Technology could help put a more human face on turnkey asset manager platforms (TAMPs).

As fintech competition heats up, TAMPs allow software developers like Los Angeles-based AdvisoryWorld to create customizable tools for entire networks of advisors.

AdvisoryWorld, a software-as-a-service fintech firm, engages with TAMPs to access a growing segment of advisors already comfortable with turning their traditional responsibilities over to third parties or automation, yet who also desire to retain a personal touch.

“TAMPs already have this wide net of advisors that they work with, so when we go and set up a custom installation of our proposal generator with one of them, we get dozens, sometimes thousands of seats at the tables underneath it,” says Mike Wilson, president and COO at AdvisoryWorld.

AdvisoryWorld currently serves around 30,000 individual advisors, many of them through TAMPs like Brinker Capital and FTJ FundChoice, with tools that enable advisor-created workflows and personalized client experiences.

As custodians and broker-dealers adapt their own technology suites and integrations to specific advisor software, fintech developers have to target industry segments and channels more specifically—thus some firms focus on customizing TAMPs and other investment and planning automation tools.

In March, AdvisoryWorld partned with Coppell, Texas-based Fusion Capital Management, which manages around $160 million on its platform and works with more than 125 advisors throughout the country. Fusion also consults with RIAs via an institutional division to recommend solutions for their business models.

Fusion’s latest tool, Advisor OS, will enable advisors to outsource their investment management responsibilities and at the same time maintain their fingerprint on client portfolios. Advisor OS was unveiled at February’s TD Ameritrade National LINC conference in San Diego as a personalized portfolio system geared towards breakaway advisors that works similar to a TAMP, but can be customized to an advisors’ service model and investment philosophy.

“We’re taking advisor’s philosophies and implementing them so they no longer have to worry about the day-to-day issues of managing investments and shifting asset allocations,” says Fusion CEO Ryan Borer. “We think Advisor OS is going to help them improve or modify their investment platform.”

Chicago-based Taiber-Kosmala is handling the customized investment allocations on Advisor OS, while Fusion will create a bespoke operations platform for its clients.

Advisors on Fusion’s TAMP and Advisor OS can now access AdvisoryWorld applications, including the Advisor Proposal Generator, SCANalytics, Batch Risk Analysis tools and Acquire, a new client acquisition application, as well as white-labeled client reports, proposals and digital experiences.

“The one really nice thing about AdvisoryWorld is that we’re able to customize their tools,” says Borer. “Each one of our institutional clients can use AdvisoryWorld software designed to meet their specific needs.”

Acquire, which was also launched at the TD Ameritrade National LINC conference, is a tool that resides on an advisor’s website that guides visitors through a goal and risk profile questionnaire, establishes a recommended asset allocation and moves the client into a digital account opening process. With Acquire, AdvisoryWorld’s suite now covers the entire client lifecycle, starting with the prospect lead.

While the new AdvisoryWorld tool resembles a standard risk tolerance questionnaire at first glance, Acquire is fully customizable. Advisors can create their own goal-setting or risk-profiling questions and multiple-choice responses that feed into the tool’s rubric for asset allocation.

“We also allow advisors to ask more general questions to get to know their prospects and clients,” says Wilson. “They can ask about clients’ likes and dislikes, preferences for communication and also risk profile questions in the same questionnaire. Since many advisors develop their own questionnaires, we wanted them to be able to plug their own work into our application."

The AdvisoryWorld toolkit also integrates with portfolio management tools and financial planning platforms to offer planners a seamless workflow. Advisors can continue to feed information from Acquire to construct investment recommendations with their own models.

For example, one of Fusion’s institutional clients also offered insurance products like indexed annuities and universal life policies, so the Acquire questionnaire was reconfigured to recommend certain clients put assets into a fixed index annuity if their responses indicated a suitable risk profile.

“We design our tools keeping the advisor and their processes and preferences in mind,” says Wilson. “It’s important that advisors are able to customize every step of a website visitor’s interaction with acquire, then send that information to a proposal tool and third party software to continue the process of onboarding the client."

Acquire produces what Wilson calls “the reveal,” a customized results page which can give clients, prospects and website visitors basic information about who they are as an investor and an asset allocation recommendation.

The AdvisoryWorld software also integrates with most advisor-oriented client relationship management applications, forming a web-to-lead workflow for advisors that can create proposal documents and investment policy statements, and feed information gathered by Acquire through all account opening documents and processes.

“We’re going to continue building technology that’s customizable, I feel like that’s our strong suit,” says Wilson. “Altogether, this kind of platform allows us to tell clients’ stories to an advisor in a very individualized manner.”