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.