Form N-1A Files Dataset

The Form N-1A Files Dataset is a complete archive of every Form N-1A and Form N-1A/A submission filed on EDGAR by open-end management investment companies — chiefly mutual funds and ETFs organized as open-end funds — covering the full electronic record from March 1994 to the present. One record corresponds to one EDGAR submission and includes the as-filed registration statement (the prospectus and Statement of Additional Information), every Part C exhibit attached to that submission, and a structured metadata.json manifest that enumerates the filer entities, the registered series and share classes, and each document's role within the EDGAR submission. The filer of record is the registrant itself — the statutory trust, business trust, or corporation organized under state law — registering simultaneously under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Investment Company Act of 1940. Records are delivered as monthly ZIP containers; document bodies are EDGAR SGML-wrapped HTML in the modern era and plain-text or PDF in the earlier and exhibit-specific cases.

Dataset APIs

Dataset Files

What This Dataset Contains

Each record in the dataset is a single EDGAR submission of Form N-1A or its amendment Form N-1A/A, materialized as one accession-numbered subfolder inside a monthly ZIP container. The folder is named with the 18-digit zero-padded SEC accession number (the canonical EDGAR identifier with its dashes removed) and contains exactly one metadata.json manifest plus every as-filed document attached to that submission, with image binaries excluded. A record is therefore the complete unitary registration package: the prospectus and statement of additional information that constitute the public-offering disclosure document, the Part C governance and contractual exhibits filed alongside them, and a structured manifest describing the filer, the registered series and classes, and each document's role within the EDGAR submission.

Form N-1A is the joint registration statement prescribed under both the 1933 Act (which compels registration of the securities being offered) and the 1940 Act (which compels registration of the investment company itself). It is the registration vehicle for open-end management investment companies — chiefly mutual funds and exchange-traded funds organized as open-end funds — and carries the full disclosure required before fund shares may be offered to the public. The form's General Instructions enforce a three-Part architecture in every filing: Part A (the prospectus, Items 1–13), Part B (the Statement of Additional Information, or SAI, Items 14–27), and Part C (Other Information, Items 28–35, principally exhibits and signatures).

An N-1A/A is an amendment to a previously filed N-1A. Amendments are either Pre-Effective Amendments (filed before the registration is declared effective) or Post-Effective Amendments (filed after effectiveness, frequently annually under Rule 485(a) or Rule 485(b) to update the prospectus, financial statements, fee tables, and performance information). Both initial and amendment filings share the same internal three-Part architecture and the same exhibit vocabulary; the dataset includes both form types, distinguished only by the formType field. Crucially, an N-1A/A is a full restatement: it reproduces the entire registration statement and exhibits as amended rather than redlining changes against the prior filing, so reconstructing what changed requires diffing against the immediately preceding N-1A or N-1A/A for the same registrant. Filings are distributed in monthly ZIP containers, with document bodies preserved in their as-filed formats — TXT, JSON, HTML, and PDF — across the full historical span beginning in March 1994.

Content Structure of a Single Record

Content layers of a single record

Each record has three concentric layers:

1. Container layer — the monthly ZIP whose top-level directory is named for the period (for example 2025-05/) and within which each filing occupies its own accession-named subfolder. The accession folder is the unit of one record.
2. Manifest layer — metadata.json, the per-filing JSON document that enumerates the filer entities, the registered series and classes, the EDGAR-assigned identifiers, the timestamp of filing, and one structured entry per attached document. It is the deterministic entry point for traversing the record.
3. Document layer — the as-filed registration statement and Part C exhibits, each preserved as an EDGAR SGML-wrapped HTML document (or, in older filings, a plain-text or PDF document) that mirrors what was submitted to and disseminated by EDGAR.

metadata.json

The manifest is the only structured artifact in the record; every other file in the folder is a body document. Its fields describe both filing-level identification and document-level enumeration:

• formType resolves to N-1A or N-1A/A, distinguishing original registration from amendment.
• accessionNo carries the dashed canonical accession number (for example 0001213900-25-043420); the same identifier without dashes is the folder name.
• description is the human-readable form caption EDGAR generates, which for amendments includes the suffix [Amend].
• filedAt is an ISO-8601 timestamp with timezone offset, recording the EDGAR acceptance time.
• linkToFilingDetails, linkToTxt, and linkToHtml resolve to the primary document, the rolled-up complete-submission .txt, and the EDGAR filing-index page on sec.gov, respectively. linkToXbrl is generally empty for N-1A filings.
• id is an internal 32-character hexadecimal identifier.
• documentFormatFiles[] is the per-document catalog. Each entry carries sequence (the EDGAR ordering integer within the submission, blank for the rolled-up text bundle), size in bytes as a string, documentUrl, description, and type. The type field carries the EDGAR document role — N-1A or N-1A/A for the registration statement itself, EX-99.(<letter>) (optionally with a sub-index) for each Part C exhibit, and GRAPHIC for image attachments. The terminal entry, with blank sequence and blank type, references the full SGML-wrapped submission .txt file.
• entities[] is the filer-entity list. Each row carries companyName (suffixed with the EDGAR role label such as (Filer)), cik, fileNo, filmNo, act (33 for the Securities Act registration line, 40 for the Investment Company Act line), formType, fiscalYearEnd (in MMDD form), and stateOfIncorporation. Because Form N-1A registers under both Acts simultaneously, a single legal entity normally appears as two rows differing only by act and fileNo.
• seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] enumerates the EDGAR series (S-id) and class/contract (C-id) identifiers covered by the registration. Each item carries the series id and name and a nested classesContracts[] list with each class's C-id, name, and optional ticker. A single registration commonly registers multiple series in parallel and multiple share classes per series.
• dataFiles is the XBRL/data file list and is typically empty for N-1A.

The local file name of every retained document on disk is the basename of its documentUrl. Entries whose type is GRAPHIC and the trailing rolled-up .txt bundle are listed in the manifest but are not present in the folder; downstream consumers must tolerate this manifest-versus-disk asymmetry.

The main N-1A / N-1A/A registration document

The first document in every accession (sequence 1, with type equal to N-1A or N-1A/A) is the registration statement itself. It is by a wide margin the largest individual file in the record and contains, in the order prescribed by the form's General Instructions:

Cover page (Item 1)

The front cover identifies the registrant, lists the 1933 Act and 1940 Act file numbers, recites the title of securities being registered, and bears the checkboxes indicating whether the filing is the initial registration statement, a Pre-Effective Amendment, or a Post-Effective Amendment (and the Rule 485 paragraph, where applicable). It identifies the agent for service of process and the proposed effective date. A back cover follows the prospectus body and lists where additional information (SAI, shareholder reports) is available.

Part A — Information Required in a Prospectus (Items 1–13)

Part A is the prospectus proper, organized around the SEC's standardized Items. For each fund (series) covered by the registration, Items 2–8 form the standardized risk/return summary at the front of the prospectus:

• Item 2 — investment objectives or goals.
• Item 3 — the fee table, showing shareholder fees and annual fund operating expenses with worked example dollar figures over 1, 3, 5, and 10 years and, where applicable, a portfolio turnover rate.
• Item 4 — principal investment strategies, principal risks of investing in the fund, and past performance (a bar chart of annual returns plus a standardized average-annual-total-returns table once a full calendar year of performance exists).
• Item 5 — management of the fund (investment adviser, sub-adviser, portfolio manager identification with title and tenure).
• Item 6 — purchase and sale of fund shares (minimums, channels, ETF creation-unit terms where applicable).
• Item 7 — tax information.
• Item 8 — payments to broker-dealers and other financial intermediaries.

The fuller discussion follows for the prospectus as a whole:

• Item 9 — expanded discussion of investment objectives, principal investment strategies, and principal risks; secondary investment strategies and risks.
• Item 10 — management of the fund at length (adviser background, sub-advisory arrangements, portfolio manager biographical and account-management disclosure, advisory fee descriptions).
• Item 11 — shareholder information: pricing of fund shares, purchase and redemption mechanics, exchange privileges, frequent-trading policies, distribution arrangements (Rule 12b-1), and tax consequences of distributions.
• Item 12 — distribution arrangements (sales loads, breakpoints, Rule 12b-1 fees by class).
• Item 13 — financial highlights table, presenting per-share operating performance, ratios, and total return for each share class for up to five fiscal years.

In multi-series trusts, Items 2–8 repeat once per series — producing a stacked sequence of fund-by-fund summary sections — before the shared Items 9–13 disclosures.

Part B — Statement of Additional Information (Items 14–27)

The SAI expands on the prospectus and is incorporated into the registration statement but delivered to investors only on request:

• Item 14 — cover page and table of contents.
• Item 15 — fund history (date and form of organization, prior names).
• Item 16 — description of the fund and its investments and risks (permitted instruments, investment policies and limitations, fundamental versus non-fundamental restrictions).
• Item 17 — management of the fund: board leadership structure and risk-oversight discussion, trustee qualifications and biographical narratives, committee structure, trustee share ownership, and trustee compensation.
• Item 18 — control persons and principal holders of securities (5%+ holders).
• Item 19 — investment advisory and other services: advisory contract terms, fees paid in each of the last three fiscal years, sub-adviser arrangements, administrator, custodian, transfer agent, distributor, and independent registered public accounting firm.
• Item 20 — portfolio managers: other accounts managed, material conflicts, compensation structure, and ownership of fund securities by each portfolio manager.
• Item 21 — brokerage allocation and other practices.
• Item 22 — capital stock and other securities (share class structure, voting rights).
• Item 23 — purchase, redemption, and pricing of shares (NAV calculation, in-kind redemptions, ETF creation/redemption mechanics).
• Item 24 — taxation of the fund.
• Item 25 — underwriters.
• Item 26 — calculation of performance data (yield and total return formulas).
• Item 27 — financial statements: typically incorporated by reference to the most recent annual report on Form N-CSR for ongoing funds, or filed directly for new funds with no operating history.

Part C — Other Information (Items 28–35)

Part C appears at the end of the registration document and serves as the bridge to the Part C exhibits:

• Item 28 — the exhibit index, mapping each exhibit letter to its filing or incorporation status.
• Item 29 — persons controlled by or under common control with the fund.
• Item 30 — indemnification.
• Item 31 — business and other connections of the investment adviser.
• Item 32 — principal underwriters.
• Item 33 — location of accounts and records.
• Item 34 — management services not discussed in the prospectus or SAI.
• Item 35 — undertakings.

The signature block follows, executed by the registrant and by a majority of trustees, frequently via power of attorney filed as an exhibit.

The body itself is standard EDGAR HTML, typically built around inline-styled paragraphs in a serif type family (font: 10pt Times New Roman, Times, Serif) with extensive table-based layout for the fee table, performance bar chart and average-annual-returns table, financial highlights, and trustee and officer compensation tables.

Part C exhibits

The remaining documents in the record are the Part C exhibits referenced from Item 28 and filed alongside the registration statement. Each exhibit is a separate file in the accession folder; its EDGAR type follows the convention EX-99.(<letter>) with an optional sub-index when more than one document of the same letter is filed (EX-99.(d)(1), EX-99.(d)(2), etc.). The lettering follows the Form N-1A exhibit schedule:

• (a) — Articles of incorporation, declaration of trust, or other charter document, including amendments.
• (b) — By-laws.
• (c) — Specimen security or instruments defining the rights of holders, when applicable; often subsumed into the charter document.
• (d) — Investment advisory contracts, including each sub-advisory agreement and any fee-schedule amendment, commonly enumerated (d)(1), (d)(2), etc.
• (e) — Underwriting or distribution agreement, including any related dealer or selling agreements.
• (f) — Bonus, profit-sharing, pension, or similar contracts for trustees or officers (rare for typical funds).
• (g) — Custodian agreement.
• (h) — Other material contracts not otherwise required to be filed: administration agreements, transfer agency agreements, fund accounting agreements, expense limitation/reimbursement agreements, securities-lending agreements, shareholder-services agreements. These commonly run from (h)(1) through (h)(6) or beyond.
• (i) — Opinion of counsel regarding the legality of shares.
• (j) — Consent of the independent registered public accounting firm and any other required expert consents.
• (k) — Omitted financial statements (typically not applicable).
• (l) — Initial capital agreement / seed-money letter, evidencing the purchase of initial shares.
• (m) — Rule 12b-1 distribution and service plan.
• (n) — Rule 18f-3 multi-class plan, when the fund offers multiple share classes.
• (o) — Reserved.
• (p) — Codes of ethics adopted under Rule 17j-1, filed once per regulated party (trust, adviser, sub-adviser, distributor); a single record routinely contains multiple (p) files.
• (q) — Powers of attorney supporting the trustee signatures.

Each exhibit body is the agreement, opinion, plan, or code text rendered in HTML. Files typically open with a right-aligned exhibit label (for example Exhibit (d)(1)), followed by the document title, the names and recitals of the parties, the operative provisions in numbered sections, signature blocks (often as /s/ notations on conformed copies), and any schedules of fees, sub-advised funds, or covered employees.

File-naming inside the record

Document file names mirror the as-filed names on EDGAR and follow a consistent pattern of <filer-prefix><submission-id>_<role>.htm. The role suffix encodes the exhibit letter directly: n1a or n1aa for the main registration, and ex99-<letter>[<n>] for each Part C exhibit (for example ex99-d1.htm, ex99-h3.htm, ex99-p2.htm). Multiple instances of the same exhibit letter are disambiguated by an integer suffix on the letter, matching the (letter)(n) numbering used in Item 28 and in the manifest's type values.

File formats present in the record

The file-types found in the dataset are TXT, JSON, HTML, and PDF, reflecting the full historical span from 1994 to the present:

• metadata.json — the single JSON artifact, present in every accession folder.
• .htm / .html — EDGAR SGML-wrapped HTML, the dominant format from the late-1990s HTML era through the present. Every modern N-1A document begins with the six-line EDGAR submission wrapper (<DOCUMENT>, <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, <DESCRIPTION>, <TEXT>) before the <HTML> body, and closes with the matching </TEXT></DOCUMENT> lines. The <SEQUENCE> value in the wrapper matches the corresponding documentFormatFiles[].sequence in the manifest. Parsers must either strip the SGML wrapper or accept leading non-HTML lines.
• .txt — legacy plain-text submissions characteristic of the earliest paper-to-EDGAR years (1994 onward), in which the entire prospectus, SAI, and exhibits were transmitted as ASCII text inside the same SGML envelope, with no HTML markup and tables rendered through monospaced spacing.
• .pdf — occasionally present for specific exhibits (signed agreements, court-filed documents, or scanned material) where the registrant supplied a PDF as an EDGAR attachment.

Image binaries (.jpg, .gif) referenced from the EDGAR submission and listed in documentFormatFiles[] with type GRAPHIC are excluded from the ZIP by design. They remain catalogued in the manifest for traceability — every URL resolves against the live EDGAR archive — but the binaries themselves are not redistributed.

What is included in the record

The record includes the full as-filed registration statement, every Part C exhibit attached to the submission (other than image binaries), and the structured metadata.json manifest describing the submission, its filers, its series and classes, and each document. The signature block sits at the end of the main registration document; the supporting powers of attorney sit in their own EX-99.(q) files.

What is excluded or structurally separate

Three categories of content are not materialized inside the accession folder:

1. Image binaries referenced from the documents (type GRAPHIC) are excluded by design; references survive in the manifest.
2. The rolled-up complete-submission .txt bundle that EDGAR generates per filing is referenced only by URL in linkToTxt and as the trailing entry of documentFormatFiles[]; it is not unpacked into the folder, since its content is the concatenation of the documents that are already present.
3. Documents incorporated by reference — most commonly the financial statements incorporated from a prior annual report on Form N-CSR — are not pulled into the registration record. The SAI's incorporation language identifies them, but the bytes belong to other filings.

Changes in required content and structure over time

The Part A / Part B / Part C architecture and the exhibit lettering have been stable since the form's modernization, but several rule changes have materially shifted what each Part must contain:

• The 1998 plain-English and risk/return summary reforms restructured Part A around a standardized summary at the front of the prospectus, introducing the fee table, average-annual-total-returns presentation, and principal-risks discussion in their current form.
• The 2009 Summary Prospectus rule (Rule 498) and the corresponding amendments to Form N-1A reorganized Items 2–8 into the now-standard front-of-prospectus summary, separated for each series in multi-series trusts, with the fuller discussion deferred to Items 9–12.
• The 2009–2010 amendments expanded Part B's governance disclosures: Item 17 was expanded to require the board leadership-structure and risk-oversight discussion, qualification narratives for each trustee, and additional committee disclosure.
• The 2016 liquidity risk management program rule (Rule 22e-4) introduced new principal-risk and program-related disclosures into Parts A and B for affected funds.
• The 2020 fair valuation rule (Rule 2a-5) adjusted Part B disclosures regarding the board's valuation oversight.
• The 2022 Tailored Shareholder Reports rule shifted ongoing financial-statement and performance reporting toward streamlined shareholder reports, with corresponding adjustments to what Part B incorporates by reference.
• Rule 18f-3 plans (exhibit (n)) became standard once multi-class structures proliferated, and the codes-of-ethics requirement under Rule 17j-1 (exhibit (p)) was added in 1999, which is why multiple (p) files routinely appear in a single record.

Changes in data format over time

The dataset spans March 1994 to the present, and the document layer reflects three successive EDGAR eras:

• Plain-text era (1994 – late 1990s): filings were transmitted as ASCII .txt documents wrapped in the EDGAR SGML envelope, with no HTML markup and tables rendered through monospaced spacing. The full prospectus, SAI, and exhibits all sit in plain text in this era.
• HTML era (late 1990s onward): filings transitioned to SGML-wrapped HTML, allowing inline styling, real tables, and richer typography. This is the dominant format from the 2000s through today.
• Mixed-format and PDF accommodations: individual exhibits are occasionally supplied as PDF (notably for signed agreements or scanned documents), so a single record can mix HTML body documents with PDF exhibits. The manifest types each document uniformly regardless of format, so it remains the authoritative index across formats.

The SGML wrapper convention has been preserved across all eras: every document on disk, regardless of whether its body is plain text or HTML, begins with the six EDGAR header lines. This invariance is the most reliable structural anchor for a parser working across the full historical span.

Interpretation notes

• One folder, one filing. The accession-named subfolder is the canonical record boundary. Reconstructing the dashed accession number from the folder name requires splitting it as 10-2-6.
• Manifest as deterministic index. Every file on disk corresponds to an entry in documentFormatFiles[], with the file's basename equal to the basename of documentUrl. The converse does not hold: graphic entries and the rolled-up .txt bundle appear in the manifest but not on disk.
• Sequence ordering. Sequence 1 is always the primary N-1A or N-1A/A registration document. Sequences 2 onward are Part C exhibits in EDGAR's ordering, and the trailing entry with a blank sequence is the rolled-up .txt.
• Filer duplication across acts. Because Form N-1A is a joint 1933 Act / 1940 Act registration, a single legal filer normally appears twice in entities[], once with act = 33 and once with act = 40, distinguished by fileNo. Deduplication by CIK plus companyName is required to obtain a unique filer list.
• Series and class granularity. A single record can register multiple funds (series) and multiple share classes per fund. The seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] list provides the S-id, C-id, fund name, class name, and ticker (when assigned), enabling fund-level rather than filing-level grouping. Multi-series trusts produce repeated Items 2–8 in Part A — once per series — and multi-class series produce Rule 18f-3 plans (exhibit (n)) and class-by-class fee tables and financial highlights.
• Incorporation by reference. Particularly in Part B Item 27, financial statements and other prior disclosures are routinely incorporated rather than reproduced. Textual cues ("incorporated herein by reference to ...") are the only marker that the content is not present in the record itself.
• Amendments are full restatements. N-1A/A filings reproduce the entire registration; the cover-page amendment-type checkbox and the [Amend] suffix in metadata.json's description are the principal cues that the record is an amendment, and comparing successive amendments is the only reliable way to identify what was changed.
• SGML wrapper handling. Document bodies must be parsed past the six-line uppercase SGML header before HTML parsing begins. Tolerant HTML parsers usually accept the wrapper as benign leading content, but strict ones will not.
• Issuer variation. Trust complexes vary widely in how they organize Part C exhibits — some file each material contract as a separate (h)(n) document, others bundle related agreements; some file fresh consents, opinions, and powers of attorney with every Post-Effective Amendment, others incorporate them by reference. Filing size therefore varies from a handful of documents for a thin amendment to several dozen documents for an initial registration of a multi-series, multi-class fund family.

Who Files or Publishes This Dataset, and When

Who files

Each record in this dataset is a Form N-1A or Form N-1A/A filed on EDGAR by an open-end management investment company. The filer of record is the registrant itself — the statutory trust, business trust, or corporation organized under state law (commonly a Massachusetts business trust, Delaware statutory trust, or Maryland corporation) — acting through its board and signed by its officers and a majority of its trustees as required by Section 6(a) of the Securities Act.

The N-1A filer population is limited to:

• Open-end mutual funds registered as management investment companies under the Investment Company Act of 1940 that issue redeemable securities.
• Exchange-traded funds organized as open-end management companies, including ETFs operating under Rule 6c-11 and ETFs still relying on prior exemptive orders.
• Series trusts and series companies, where one registrant umbrellas multiple series under a single N-1A; each series has its own series and class IDs but is not a separate EDGAR filer.
• Money market funds subject to Rule 2a-7, which register on N-1A using money-market-specific prospectus items.
• Underlying funds for variable insurance products, when those underlying funds are themselves open-end management companies (the separate accounts that invest in them register elsewhere).

The following do not file N-1A and are outside the dataset:

• Closed-end funds — register on Form N-2.
• Unit investment trusts (including UIT-structured ETFs) — register on Form N-8B-2 and offer on Form S-6.
• Business development companies — register on Form N-2 and report on Forms 10-K/10-Q.
• Variable annuity and variable life separate accounts — register on Form N-3, Form N-4, or Form N-6.
• Private funds relying on Section 3(c)(1) or Section 3(c)(7) — do not register as investment companies.

Dual-statute basis

Form N-1A is the integrated form prescribed for open-end management companies and simultaneously satisfies two registrations:

1. Securities Act registration of the fund's shares under Sections 5 and 8 of the 1933 Act. Part A of N-1A is the Section 10(a) prospectus delivered to investors.
2. Investment Company Act registration of the issuer under Section 8(a) of the 1940 Act (with Section 8(b) governing the registration statement content for management companies).

The form is governed substantively by the General Instructions to Form N-1A and procedurally by Rule 485 under the Securities Act and Rule 8b-16 under the Investment Company Act.

What triggers a filing

Initial registration (Form N-1A). A new open-end fund or new registrant files an initial N-1A before any public offer or sale of shares. It becomes effective by Commission order under Section 8 of the Securities Act, typically after staff review and one or more pre-effective amendments (filed as N-1A/A).

Post-effective amendments under Rule 485(a) — substantive. Material changes — adding a new series, materially revising investment objectives, principal strategies, principal risks, or fundamental policies, or making any change outside the Rule 485(b) safe harbor — are filed under Rule 485(a) and become automatically effective 60 days after filing (75 days for amendments that designate a new series), absent staff action or an acceleration request. Coded N-1A/A.

Post-effective amendments under Rule 485(b) — non-material. Annual updates incorporating audited financials, updated fee tables, performance data, and other changes within the Rule 485(b) safe harbor become effective immediately on filing or on a designated date up to 30 days later. The registrant certifies eligibility under Rule 485(b)(1). Coded N-1A/A.

Annual update under Section 10(a)(3). Section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act requires prospectus information used more than nine months after the effective date to be no more than 16 months old. Each registrant therefore files a post-effective amendment annually — generally within four months of fiscal year end — to refresh the prospectus, statement of additional information, and financial statements. This is the recurring source of most N-1A/A filings and is typically a Rule 485(b) filing when no material changes are made.

Indefinite share registration under Rule 24f-2. Open-end funds register an indefinite number of shares under Rule 24f-2 and pay registration fees in arrears via a separately filed Form 24F-2. N-1A filings therefore are not triggered by the need to register additional shares; the trigger is always disclosure content.

Sticker supplements (Rule 497). Interim disclosure changes are typically distributed as supplements filed on Form 497, not as N-1A/A. A Rule 497 supplement frequently precedes a later 485(a) amendment that incorporates the change. Form 497 filings are not part of this dataset.

Rule 485(b)(1)(vii). This clause permits a registrant to file under Rule 485(b) solely to designate a new effective date for a previously filed Rule 485(a) amendment, producing an N-1A/A that simply resets timing without new substantive content.

Filer vs. service providers

The legal filer is the registrant — the trust or corporation. Investment advisers, sub-advisers, principal underwriters, custodians, transfer agents, and auditors are disclosed within the filing as service providers but are not the filer or registrant. In a series trust, the trust files one N-1A covering all series; individual series are not separate EDGAR filers.

Historical scope

Form N-1A was adopted in 1983 to consolidate the prior Forms N-1 and S-5 into a single integrated 1933 Act / 1940 Act document for open-end funds. EDGAR submissions for investment companies phased in during the mid-1990s, with mandatory electronic filing for fund registrants in 1996. Earlier paper filings exist in SEC archives but are not part of this electronic dataset, which begins in March 1994.

How This Dataset Differs From Similar Datasets or Filings

Form N-1A is the dual-statute registration statement (Securities Act of 1933 and Investment Company Act of 1940) used exclusively by open-end management investment companies — mutual funds and most ETFs. Adjacent SEC forms either cover a different fund structure, a different lifecycle stage, or a different reporting purpose. The most useful comparisons fall into four groups: other investment-company registration statements, post-registration periodic reports, Rule 485 amendment sub-types, and shareholder-facing prospectus or report variants.

Other investment-company registration statements

Form N-2 — closed-end funds and BDCs

N-2 is the structural counterpart to N-1A for the closed-end universe: listed closed-end funds, interval funds, tender-offer funds, and business development companies. Same dual-statute purpose, fundamentally different product. Shares are not continuously redeemable at NAV; capital structures often include leverage and preferred stock; disclosure emphasizes price-vs-NAV behavior, distribution policy, and senior-securities coverage. Form choice is driven by fund type — N-1A and N-2 populations do not overlap.

Forms N-3, N-4, N-6 — variable insurance separate accounts

These register variable insurance products issued through insurance company separate accounts:

• N-3: separate accounts organized as management investment companies offering variable annuity contracts.
• N-4: separate accounts organized as unit investment trusts offering variable annuity contracts (the dominant variable annuity form).
• N-6: separate accounts offering variable life insurance contracts.

The underlying investment options in N-3/N-4/N-6 contracts are often N-1A-registered funds, but the registrant (an insurance separate account), the legal wrapper (an insurance contract), and the disclosure focus (mortality and expense charges, surrender charges, death benefits, annuitization) are all distinct. N-1A captures the underlying fund; N-3/N-4/N-6 capture the insurance wrapper sold on top.

Forms N-8B-2 and S-6 — unit investment trusts

N-8B-2 is the 1940 Act registration statement for unit investment trusts; S-6 is the corresponding 1933 Act registration of UIT units. UITs are unmanaged, fixed portfolios with a defined termination date — structurally opposite to the actively managed, perpetual nature of an open-end fund. There is no investment adviser and no board-driven portfolio selection, so the disclosure content is materially different from N-1A. N-8B-2/S-6 fill the registration role for UITs that N-1A fills for open-end management companies.

Form N-14 — fund mergers and reorganizations

Form N-14 registers shares issued in fund reorganizations, mergers, or asset acquisitions and serves as the proxy/prospectus for shareholder votes on the combination. It overlaps with N-1A because the surviving fund is typically N-1A-registered and the N-14 reproduces or incorporates prospectus content. The distinction is trigger and scope: N-14 is transaction-driven and one-off; N-1A is the continuous-offering registration. Use N-14 to study consolidation activity; use N-1A to study the universe of open-end fund offerings.

Post-registration periodic reports

These forms are commonly confused with N-1A but cover a different reporting stage. N-1A registers the fund; the forms below describe how it operates after registration.

Forms N-CSR and N-CSRS — certified shareholder reports

Annual (N-CSR) and semi-annual (N-CSRS) certified shareholder reports filed under Section 30 of the 1940 Act and Sarbanes-Oxley. They contain audited or unaudited financial statements, period-end schedules of investments, and management discussion of performance. They overlap with N-1A's Statement of Additional Information in including financial statements, but N-CSR/N-CSRS are backward-looking operating reports while N-1A is a forward-looking offering document. A prospectus is not a performance report.

Forms N-PORT and N-CEN — regulatory operating reports

• N-PORT: monthly portfolio holdings report filed quarterly, with the third month of each quarter publicly disclosed; provides position-level holdings.
• N-CEN: annual census report on fund structure, service providers, securities-lending activity, and operating facts.

Both are 1940 Act regulatory reports, not offering documents. N-PORT answers "what does the fund hold now"; N-CEN answers "how is the fund structured and operated this year"; N-1A answers "what is the fund offering and on what terms." Complementary, not substitutable.

Rule 485 post-effective amendment sub-types

The Rule 485 family is not a separate registration statement — these are post-effective amendments to N-1A, and in EDGAR they carry the bulk of ongoing prospectus updates for established funds:

• 485APOS: post-effective amendment under Rule 485(a), subject to SEC review delay (typically 60 or 75 days); used for material changes.
• 485BPOS: post-effective amendment under Rule 485(b), effective immediately or on a designated date; used for annual updates and non-material changes.
• 485BXT: amendment under Rule 485(b)(1)(iii) to designate a new effective date.

A dataset scoped strictly to form types N-1A and N-1A/A captures initial registrations and their direct amendments only. The 485-series filings — though they amend the same N-1A registration statement and contain prospectus content — are filed under distinct form types and fall outside an N-1A/N-1A/A scope. Researchers needing the full prospectus history of an established fund must combine this dataset with 485APOS/485BPOS data; researchers studying new-fund registration alone can stay within N-1A.

Shareholder-facing prospectus and report variants

Summary Prospectus (Rule 498)

The Summary Prospectus is a short-form delivery document permitted under Rule 498 that satisfies prospectus delivery when the full statutory prospectus is available online. It is not a separate filing form: both the statutory prospectus and the summary prospectus are components of the N-1A registration statement (or its 485-series amendments) and appear within the same filing package. The distinction is delivery format, not registration regime. An N-1A dataset contains both versions where filed.

Tailored Shareholder Reports (2022 amendments, effective 2024)

The SEC's 2022 amendments created Tailored Shareholder Reports — concise, retail-oriented annual and semi-annual reports that replaced the long-form shareholder report for retail share classes and shifted detailed financial data to Form N-CSR filings and online posting. TSRs are filed within N-CSR, not N-1A. They resemble the summary prospectus in tone and length but live on the periodic reporting side; N-1A and its summary prospectus live on the registration/offering side. Registration content goes in N-1A; performance and operating content goes in N-CSR/TSR.

Boundary summary

Form N-1A is uniquely defined by three properties in combination:

1. Open-end management investment company as registrant — excluding closed-end funds and BDCs (N-2), UITs (N-8B-2/S-6), and insurance separate accounts (N-3/N-4/N-6).
2. Dual-statute registration under both the 1933 Act and the 1940 Act — distinguishing it from 1940-Act-only operating reports (N-CSR, N-CSRS, N-PORT, N-CEN) and from transaction-specific registrations like N-14.
3. Initial and direct-amendment scope (N-1A, N-1A/A) — distinguishing this dataset from the much larger Rule 485 post-effective amendment population that updates the same underlying registration statements over time.

Adjacent datasets complement N-1A but do not substitute for it: N-CSR/N-CSRS and N-PORT/N-CEN for operating, holdings, and shareholder-report data; N-14 for merger activity; 485APOS/485BPOS/485BXT for ongoing prospectus updates; and N-2/N-3/N-4/N-6/N-8B-2/S-6 for the non-open-end portions of the fund universe.

Who Uses This Dataset

The dataset serves professionals working on the registration, pricing, governance, and competitive positioning of open-end mutual funds and ETFs. Different roles reach into different layers: prospectus (Part A), SAI (Part B), or the lettered Part C exhibits.

Investment Company Act counsel and fund counsel

Drafts and benchmarks registration statements and post-effective amendments. Pulls Part A Items 4 and 9 (principal strategies and risks), Item 3 (fee table), Item 10 (management) for narrative; Part B Items 17-19 for board, code-of-ethics, and proxy-voting language; and Part C exhibits (A) charter, (B) bylaws, (D) advisory and sub-advisory agreements, (E) distribution, (G) custody, (H) administration and expense-limitation contracts, (M) 12b-1 plans, (N) 18f-3 multi-class plans, (I) legality opinions, (J) auditor consents. Output: filed N-1A/A drafts, redlines against peers, and exhibit precedent libraries for 15(c) board books.

Compliance and registration teams at fund sponsors

CCOs, registration specialists, and board-services groups track how disclosure has evolved across a fund family and its rivals. They monitor Item 3 fee tables and waiver footnotes, exhibit (H) expense-limitation agreements, exhibit (M) 12b-1 plans, exhibit (N) 18f-3 plans, and Item 16 liquidity, valuation, and derivatives disclosures. They use formType to separate N-1A from N-1A/A and filedAt to sequence amendments. Output: filing checklists, sticker-supplement triggers, and board memos on waiver expirations.

Product strategy and competitive intelligence at asset managers

Mines Item 3 fee tables (management fee, 12b-1, other expenses, AFFE, net expense after waiver), share-class structures via seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[].classesContracts[] (C-ids and tickers), and Item 4 strategy language to detect category drift, rebrands, and active-to-passive conversions. Output: launch decisions, fee-cut proposals, share-class rationalization memos.

Manager-research analysts and OCIO due-diligence teams

Populates DDQs and approved-list reviews. Reads Part B portfolio-manager compensation and other-accounts-managed disclosure (Items 19-20), fundamental restrictions (Item 16), and trustee independence (Item 17); cross-checks against exhibit (D) advisory and sub-advisory agreements for fee splits, breakpoints, and termination clauses. Output: manager selection memos, fee benchmarks for separate accounts and CITs.

Asset-manager corporate development and M&A advisers

Diligences fund-family acquisitions, lift-outs, and sub-advisory transitions. Extracts exhibit (D) fee schedules and breakpoints, exhibit (E) distribution economics, exhibit (H) expense caps, and assignment/consent provisions relevant to Section 15 board approval. Uses entities[] (CIK, fileNo, act 33/40) to map registrant perimeters. Output: target revenue models, reorganization plans, and pro-forma fee schedules for combined lineups.

Academic and quantitative researchers in fund economics

Builds long-run panels of fees, governance, and disclosure language using N-1A and N-1A/A continuity from 1994 forward. Keys on Item 3 fee tables, Item 4 risk taxonomies, Part B trustee compensation, and exhibit (D)/(M) terms; joins to flows and returns via series/class S-ids and C-ids. Output: peer-reviewed papers on fee compression, share-class proliferation, and sub-advisory networks.

Fund-data vendor and fintech product teams

Builds normalized fee, share-class, and policy reference data and prospectus-search/RAG tools. Parses documentFormatFiles[] (type, sequence, documentUrl) to route the main N-1A versus exhibits, ingests seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] for ticker and class mapping, and uses Part A and Part B HTML as the retrieval corpus for fund Q&A. Output: machine-readable expense databases and advisor-facing fund-research APIs.

Platform research at broker-dealers and recordkeepers

Decides which funds and share classes to admit to platforms, model portfolios, and retirement menus. Focuses on share-class availability via the C-id list, Item 8 sales-load and breakpoint schedules, exhibit (M) 12b-1 plans, exhibit (H) revenue-sharing-relevant agreements, and Item 11 redemption terms. Output: onboarding decisions, Reg BI share-class selection records, and ERISA fiduciary reviews of plan menus.

Regulatory examination and economic-analysis staff

Examiners and rulemaking economists overseeing registered funds use the dataset for sweep targeting and policy analytics. They focus on Item 3 fee tables, Item 16 liquidity and derivatives programs, Item 23 valuation policies, and exhibit (D)/(H)/(M) terms to test consistency between disclosed and operating practice. Output: exam scoping lists, no-action and rulemaking economic memos, and cross-registrant comparisons.

Summary

Counsel and compliance draft and police the disclosure; product, M&A, and consultant teams price and select against it; researchers and vendors measure and productize it; regulators examine against it. Each group hits a different layer — Part A fee table and risk narrative, Part B governance and policy detail, or Part C lettered exhibits — which is why the full filing-and-exhibits structure matters more than any single extract.

Specific Use Cases

The following are concrete, recurring workflows the Form N-1A files dataset supports. Each ties a specific user group to specific record components and a specific output.

Building peer fee-table benchmarks for new-fund pricing

Product strategy and pricing teams at asset managers extract Item 3 fee tables across a target peer set — management fee, 12b-1 fee, other expenses, AFFE, gross and net expense ratios, and waiver footnotes — keyed to share class via seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[].classesContracts[] (C-id and ticker). They cross-reference exhibit (H) expense-limitation agreements to identify cap levels and recapture terms. Output: a class-level fee benchmark used to set launch pricing, justify fee cuts to the board, and rationalize redundant share classes.

Drafting and redlining post-effective amendments

Fund counsel and outside 40 Act counsel pull Item 4 principal-strategies and principal-risks language, Item 9 expanded discussion, and Item 10 management narrative from prior N-1A and N-1A/A filings of the same registrant and of comparable peers. They mine Part C exhibits — (a) charter, (b) bylaws, (d) advisory and sub-advisory agreements, (h) administration and expense-limitation contracts, (m) 12b-1 plans, (n) 18f-3 plans — as a precedent library. Output: filed amendment drafts, peer-redlined risk disclosure, and 15(c) board-book exhibits for advisory-contract approvals.

Tracking advisory and sub-advisory contract terms across a fund family

M&A advisers, manager-research analysts, and competitive-intelligence teams parse exhibit (d)(1), (d)(2), and subsequent sub-advisory agreements for fee schedules, breakpoint tiers, assignment and termination clauses, and the list of sub-advised series. They use entities[] (CIK, act = 33/40, fileNo) to map the registrant perimeter and reconcile filer duplication. Output: fee-revenue models for fund-family acquisitions and lift-outs, sub-advisory network maps, and pro-forma fee schedules for combined post-deal lineups.

Detecting strategy drift, rebrands, and active-to-passive conversions

Competitive intelligence and manager-research teams diff successive N-1A/A filings — which are full restatements — at Items 2 (objectives), 4 (principal strategies), and 5 (management) for the same series S-id. They flag changes in benchmark, index licensor, sub-adviser, or portfolio manager roster, and pair the textual diff with filedAt and formType to date the change. Output: watchlists of strategy changes feeding manager-due-diligence reviews, approved-list re-underwrites, and category reclassification decisions at platform research desks.

Producing long-run panels of fund fees and governance

Academic researchers and quant teams build panels stretching from the 1994 plain-text era to current HTML filings using formType, filedAt, and the series/class identifiers as join keys. They extract Item 3 fee components, Item 13 financial highlights, Part B Item 17 trustee compensation and independence, Item 19 advisory fees paid in each of the last three fiscal years, and exhibit (m)/(n) plan terms. Output: empirical studies on fee compression, share-class proliferation, multi-manager structures, and the post-2009 risk/return summary regime.

Powering share-class reference data and prospectus-search tooling

Fund-data vendors and fintech teams ingest seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] to maintain authoritative S-id, C-id, ticker, and fund-name mappings, and parse documentFormatFiles[] (type, sequence, documentUrl) to route the main N-1A versus each lettered exhibit. The Part A and Part B HTML bodies become the retrieval corpus for advisor-facing prospectus Q&A and RAG. Output: normalized expense databases, share-class registries feeding broker-dealer Reg BI selection workflows, and prospectus-search APIs for retail-platform research tools.

Targeting examination sweeps and rulemaking analytics

Examination staff and rulemaking economists screen Item 16 liquidity-program and derivatives disclosures, Item 23 valuation policies, exhibit (h) expense-cap and securities-lending agreements, exhibit (m) 12b-1 plans, and exhibit (p) Rule 17j-1 codes of ethics across the registrant population. They cross-reference disclosed terms against operating data from Form N-PORT and Form N-CEN. Output: sweep scoping lists, no-action and rulemaking economic memos, and cross-registrant evidence on consistency between disclosed and operating practice.

Dataset Access

Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-n1a-files.json

This endpoint returns dataset metadata (name, description, last updated timestamp, earliest sample date, total records and total size, form types, container format, and file types), the full dataset download URL, and the list of all available monthly container files. Each container entry includes its key, size, record count, updated timestamp, and download URL. The endpoint does not require an API key and can be polled to detect which containers were refreshed in the latest run, so only updated containers need to be re-downloaded.

Example response:

          1
          {
        

          2
            "datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-6954-af5d-c901964f12c1",
        

          3
            "datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-n1a-files.zip",
        

          4
            "name": "Form N-1A Files Dataset",
        

          5
            "updatedAt": "2026-04-22T03:02:48.662Z",
        

          6
            "earliestSampleDate": "1994-03-01",
        

          7
            "totalRecords": 38987,
        

          8
            "totalSize": 974950116,
        

          9
            "formTypes": ["N-1A", "N-1A/A"],
        

          10
            "containerFormat": "ZIP",
        

          11
            "fileTypes": ["TXT", "JSON", "HTML", "PDF"],
        

          12
            "containers": [
        

          13
              {
        

          14
                "downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-n1a-files/2026/2026-04.zip",
        

          15
                "key": "2026/2026-04.zip",
        

          16
                "size": 13818783,
        

          17
                "records": 154,
        

          18
                "updatedAt": "2026-04-22T03:02:48.662Z"
        

          19
              }
        

          20
            ]
        

          21
          }
        

Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-n1a-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads the complete dataset as a single ZIP archive covering all Form N-1A and N-1A/A filings from March 1994 to the present. This endpoint requires a valid SEC API key passed via the token query parameter.

Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-n1a-files/2026/2026-04.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads one monthly container ZIP using the key value from the index containers array (e.g. 2026/2026-04.zip). This is the recommended path for incremental syncing, since only containers with a newer updatedAt need to be refetched. This endpoint requires a valid SEC API key.

Frequently Asked Questions

What forms does this dataset cover?

The dataset covers two EDGAR form types: N-1A (the initial registration statement for an open-end management investment company) and N-1A/A (any amendment to a previously filed N-1A, including pre-effective and post-effective amendments). The two are distinguished within each record by the formType field in metadata.json.

What does one record in this dataset represent?

One record is a single EDGAR submission of Form N-1A or Form N-1A/A, materialized as one accession-numbered subfolder inside a monthly ZIP container. Each folder contains exactly one metadata.json manifest plus every as-filed document attached to the submission — the prospectus, the Statement of Additional Information, and every Part C exhibit — with image binaries excluded by design.

Who is required to file Form N-1A?

Form N-1A is filed by open-end management investment companies — open-end mutual funds, ETFs organized as open-end management companies, series trusts, money market funds subject to Rule 2a-7, and the underlying funds for variable insurance products. Closed-end funds, business development companies, unit investment trusts, and variable insurance separate accounts file other forms (N-2, N-8B-2/S-6, and N-3/N-4/N-6 respectively) and are outside the dataset.

What time period does the dataset cover?

The dataset spans from March 1994 — the earliest electronic N-1A filings on EDGAR — to the present, and is updated monthly. Records from the 1994–late 1990s plain-text era, the SGML-wrapped HTML era from the late 1990s onward, and the modern era of mixed HTML and PDF exhibits are all included under the same record structure.

What file formats are present in each record?

Each accession folder contains one JSON manifest (metadata.json) and a mix of HTML, plain-text (.txt), and occasional PDF document bodies. Modern filings are EDGAR SGML-wrapped HTML; the earliest filings are plain-text inside the same SGML envelope; PDF appears for specific exhibits such as signed agreements or scanned documents. Image binaries referenced in the manifest are excluded from the ZIP.

How does this dataset differ from the Rule 485 post-effective amendment filings (485APOS, 485BPOS, 485BXT)?

The 485-series filings are post-effective amendments to the same underlying N-1A registration statement and carry the bulk of ongoing prospectus updates for established funds, but they are filed under distinct EDGAR form types and fall outside this dataset's N-1A / N-1A/A scope. Researchers needing the full prospectus history of an established fund must combine this dataset with 485APOS/485BPOS data; researchers focused on initial registrations and their direct amendments can stay within N-1A.

How are share classes and fund series identified within a record?

The seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] array in metadata.json enumerates each EDGAR series identifier (S-id) and, within each series, every class/contract identifier (C-id) along with the class name and any assigned ticker. A single record commonly registers multiple series in parallel and multiple share classes per series, and these IDs are the canonical join keys for connecting prospectus disclosure to flows, returns, and other fund-level data.

How are amendments different from initial registrations in this dataset?

An N-1A/A is a full restatement: it reproduces the entire registration statement and every Part C exhibit as amended, rather than redlining changes against the prior filing. Reconstructing what changed therefore requires diffing an N-1A/A against the immediately preceding N-1A or N-1A/A for the same registrant. The cover-page amendment-type checkbox and the [Amend] suffix in the manifest's description field are the principal cues that the record is an amendment.