plus JSON.

How does this dataset differ from Form 485APOS?

Both are post-effective amendments under Rule 485, but 485APOS filings (Rule 485(a)) contain material changes and are subject to an SEC staff review window of typically 60 or 75 days before effectiveness, while 485BPOS filings (Rule 485(b)) are automatically effective because the changes are non-material or of a type the rule expressly permits. This dataset is scoped strictly to 485BPOS; consumers who need the full amendment lifecycle, including staff-reviewed amendments and interim 497 stickers, must join to those form-type datasets separately.