Form 487 Files Dataset

The Form 487 Files dataset is a complete EDGAR corpus of pre-effective pricing amendments filed by unit investment trusts (UITs) under Rule 487 of the Securities Act of 1933. Each record represents a single EDGAR Form 487 accession — the full amendment package a UIT registrant submits to designate the date and time at which a new series' registration statement on Form S-6 becomes effective. The registrant on every accession is the numbered UIT series itself; filings are prepared and signed by the trust's depositor or sponsor (First Trust Portfolios, Guggenheim Funds Distributors, Advisors Asset Management, Invesco Capital Markets Inc., Van Kampen Funds, Nuveen Securities, and similar UIT shops) and submitted alongside the trustee where required. The dataset begins on January 1, 1994 and continues to the present, distributed as monthly ZIP containers with TXT, JSON, and HTML payloads. Records preserve the principal Form 487 / S-6 amendment plus its full exhibit set together with a structured metadata.json sidecar.

What This Dataset Contains

One record corresponds to a single EDGAR Form 487 accession — the complete pre-effective pricing amendment package filed by a unit investment trust registrant under Rule 487 of the Securities Act of 1933. On disk, a record is materialized as one accession-level folder named after the 18-digit EDGAR accession number with dashes stripped, nested inside a monthly <YYYY-MM>/ container. The folder bundles a structured metadata.json sidecar with every text and HTML document from the original EDGAR submission: the principal Form 487 amendment plus its full set of attached exhibits. Image binaries referenced by the prospectus (typically GIF and JPEG graphics for cover-page art, sponsor logos, and inline charts) are excluded from the dataset; everything else the registrant filed is preserved at the document level.

Form 487 is the EDGAR submission type used for a registration-statement amendment that designates its own effective date and time pursuant to Rule 487 under the Securities Act. Rule 487 is a UIT-specific accommodation: it permits a unit investment trust filing a registration statement on Form S-6 for a subsequent series — a new series in a family whose earlier series is already effective — to elect the precise date and time at which its registration becomes effective, bypassing the ordinary staff-driven acceleration process. Eligibility requires that (i) the portfolio securities of the new series are substantially similar to those of one or more previously effective series in the same family, (ii) the prospectus differs from the predecessor only in series-specific items that would not require substantive review (pricing, dates, evaluator information, portfolio composition, fee tables, and similar terms), and (iii) the registrant deliver the prescribed Rule 487 representations in the filing itself.

Because the underlying registration form for a UIT is Form S-6 (with the registration framework grounded in Form N-8B-2), the document at the heart of every Form 487 accession is functionally an S-6 effective amendment: the EDGAR submission-type label is 487, but the document carries S-6 substantive structure. The amendment overlays the new series' prospectus, exhibit set, and Rule 487 representations on the previously effective series' framework, much of which is incorporated by reference rather than restated. The dataset spans the full EDGAR era for this form, beginning January 1994, and is distributed in monthly ZIP containers carrying TXT, JSON, and HTML files.

Dataset APIs

Dataset Files

Content Structure of a Single Record

Two structural layers in each record

Each record stacks two layers:

1. Dataset packaging layer — the accession folder containing exactly one metadata.json plus one or more SGML-wrapped document files (HTML in the modern era, plain text in the early years).
2. EDGAR submission layer inside those document files — each .htm or .txt file is wrapped in an EDGAR <DOCUMENT> envelope carrying <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, and <DESCRIPTION> tags, with the actual narrative or legal content nested inside <TEXT>. The principal Form 487 document is always at <SEQUENCE>1 with <TYPE>487; later sequences carry the exhibits with EDGAR exhibit-type codes such as EX-99, EX-99.1-1, EX-3.1, EX-4.1, EX-99.11, EX-99.31, EX-99.41, and EX-99.91.

A representative document envelope:

          1
          <DOCUMENT>
        

          2
          <TYPE>487
        

          3
          <SEQUENCE>1
        

          4
          <FILENAME>s487.htm
        

          5
          <DESCRIPTION>FORM S-6 TO EFFECTIVE AMENDMENT
        

          6
          <TEXT>
        

          7
          <HTML>... registration-statement amendment HTML, including
        

          8
                  Registration No., 1940 Act file No., trust name, S-6
        

          9
                  facing sheet, prospectus body, signatures ...</HTML>
        

          10
          </TEXT>
        

          11
          </DOCUMENT>
        

metadata.json fields

metadata.json is the structured sidecar generated for each accession. Top-level fields carry the filing-identification data needed to interpret and join the record:

• formType — fixed to "487" across the dataset.
• accessionNo — dashed 18-digit EDGAR accession number (e.g., 0001445546-25-008529); the canonical primary key on EDGAR.
• effectivenessDate — the date the registrant designated as the effective date for the registration statement under Rule 487; the moment the new series' registration goes live.
• filedAt — full EDGAR acceptance timestamp with timezone offset (e.g., 2025-12-29T13:15:26-05:00). The gap between filedAt and effectivenessDate is meaningful: Rule 487 lets the filer pick effectiveness as early as the filing time itself or schedule it for a later moment.
• description — the fixed label "Form 487 - Pre-effective pricing amendments [Rule 487]".
• linkToFilingDetails, linkToTxt, linkToHtml — URLs back to the primary document, the rolled-up SGML submission text, and the EDGAR filing-index page on sec.gov.
• linkToXbrl — empty string.
• id — opaque 32-character hex identifier assigned by the dataset pipeline.
• documentFormatFiles[] — enumeration of every document EDGAR received in the submission (see below).
• entities[] — enumeration of registrant / filer entities (see below).
• seriesAndClassesContractsInformation — typically empty; UIT series identification is carried in the registrant name itself rather than through the SEC's series/class registration framework used by open-end funds.
• dataFiles — typically empty; Form 487 has no machine-readable data attachments.

documentFormatFiles[]

Each entry inventories one document from the EDGAR submission. Per-entry fields:

• sequence — EDGAR sequence number as a string ("1" for the principal Form 487 document; later integers for exhibits; a single space " " for the complete-submission text rollup row).
• size — byte size of the original document, as a string.
• documentUrl — direct URL on sec.gov for the document.
• description — filer-supplied label (e.g., "FORM S-6 TO EFFECTIVE AMENDMENT", "TRUST AGREEMENT", "MEMORANDUM OF CHANGES", "OPINION REGARDING LEGALITY", "CONSENT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM", "GRAPHIC", "Complete submission text file").
• type — EDGAR document / exhibit type code ("487", "EX-99", "EX-99.1-1", "EX-3.1", "EX-4.1", "EX-99.11", "EX-99.31", "EX-99.41", "EX-99.91", "GRAPHIC", etc.); the complete-submission rollup row carries a single space.

documentFormatFiles[] enumerates everything EDGAR received, including the GIF/JPEG graphics and the complete-submission text rollup that are not materialized onto disk in the dataset folder. The folder on disk carries the same set minus those graphics and the rollup.

entities[]

A short array, typically a single filer entity for a Form 487. Per-entry fields:

• companyName — registrant name with role suffix in parentheses (e.g., "FT 12607 (Filer)", "GUGGENHEIM DEFINED PORTFOLIOS, SERIES 2539 (Filer)", "Advisors Disciplined Trust 2312 (Filer)"). The series number or trust series identifier is embedded directly in the registrant name.
• cik — Central Index Key as a digit string.
• fileNo — 1933 Act registration file number (e.g., "333-290888").
• filmNo — EDGAR film number assigned at acceptance.
• irsNo — IRS Employer Identification Number; many UIT series use the placeholder "000000000" because the series has no separate EIN.
• stateOfIncorporation — two-letter state code (commonly "IL", "NY", "KS", "DE").
• fiscalYearEnd — MMDD string (e.g., "1231").
• act — the act under which the entity is reporting; "33" for 1933 Act filers.
• type — repeats the form type, "487".

The principal Form 487 document (sequence 1)

The sequence-1 document is the substantive filing. Inside its EDGAR <DOCUMENT> wrapper (<TYPE>487, <SEQUENCE>1, <FILENAME> chosen by the filer agent, <DESCRIPTION> typically FORM S-6 TO EFFECTIVE AMENDMENT or similar), the document is structured as a Form S-6 amendment and unfolds in the following order:

1. Facing sheet. The first page carries the standard 1933 Act facing sheet for an S-6 amendment: registration-statement file number (e.g., 333-290888), Investment Company Act of 1940 file number (e.g., 811-03178), exact name of the registrant trust as it appears in trust documents, address and telephone number of the principal executive offices, name and address of the agent for service of process, and the title of the securities being registered ("units of beneficial interest" for a UIT). Boxes are checked to indicate the amendment is being filed under Rule 487(b) so that it becomes effective on a designated date and time.

2. Rule 487 designation block. Embedded on or immediately following the facing sheet, a recital declares that the registrant elects under Rule 487(b) to have the registration statement become effective on a specified date and time. Rule 487(b) requires this designation to appear on the facing sheet of the amendment.

3. Rule 487(b) representations. A short block of representations expressly required by the rule, typically stating that (i) the registrant is a unit investment trust whose registration statement is being filed for a subsequent series substantially similar to a previously effective series, (ii) the prospectus does not contain disclosures that differ in any material respect from those in the prospectus contained in the most recent effective registration statement of a series of the trust other than disclosures relating to portfolio securities, evaluations, dates, prices, sales charges, and similar series-specific terms, (iii) the portfolio securities deposited in the new series are substantially similar to those deposited in one or more series whose registration statement has been effective, and (iv) any conditions imposed under Rule 487(c) are satisfied.

4. Cross-reference sheet (when present, particularly in older filings and at issuers that retain the structure). A table mapping the items required by Form S-6 / Form N-8B-2 to the location of responsive disclosure within the prospectus.

5. Updated series prospectus. The series-specific prospectus is included as part of the registration statement and typically contains:

   • the series cover page with trust name, series identifier, ticker information where applicable, and inception/termination dates;
   • the investment objective and a description of the unit-investment-trust structure;
   • the portfolio holdings schedule for the new series — a deposited-securities table listing each security, ticker, share count or principal amount, cost, and market value as of the evaluation date;
   • fees and expenses, including initial sales charge, deferred sales charge, creation-and-development fee, organization costs, and trustee, evaluator, supervisor, and licensor fees;
   • the hypothetical-investment table and per-unit financial information;
   • risk factors specific to the underlying portfolio strategy (sector, index, credit, currency, leveraged, or thematic risks);
   • distributions, taxation, redemption mechanics, and rollover features;
   • general information sections incorporated by reference from the trust's standard form, often via a Statement of Additional Information (SAI) included as an exhibit or filed separately.

6. Signatures. The amendment closes with signature blocks for the trust (typically signed by the depositor on behalf of the trust), the depositor entity, and other signatories required by Form S-6 — officers and a majority of directors of the depositor in their individual capacities, or attorneys-in-fact under power of attorney.

Exhibit documents

Each exhibit appears as a separate .htm (or, in earlier years, .txt) file in the folder, each wrapped in its own <DOCUMENT> envelope with the appropriate <TYPE>EX-… tag. The standard UIT Form 487 exhibit set typically includes:

• Trust Agreement / Indenture (commonly EX-99.1-1, EX-99.11, or EX-1.1 depending on filer agent). The trust agreement for the new series, often a short series-specific instrument that incorporates the depositor's Standard Terms and Conditions of Trust by reference.
• Memorandum of Changes (commonly EX-99 with description MEMORANDUM OF CHANGES). A red-line-style narrative summary identifying every change made to the prospectus relative to the most recent effective series of the same trust. This exhibit operationalizes the Rule 487(b) representation that disclosures differ only with respect to permissible series-specific items, and it is the primary document a reviewer uses to confirm that condition.
• Opinion of counsel as to legality (commonly EX-99.3-1, EX-99.31, or EX-3.1). A legal opinion from the depositor's counsel that the units being registered, when issued in accordance with the trust agreement, will be legally issued, fully paid, and non-assessable.
• Opinion of trustee's counsel and other supplemental opinions (e.g., EX-99.32, EX-3.2, EX-3.3) addressing trustee authority, federal tax characterization (commonly a regulated investment company or grantor trust opinion), or ERISA matters.
• Consent of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (commonly EX-99.4-1, EX-99.41, or EX-4.2). The auditor's consent to use of the auditor's report on the trust's statement of financial condition, or related portfolio audit work, in the prospectus. Deloitte & Touche and Grant Thornton predominate.
• Consent of Initial Evaluator (commonly EX-4.1). The evaluator's consent to be named in the prospectus and to have its valuations referenced.
• Portfolio Support, License, or Index Agreement (commonly EX-99.91). For series that track a branded index or licensed strategy, the licensing agreement covering use of the index name and methodology.
• Code of Ethics, Powers of Attorney, and other miscellaneous exhibits as required by the Form S-6 / Form N-8B-2 exhibit table.

The exhibit count, exhibit-type numbering scheme, and document filenames vary materially by filer agent: First Trust series typically use s487.htm plus ex-99… exhibits; Guggenheim Defined Portfolios use s6andpro.htm plus numbered ex99XX.htm; Advisors Disciplined Trust uses adt<series>-487.htm plus ex<X>-<n>.htm; smaller mutual-fund-style depositors use custom-named main documents with generic ex<X>_<n>.htm exhibits. The substantive exhibit set, however, is highly consistent across the UIT industry.

Included content

A record on disk contains:

• exactly one metadata.json sidecar at the root of the accession folder;
• the principal Form 487 / S-6 amendment document at sequence 1;
• every exhibit document filed in the submission as a separate text/HTML file, each preserving its original EDGAR <DOCUMENT> wrapper and exhibit-type tagging.

Excluded or separate content

The dataset omits binary graphic attachments — GIF and JPEG image files referenced by the prospectus (cover-page art, sponsor logos, charts) — even though those graphics are enumerated in documentFormatFiles[] for completeness. The complete-submission text rollup that EDGAR generates as a concatenation of every document is also not extracted as a separate file on disk; its constituent documents are nevertheless all present individually. Materials filed under separate accession numbers — the trust's initial Form S-6 registration statement, prior 487 amendments for earlier series, Form 24F-2 annual notices of securities sold, the Standard Terms and Conditions of Trust filed once at the trust level, and N-CSR / N-PX reports — are separate records in EDGAR and are not bundled into a Form 487 record.

How required content has evolved

The Rule 487 disclosure framework has remained stable since the rule's adoption: the facing-sheet election, the four core representations regarding similarity of portfolio securities and disclosures, and the standard UIT exhibit set are continuous through the dataset's full 1994–present span. What has changed is largely at the margins:

• Exhibit numbering and tagging conventions on EDGAR have been refined over time. Earlier filings often used flat EX-99 tags with descriptive labels; later filings adopted the more granular EX-99.x-y or EX-99.NN schemes that map cleanly to Form N-8B-2 / Form S-6 exhibit tables.
• Auditor-consent language and identification of the registered public accounting firm reflect the post-Sarbanes-Oxley shift to PCAOB-registered firms; pre-2003 consents identified independent accountants under pre-SOX terminology.
• Risk-factor sections in the prospectus have grown substantially, particularly for series tracking thematic, sector, leveraged, or international strategies, and for series introduced after market-structure events that prompted expanded disclosure (e.g., post-2008 credit and liquidity disclosure for fixed-income UITs).
• The Memorandum of Changes exhibit — never formally mandated by rule text — has become the de facto standard mechanism for documenting compliance with the Rule 487(b) "no material disclosure differences" condition, and is now routinely included by all major UIT sponsors.

How file format has evolved

Records in the dataset span three EDGAR presentation eras:

• ASCII / plain-text era (1994 through the late 1990s). Early Form 487 filings were submitted as plain ASCII text inside the EDGAR SGML envelope. Tabular content (portfolio holdings, fee tables, hypothetical-investment tables) was rendered with character-positioned spacing and dashed rules, with figures aligned manually. Exhibits were also plain text.
• HTML transition era (early 2000s through the 2010s). As EDGAR began accepting HTML in 1999 and adoption broadened in the early 2000s, Form 487 filings transitioned to HTML documents inside the same <DOCUMENT> SGML envelope. Tables became proper <TABLE> markup, prospectus typography improved, and inline graphics (excluded from this dataset) became routine.
• Modern HTML / SGML-wrapped era. Current filings continue the same pattern: each document is an HTML body wrapped in EDGAR's <DOCUMENT>...<TEXT>...</TEXT></DOCUMENT> envelope with <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, and <DESCRIPTION> tags. The metadata.json sidecar and the consistent accession-folder layout normalize across all eras.

Interpretation and extraction notes

• Amendment, not freestanding registration. A Form 487 is a registration-statement amendment whose content — particularly the cross-reference sheet, the Standard Terms and Conditions of Trust, and many exhibits — operates relative to a previously effective series of the same trust whose registration statement is incorporated by reference. Reading a Form 487 in isolation will leave gaps that resolve only by also reading the predecessor series' filings.
• Self-designated effectiveness. The effectivenessDate field is registrant-designated, not staff-determined. Unlike a typical pre-effective amendment that becomes effective only upon SEC acceleration, a Rule 487 amendment becomes effective at the time the registrant designates, subject to the rule's conditions. Pairing filedAt with effectivenessDate therefore captures both acceptance and self-designated effectiveness with no acceleration intermediary.
• Series identifier embedded in the registrant name. The series number appears in companyName (e.g., Series 2539, 12607, 2312) rather than in seriesAndClassesContractsInformation. Many UIT depositors share a CIK across hundreds of series filings, so filings should be grouped by depositor / sponsor and tracked at the series level via the registrant name and the 1933 Act fileNo.
• Type tags over filenames. Filer-agent variation in document filenames is substantial. Reliable extraction should rely on the EDGAR <TYPE> tag inside the SGML envelope and on documentFormatFiles[].type in metadata.json rather than on filename patterns.
• Memorandum of Changes as a diff signal. When present, the Memorandum of Changes exhibit is the most concise machine-extractable summary of what changed in the series-specific prospectus relative to the prior series, and is useful for tracking incremental edits across a sponsor's series program.
• Distinct from operating-company pricing-amendment workflow. Rule 487 differs structurally from the Rule 461/462 pricing-amendment workflow used by operating-company issuers: there is no Rule 430A / Rule 430B / Rule 430C delayed-pricing prospectus mechanism, no separately filed Rule 424(b) prospectus follow-on, and no acceleration request. The entire pricing-amendment lifecycle for a UIT series is consolidated into the single Form 487 accession captured by one record.
• Incorporation by reference is heavy. Beyond the predecessor series, Form 487 amendments routinely incorporate by reference the depositor's Standard Terms and Conditions of Trust, master powers of attorney, master code of ethics, and prior accountants' reports. These referenced documents live at separate accession numbers and are not duplicated inside the Form 487 record.

Who Files or Publishes This Dataset, and When

Who files

Each record is one EDGAR accession in which a unit investment trust files a pre-effective amendment to its Form S-6 registration statement and invokes Rule 487 under the Securities Act of 1933 to designate the date (and, for pricing amendments, the time) at which that registration becomes effective.

The SEC registrant is always the specific numbered UIT series — an investment company registered under Section 4(2) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 and organized under a trust indenture or similar instrument. Because a UIT has no board of directors and no investment adviser, the filing is prepared and submitted by the trust's depositor / sponsor and signed by the depositor (with the trustee where required). The depositor is the operational filer; the registrant on the face of the filing is the trust series itself.

In metadata.json, the entities[] block names the individual series (for example "FT 12607", "GUGGENHEIM DEFINED PORTFOLIOS, SERIES 2539", "Advisors Disciplined Trust 2312"). Each series carries its own CIK and its own 333- 1933 Act file number, even though the sponsor behind it — First Trust Portfolios L.P., Guggenheim Funds Distributors LLC, Advisors Asset Management Inc., Invesco Capital Markets Inc., Van Kampen Funds Inc., Nuveen Securities LLC, and similar UIT shops — is a single recurring institution responsible for hundreds or thousands of series across the dataset.

Filer population

Form 487 is a UIT-only form. The eligible filer set is narrow:

• Unit investment trusts registered under the 1940 Act. No other entity class may invoke Rule 487.
• Serial UIT sponsors. The bulk of records come from sponsors that issue numbered series of equity income portfolios, defined-maturity bond portfolios, strategy baskets, and target-term trusts, where each new series is a sequel to one or more previously effective series of the same family.
• Smaller or one-off UIT registrants appear as well, but only when they meet Rule 487's conditions; otherwise they must request staff acceleration under Securities Act Section 8(a), which produces no Form 487 accession.

Open-end management investment companies (mutual funds, ETFs on N-1A), closed-end funds, BDCs, and operating-company issuers do not file Form 487. Consequently, none of the operating-company disclosure regimes (10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, Forms 3/4/5, 13D/13G, 14A) apply to records in this dataset.

Triggering events

Form 487 is event-driven, tied to the launch and pricing of a new UIT series. Rule 487 contains two distinct triggers, both of which appear in the dataset under form-type code "487":

1. Rule 487(a) — designated initial effective date. When an eligible UIT files a pre-effective amendment to a new-series S-6, the registrant may designate the date on which the registration statement is to become effective. Rule 487(a) is typically used to set effectiveness immediately before the start of the public offering, eliminating the need for case-by-case staff acceleration under Section 8(a).

2. Rule 487(b) — pricing amendment with designated effective date and time. Once units have been priced and the final pricing-dependent disclosures are settled (initial date of deposit, public offering price, sales charge, portfolio holdings as actually deposited, evaluator's report, sponsor profit/loss on deposit, estimated distributions), the registrant files a further amendment under Rule 487(b) designating the precise date and time of effectiveness. This is the canonical "pre-effective pricing amendment." The effectivenessDate field captures the registrant's designated effective date, distinct from filedAt.

A single series typically generates more than one Form 487 accession: an initial Rule 487(a) amendment, followed by one or more Rule 487(b) pricing amendments, plus any further amendments needed to reflect updated portfolio composition or evaluator information before final effectiveness. EDGAR does not assign separate form codes for (a) vs. (b); both carry form type "487", and the distinction is visible only from the body of the document and the relationship between effectivenessDate, deposit date, and offering start.

Substantive conditions to use Rule 487

Rule 487 self-designation is conditional. The registrant must satisfy and represent each of the following, with the relevant certifications attached:

• Prior effective series. The registrant must be a UIT for which a registration statement on at least one earlier series of the same trust family has previously become effective.
• Portfolio similarity. The portfolio securities deposited (or to be deposited) in the new series must be substantially similar to those of the previously effective series under the rule's similarity criteria. This is what makes Rule 487 a subsequent-series mechanism rather than a fresh-issuer mechanism.
• Disclosure parity. The prospectus and registration disclosure must be substantially identical to the disclosure used in the previously effective series, except for changes required to reflect the new series' specific terms, deposit date, pricing, and portfolio composition. Sponsors document these differences in a "Memorandum of Changes" exhibit (e.g., ex-99memo.htm).
• Required certifications. The registrant must include the certifications and representations Rule 487 requires regarding its eligibility to designate the effective date.
• Exhibit completeness. The Trust Agreement (with Standard Terms and Conditions of Trust), opinions of counsel as to legality, consent of the independent registered public accounting firm, consent of the initial evaluator, and required sponsor/trustee signatures must all be on file by the time effectiveness is designated.

If any condition fails, Rule 487 is unavailable and the sponsor must instead seek Section 8(a) staff acceleration, which produces no Form 487 accession.

Timing relative to series effectiveness and pricing

Form 487 is transactional, not periodic. There is no calendar deadline; filings track sponsor product-launch cadence:

• An initial Rule 487(a) amendment is filed when the sponsor is ready to set the registration statement's effective date for the start of the offering.
• A Rule 487(b) pricing amendment is filed at — or immediately after — the initial deposit of portfolio securities into the trust, so that the final pricing, sales charge, and as-deposited portfolio can be reflected in the prospectus.
• The effectivenessDate is chosen by the registrant. It is frequently the same calendar day as filedAt, because Rule 487 expressly permits same-day effectiveness once its conditions are met.
• Filings cluster around each sponsor's rolling launch schedule (often monthly or quarterly series) rather than the calendar peaks seen for Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, or 13F datasets.

A given series CIK generally produces only a handful of Form 487 accessions before the series moves into its operating life under the 1940 Act and ceases filing 1933 Act pre-effective amendments.

Important distinctions

• Form 487 vs. underlying Form S-6. Every Form 487 accession is procedurally an amendment to an S-6. The initial S-6 itself is captured under form type S-6, not 487. The Form 487 dataset contains only the Rule 487-designated pre-effective amendments.
• Form 487 vs. Rule 485 filings (485APOS, 485BPOS, 485BXT). Rule 485 is the parallel pricing/post-effective amendment regime for open-end management companies on Forms N-1A/N-2/N-3/N-4/N-6. UITs never use Rule 485, and open-end funds and ETFs never use Rule 487.
• Form 487 vs. Rule 486 (486APOS, 486BPOS). Rule 486 is the analogous regime for certain closed-end interval funds. Mutually exclusive with Form 487.
• Form 487 vs. Form 24F-2. Where the UIT registers an indefinite number of securities under Section 24(f) of the 1940 Act, the annual fee true-up is filed on Form 24F-2. That is a separate form and does not replace the Rule 487 pre-effective amendment process for new series.
• Filer vs. registrant. The registrant on every accession is the numbered UIT series. The depositor/sponsor and the trustee (e.g., The Bank of New York Mellon) sign and submit the documents but are not the SEC registrant of record; entities[] lists the series trust, not the sponsor.
• act field. metadata.json sets act to "33" because Form 487 is procedurally a 1933 Act registration amendment, but the underlying registrant is in every case a 1940 Act UIT, and the S-6 facing sheet cross-references both the 333- 1933 Act file number and the Investment Company Act of 1940 file number.

How This Dataset Differs From Similar Datasets or Filings

Form 487 sits in a small cluster of investment-company registration and prospectus filings that share mechanical features (registration amendments, prospectus delivery, issuer-designated effectiveness) and are routinely confused with it. The closest neighbors are Form 485, Form 497, Form N-1A, Form N-2, Form N-8B-2, Form S-6, Rule 424 filings, and Rule 462 amendments.

Closest related filings

Form 485 (485APOS / 485BPOS / 485BXT). The functional analogue to 487 for a different filer population. Rule 485 governs post-effective amendments by open-end management investment companies on Form N-1A; Rule 487 governs pre-effective pricing amendments by UITs on Form S-6. Both let the registrant set an effective date without staff acceleration, but the registrant types, parent registration forms, and product structures are disjoint. A 485BPOS typically refreshes an existing fund's annual prospectus; a 487 typically launches a new UIT series whose portfolio mirrors a prior effective series.

Form 497. The UIT-side definitive prospectus channel under Rule 497. A UIT making a series effective via 487 will normally follow with a 497 carrying the prospectus delivered to investors. 487 amends and dates the registration; 497 carries the disclosure document. Researchers tracking a UIT launch generally need both.

Form N-1A. The registration form for open-end funds (mutual funds and most ETFs). It is the parent document Rule 485 amendments operate against, occupying the role for mutual funds that S-6 / N-8B-2 occupy for UITs. N-1A is a full narrative registration; 487 is a short procedural amendment. They are not substitutes.

Form N-2. The registration form for closed-end funds, BDCs, and interval funds. Closed-end funds do not use Rule 487; their amendments proceed under Rule 486 or general Securities Act mechanics. Overlap with 487 is limited to the shared label of "investment-company registration."

Form N-8B-2. The Investment Company Act registration statement for UITs, complementary to S-6 on the Securities Act side. 487 representations frequently reference disclosure parity with the trust's N-8B-2. 487 does not replace N-8B-2; it amends the Securities Act registration for a specific series while pointing back to the trust's '40 Act registration.

Form S-6. The Securities Act registration form for UIT units and the parent registration that 487 amends. S-6 carries the full registration content; 487 designates the effective date for a new or repeat series under Rule 487(a) or makes a Rule 487(b) pricing amendment effective. S-6 and 487 together trace the UIT series lifecycle.

Rule 424 prospectus filings (424A, 424B1–424B8, 424H). The operating-company analogue to Form 497. UIT prospectuses are filed under Rule 497, not 424. Relevant only for disambiguation: 424 is the non-investment-company prospectus channel.

Rule 462 post-effective amendments. Conceptually parallel to Rule 487 in allowing issuer-designated effectiveness without acceleration, but for operating companies and other non-investment-company registrants. The filer populations are mutually exclusive: 462 is never filed by UITs, and 487 is filed only by UITs.

Key differences at a glance

• Filer population. 487 is UIT-only. 485 is open-end fund-only. N-2, 424, and 462 are not for UITs at all.
• Statutory hook. 487 operates under Rule 487; 485 under Rule 485; 424 under Rule 424; 462 under Rule 462. Each rule binds a specific registrant class.
• Document role. 487, 485, and 462 are registration amendments setting effective dates. 497 and 424 are prospectus-delivery filings. N-1A, N-2, S-6, and N-8B-2 are primary registration statements.
• Lifecycle position. 487 is a pre-effective pricing amendment to an S-6; 485 is post-effective; Rule 462(b) is a 24-hour post-pricing top-up for operating companies. None substitute for the others.

Boundary summary

Form 487 is narrowly scoped to UIT pre-effective pricing amendments under Rule 487, attached to an S-6 registration and operating alongside an N-8B-2 '40 Act registration. It is mechanically similar to Form 485 (and conceptually to Rule 462) but applies to a disjoint registrant population. It is the registration-amendment counterpart to Form 497, which carries the prospectus text. It does not overlap meaningfully with N-1A, N-2, or Rule 424. A complete view of a UIT series launch typically requires 487 (effectiveness), S-6 (registration), N-8B-2 (trust framework), and 497 (delivered prospectus); no other form set substitutes for this combination.

Who Uses This Dataset

Because UIT sponsors launch series in high volume, the corpus is a continuous stream of facing sheets, Rule 487(b) portfolio-similarity representations, updated prospectuses, and exhibits used by a defined set of professional functions.

UIT and investment company counsel

Fund formation lawyers and paralegals at sponsors and outside counsel use the dataset as a precedent library when drafting new 487s. They pull prior filings from the same trust family to confirm consistent language for the effective-date and time designation on the facing sheet, the Rule 487(b) representations on portfolio similarity to the most recent effective series, depositor and trustee identification, and the powers of attorney and certifications attached as exhibits. They also benchmark drafting conventions across peer sponsors. Output: amendment drafts, internal precedent banks, and Rule 487 conformity checklists.

Compliance and registration specialists

Compliance officers at sponsor depositors monitor that each filing satisfies Rule 487's preconditions and that designated effective times are tracked correctly. Their focus is the facing-sheet effective designation, the portfolio-similarity statements, cross-references to the prior effective series, and any deposit certifications. Peer 487s calibrate internal control narratives and prepare staff for examinations on series-trust registration practices.

Fund accounting and UIT operations

Operations, pricing, and trustee staff use the designated effective date and time to drive deposit settlement, initial unit pricing, transfer agent setup, CUSIP activation, and distribution to selling groups. They reconcile the facing sheet against the updated prospectus for deposit date, evaluation time, sales-charge schedule, and portfolio composition. The historical record supports audit trails and post-effective amendment planning.

Competitive-intelligence and product strategy

Product teams at UIT sponsors track competitor rollouts in near real time. The facing sheet, series identification block, and prospectus exhibits feed competitor roadmaps, white-space analysis on strategy gaps (sector, thematic, dividend, fixed-income, defined-maturity, laddered, target-date), sales-charge benchmarking, and launch calendars timed against peers.

Market-data and product researchers

Researchers at data vendors, index providers, and brokerage product desks ingest every 487 to keep UIT coverage complete. They extract registrant CIKs, series names, deposit dates, and prospectus fields to populate security masters, classify strategies, link series across trust families, and produce sponsor- and strategy-level AUM roll-ups.

Wholesalers and platform due diligence

UIT wholesalers track which series are newly effective and available for solicitation. Platform due diligence teams at broker-dealers and wealth platforms screen the updated prospectus for portfolio composition, sales charges, deferred sales charges, mandatory termination dates, and stated objective before adding a series to the shelf.

RegTech and disclosure-data vendors

Vendors building EDGAR-derived feeds and fund-event APIs parse facing sheets for designated effective dates, normalize trust and series identifiers, and link 487s to related N-1A or S-6 registration statements. The corpus also serves as training and evaluation data for extraction pipelines that classify series strategy, isolate Rule 487(b) representations, or align prospectus sections across amendments.

Academic researchers

Finance, law, and securities-regulation scholars use the full historical record to study UIT series proliferation, sponsor concentration, the economics of streamlined effectiveness under Rule 487, and the portfolio-similarity standard's disclosure consequences. Standardized facing sheets and exhibits enable large-sample empirical work on issuance cadence, sponsor entry and exit, and strategy clustering.

Litigation, enforcement, and examination teams

Litigation support staff, regulatory-affairs counsel, and examination teams reconstruct the registration history of specific series trusts when questions arise about disclosure adequacy, portfolio representations, or effectiveness timing. Regulator staff reviewing Rule 487 practices use the dataset to identify outliers in filing cadence and disclosure language across sponsors.

In summary: counsel and paralegals draft and benchmark amendments; compliance and operations manage effective dates and deposit logistics; product strategists track competitor launches; market-data and platform teams maintain product universes; regtech vendors and ML teams build automated pipelines; academics study proliferation; and regulators and litigators reconstruct registration histories. Each function works from a different slice of the facing sheet, Rule 487(b) representations, updated prospectus, or exhibit set, but all depend on a complete record of UIT pricing amendments.

Specific Use Cases

Each use case below maps to specific record components — the Rule 487(b) facing-sheet designation, the portfolio-similarity representations, the updated series prospectus, the exhibit consents and opinions, and metadata.json fields including effectivenessDate, filedAt, accessionNo, cik, and entities[].fileNo.

Building a UIT series launch calendar

Ingest effectivenessDate and filedAt from metadata.json across all accessions and group by depositor cik and registrant companyName (which carries the series number). The result is a depositor-by-day issuance calendar of newly effective UIT series, used by wholesalers, platform due-diligence teams, and competitive-intelligence desks to confirm shelf availability and time outreach against peer rollouts. Joining filedAt against effectivenessDate also surfaces sponsors that schedule effectiveness ahead versus filing for same-moment effectiveness.

Drafting precedent bank for Rule 487(b) representations

Lawyers and paralegals at UIT sponsors and outside counsel pull the sequence-1 document for a target trust family, extract the facing-sheet Rule 487(b) election block and the four core representations (UIT status, no material disclosure differences, substantially similar portfolio securities, Rule 487(c) conditions), and assemble a precedent file keyed by depositor and series. The output is a clause library and conformity checklist used to draft the next series amendment with consistent language and to benchmark wording against peer sponsors.

Memorandum of Changes diff extraction across a series program

For each documentFormatFiles[] entry whose description is MEMORANDUM OF CHANGES (typically EX-99), pull the exhibit text and align by depositor and series sequence. The corpus becomes a structured stream of prospectus deltas — fee changes, risk-factor additions, portfolio-strategy edits — directly supporting the Rule 487(b) "no material disclosure differences" condition. Compliance reviewers use this to confirm rule eligibility; product researchers use it to track when a sponsor introduces a new strategy variant relative to its prior series.

Auditor and counsel relationship mapping

Iterate exhibits tagged EX-99.4-1 / EX-99.41 (auditor consents) and EX-99.3-1 / EX-99.31 (legality opinions) and parse the firm name and signature block. Aggregating by depositor cik over time yields a longitudinal map of which audit firms (Deloitte & Touche, Grant Thornton, etc.) and which legal counsel each UIT sponsor uses, plus the dates of any switches. This feeds vendor-relationship analytics, audit-quality research, and conflict-check workflows.

Portfolio holdings and fee-schedule extraction for security masters

From the sequence-1 prospectus, extract the deposited-securities table (security name, ticker, share count or principal amount, cost, market value as of evaluation date) and the fees-and-expenses block (initial sales charge, deferred sales charge, creation-and-development fee, organization costs). Joined with accessionNo, fileNo, and effectivenessDate, this populates security masters at data vendors and index providers, drives sales-charge benchmarking on platforms, and supports sponsor- and strategy-level AUM roll-ups.

Operations setup for deposit, pricing, and CUSIP activation

UIT trustee, fund-accounting, and transfer-agent staff key off the facing-sheet effective date and time and the prospectus deposit date and evaluation time to schedule deposit settlement, initial unit pricing, CUSIP activation, and distribution to selling groups. The record is also the audit-trail source: accessionNo, linkToFilingDetails, and the signed amendment document anchor reconciliation between the registration-effectiveness moment and downstream operational events.

Training data for EDGAR extraction and classification pipelines

The dataset's consistent two-layer structure — metadata.json plus SGML-wrapped <DOCUMENT> envelopes with stable <TYPE> tags — makes it well-suited to training extractors that isolate the Rule 487(b) representations, classify series strategy from the prospectus cover and risk factors, and align corresponding sections across successive series in the same trust. Filer-agent variation in filenames (s487.htm, s6andpro.htm, adt<series>-487.htm) provides natural train/test splits for filename-agnostic models that rely instead on documentFormatFiles[].type.

Dataset Access

The Form 487 Files dataset is accessible through three endpoints: a public JSON index for discovery, a full archive download, and per-container monthly ZIP downloads. The full archive and individual container downloads require an SEC API key, which can be passed either as a token query parameter or via the Authorization header.

Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-487-files.json

This endpoint returns dataset-level metadata along with the full list of monthly container files. Each container entry includes its key (e.g., 2025/2025-12.zip), downloadUrl, size in bytes, records count, and updatedAt timestamp. Polling this endpoint daily lets you detect which monthly containers have changed in the most recent refresh, so you can re-download only the containers that were updated rather than the entire archive. This endpoint does not require an API key.

Example response:

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          {
        

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            "datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-6913-b89b-5f20fad8bf97",
        

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            "datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-487-files.zip",
        

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            "name": "Form 487 Files Dataset",
        

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            "updatedAt": "2026-04-25T03:14:22.000Z",
        

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            "earliestSampleDate": "1994-01-01",
        

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            "totalRecords": 146217,
        

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            "totalSize": 1880634950,
        

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            "formTypes": ["487"],
        

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            "containerFormat": "ZIP",
        

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            "fileTypes": ["TXT", "JSON", "HTML"],
        

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            "containers": [
        

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              {
        

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                "downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-487-files/2025/2025-12.zip",
        

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                "key": "2025/2025-12.zip",
        

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                "size": 18472913,
        

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                "records": 412,
        

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                "updatedAt": "2026-01-04T02:11:08.000Z"
        

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              }
        

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            ]
        

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          }
        

Fetch the index with curl:

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          curl -s https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-487-files.json
        

Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-487-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads all monthly containers bundled into a single ZIP archive. Use this when you need a one-shot bulk export of the full dataset. Requires an API key.

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          curl -L -o form-487-files.zip \
        

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            "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-487-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY"
        

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          # or via Authorization header
        

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          wget --header "Authorization: YOUR_API_KEY" \
        

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            https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-487-files.zip
        

Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-487-files/2025/2025-12.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads one monthly container ZIP, keyed by year and month (YYYY/YYYY-MM.zip). Use this for incremental syncs — read the index, compare updatedAt timestamps against your local copy, and pull only the months that changed. Requires an API key.

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          curl -L -o 2025-12.zip \
        

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            "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-487-files/2025/2025-12.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY"
        

Node.js example using the index to download all updated containers:

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          const fs = require("fs");
        

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          const https = require("https");
        

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          const API_KEY = process.env.SEC_API_KEY;
        

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          const INDEX_URL = "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-487-files.json";
        

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          async function downloadContainer(url, outPath) {
        

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            return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        

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              const file = fs.createWriteStream(outPath);
        

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              https.get(`${url}?token=${API_KEY}`, (res) => {
        

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                res.pipe(file);
        

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                file.on("finish", () => file.close(resolve));
        

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              }).on("error", reject);
        

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            });
        

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          }
        

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          (async () => {
        

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            const index = await fetch(INDEX_URL).then((r) => r.json());
        

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            for (const c of index.containers) {
        

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              const out = c.key.replace("/", "-");
        

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              console.log(`Downloading ${c.key} (${c.records} records)`);
        

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              await downloadContainer(c.downloadUrl, out);
        

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            }
        

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          })();
        

Frequently Asked Questions

What form does the Form 487 Files dataset cover?

The dataset covers EDGAR submission type 487 — pre-effective pricing amendments filed by unit investment trusts under Rule 487 of the Securities Act of 1933. Each Form 487 accession is procedurally an amendment to a Form S-6 registration statement and designates the date and time at which the new UIT series' registration becomes effective.

What does a single record in the Form 487 Files dataset represent?

One record corresponds to a single EDGAR Form 487 accession — the complete pre-effective pricing amendment package filed by a UIT registrant. On disk, it is one accession-level folder named after the 18-digit EDGAR accession number (with dashes stripped) inside a monthly <YYYY-MM>/ container, containing exactly one metadata.json sidecar plus the principal Form 487 / S-6 amendment document and every exhibit document EDGAR received.

Who is required to file Form 487?

Only unit investment trusts registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 may invoke Rule 487. The registrant on each accession is the specific numbered UIT series, but the filing is prepared and signed by the trust's depositor or sponsor — recurring institutions such as First Trust Portfolios, Guggenheim Funds Distributors, Advisors Asset Management, Invesco Capital Markets, Van Kampen Funds, and Nuveen Securities — together with the trustee where required. Open-end funds, ETFs on N-1A, closed-end funds, BDCs, and operating-company issuers do not file Form 487.

What triggers a Form 487 filing, and how often does a series file one?

Form 487 is event-driven, tied to the launch and pricing of a new UIT series rather than to any calendar deadline. Rule 487(a) is used to designate the initial effective date for the new-series S-6 amendment, and Rule 487(b) designates the precise date and time of effectiveness once units have been priced and the deposit-dependent disclosures are settled. A series typically generates more than one Form 487 accession — an initial 487(a) followed by one or more 487(b) pricing amendments — before moving into its operating life under the 1940 Act and ceasing to file 1933 Act pre-effective amendments.

How does Form 487 differ from Form 485?

Form 485 (485APOS / 485BPOS / 485BXT) is the functional analogue to 487 for a different filer population: Rule 485 governs post-effective amendments by open-end management investment companies on Form N-1A, while Rule 487 governs pre-effective pricing amendments by UITs on Form S-6. Both rules let the registrant set an effective date without staff acceleration, but the registrant types and parent registration forms are disjoint — UITs never use Rule 485, and open-end funds and ETFs never use Rule 487. A 485BPOS typically refreshes an existing fund's annual prospectus; a 487 typically launches a new UIT series whose portfolio mirrors a prior effective series.

What time period does the dataset cover, and how is it refreshed?

The dataset begins on January 1, 1994 and continues to the present, spanning the EDGAR ASCII / plain-text era, the early-2000s HTML transition, and the modern HTML / SGML-wrapped era. Records are packaged into monthly ZIP containers keyed by year and month (YYYY/YYYY-MM.zip); polling the JSON index lets you compare updatedAt timestamps and pull only the months that have changed since your last sync.

What file formats and structure should I expect inside a record?

Each accession folder contains exactly one metadata.json sidecar plus the principal Form 487 / S-6 amendment document at sequence 1 and every exhibit as a separate .htm (or, in earlier years, .txt) file. Every document file is wrapped in an EDGAR <DOCUMENT> envelope with <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, and <DESCRIPTION> tags. The dataset omits binary graphics (GIF and JPEG attachments referenced by the prospectus) and the complete-submission text rollup, even though both are enumerated in metadata.json's documentFormatFiles[] for completeness.