America’s Best TAMPs Showcase - Flipbook - Page 14
2026 AMERICA’S BEST TAMPS
treat AI as a tool for sharpening their
own judgment rather than replacing it.
The technology amplifies what a skilled
advisor can do. It doesn’t yet substitute
for the relationship, the trust, or the
human presence that defines the best
advisory practices.
The reason isn’t hard to find. Once
advisors account for financial planning,
client relationship management,
business development, and compliance,
surveys consistently show only about
30% of the working week remains for
investment management.
THE TAMP ADVANTAGE
That’s not enough time. Building
and maintaining investment lineups,
constructing customized portfolios,
monitoring performance, rebalancing,
and harvesting tax losses cannot be
done well in 30% of anyone’s week.
As you discover aspects of your
business that you do better than any
robot or outside expert, you can use
TAMP infrastructure to share. A true
TAMP provider offers wealth advisors
a complete investment management
program through the advisor’s
sponsoring firm, whether it’s a brokerdealer, registered investment advisor, or
trust company.
The TAMP facilitates investment selection
and management, allowing the wealth
advisor to offload time-consuming backoffice functions: investment research,
manager due diligence, portfolio
construction, rebalancing, reconciliation,
performance reporting, tax optimization
and statement preparation… All in order
to focus more on gathering assets,
acquiring new clients, and servicing your
existing accounts.
TAMPs are fee-based account
relationships and can be implemented
in as little as 90 days: That’s the
“Turnkey” part. Many provider firms
offer these capabilities on a customized
managed account platform, permitting
independent wealth advisors and firms
to manage client investments easily.
OUTSOURCING IS TABLE STAKES
Client assets run via TAMP(not just the
ones we focus on here but including
wirehouse proprietary systems
and other in-house platforms) are
approaching $3 trillion, surpassing
what’s managed through traditional inhouse portfolio construction.
But those hours don’t have to be spent
that way. Outsourcing the allocation and
asset selection work frees that time for
higher-value activity, without reducing
the quality of what clients receive.
There’s another problem with spending
too much time managing portfolios
directly. It creates a reactive posture,
leaving advisors constantly responding
to client anxiety rather than getting
ahead of it.
Outsourcing everyday investment
management converts that reactive time
into something more valuable: proactive
communication. Client meetings,
webinars, videos, podcasts, blog posts.
The kind of calm, steady presence that
clients remember and refer.
It’s worth noting that most advisors are
already outsourcing to some degree. The
managers behind passive index funds are
outside experts. The question is simply
how much further to extend that logic, and
what becomes possible when you do.
FREE TO GROW
We still appreciate the BlackRock
survey of roughly 500 advisors for
making the case plainly. Of those who
outsourced during a period of elevated
market volatility, 92% said doing so
improved their practice.
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TM
A strong majority (70%) were able to
dedicate their full attention to clients
because portfolio management was
no longer competing for their time.
Nine out of ten won new business as a
direct result.
The transition to outsourcing doesn’t
follow a single path. It depends on
what your practice needs and what
your clients expect. The main options
available are:
• Model marketplaces offering
prepopulated portfolios built from lowcost mutual funds and ETFs
• Actively managed model portfolios
comprising individual securities and
SMAs run by well-known institutional
asset managers
• UMAs offered through TAMPs that
consolidate all of these outsourced
solutions into a single unified structure
The broader trend reinforces this
direction. The industry is increasingly
rewarding advisors for communication
skills and holistic financial planning.
Portfolio selection, once the centerpiece
of the advisor’s value proposition, is
steadily being treated as a baseline
utility rather than a differentiator. The
advisors who recognize this shift early
are the ones best positioned to benefit
from it.
THE OUTSOURCED PORTFOLIO
Building every client portfolio from
scratch was once the standard. It’s
time-consuming, difficult to implement
consistently, and nearly impossible
to scale without sacrificing quality
somewhere along the way.
Model portfolios solve that problem.
They provide a clear framework
while preserving the advisor’s ability
