Registered investment advisors can utilize an important tool to help them manage their practices: turnkey asset management platforms, or TAMPs. A report by InvestmentNews provides recommendations from planners on the best TAMPs that are currently available.
RIAs have been using TAMPs as a way to outsource investment management and administrative tasks so that they can focus more of their time and attention on their actual financial planning. These fee-account technology platforms are used by financial advisors, broker-dealers, insurance companies, banks, law firms, and CPA firms to oversee their clients’ investment accounts. They can offer technology, back-office support, and tasks like investment research and asset allocation.
One financial planner interviewed by InvestmentNews was Andrew Herzog of The Watchman Group, who recommended Envestnet’s Tamarac platform.
“They’re trying to offer the full-blown package to help the advisor not just report and bill their clients on all the assets that are being managed, but also even offer the ability to do the trading for them,” he says. “That’s an additional fee, of course, but they’re helping put more time back in your pocket.”
Andrew Evans, CEO of Rossby Financial, said his firm uses AssetMark, noting its Leadership Advantage Program and what he called an extremely robust practice management program. “AssetMark gives you so many tools, and they do these development programs that it’s almost like getting an executive MBA within a year,” Evans said. “They’re fantastic with that stuff. They’re really focused on the development of an advisor in their office and their practice.”
But, he added, “There’s nothing wrong with not having a TAMP and I can’t say that you need to have one.”
Another advisor giving high marks to AssetMark was Derieck Hodges, founder of Anchor Pointe Wealth Management, who described working with the platform as “a fantastic experience.”
“Their culture is massively important,” Hodges said. “They’re such a good fit because they are very client centric, like we are. They make every decision with us; they get that there’s an end investor and financial planning client involved whose lives we’re affecting. They really bend over backwards to support us strongly.”
As for whether TAMPs are worth the cost for advisors, that topic was addressed by Sara Paulson, division manager for Central U.S. at AssetMark, in a prior InvestmentNews report.
“We’re more expensive,” said Paulson. “There is this perception that we dilute their value proposition if they’re outsourcing, especially on the investment management side, that it doesn’t necessarily free up time.”
But in the long run, she said, the platforms are worth the expense. “The one thing a TAMP can do that is a challenge every single day when advisors go to their office and turn their lights on, is time is finite,” Paulson says. “If you find the right TAMP partner, we are able to provide you with more time in the day.”
Hodges and Evans said firms would be wise to consider implementing TAMPs from the time they start their practices. “When I talk to advisors, a lot of firms are struggling because of all the operational pressures and the regulatory pressures, so I do think a TAMP can help immensely with a lot of that,” said Hodges.
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