Despite myths, TAMPs help advisors save time

AssetMark's Sara Paulson highlights why advisors should be using turnkey asset management platforms.

There are a lot of myths surrounding turnkey asset management platforms. And because of those myths, a lot of advisors might be missing out on what TAMPs have to offer.

“We’re more expensive,” Sara Paulson, division manager for Central U.S. at AssetMark, says of the myths. “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.”

TAMPs have been making waves within the industry and increasingly are seeing their assets grow, in part because they offer advisors independence and flexibility, ultimately saving them time.

“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.”

Paulson will be one of several speakers at an upcoming RIA Labs webinar on Evaluating and Comparing TAMPs that’s sponsored by AssetMark and hosted by InvestmentNews. Other speakers will include advisors from Adhesion Wealth, Sowell Management and Anchor Pointe Wealth Management. Chuck Failla, founder and CEO of Sovereign Financial Group, will moderate.

Derieck Hodges, founder of Anchor Pointe Wealth Management, another of the speakers, says technology can be a key part of the TAMP conversation.

“We went from buying and monitoring a portfolio management system, to completely outsourcing that to AssetMark, our TAMP,” Hodges said. “That was a huge lift for us to get away from dealing with that.”

As an RIA, he said he has different nuances to his business that may not be relevant to broker-dealers who attend the webinar. But that goes both ways.

“I want to hear from an RIA, so I think it’s identifying advisors who have a similar business model and then find out what their use case is and what their experience has been,” Hodges said. “I think that’s really valuable, and I think that’s what’s cool about the marketplace now, is advisors do a great job of sharing.”

When it comes to choosing a TAMP partner, Paulson says it’s important for advisors to identify one that can meet not only business needs but also the client needs.

“Because if you don’t, you’re splintering your business and you’re diluting the benefit of outsourcing,” she says.

Hodges admits that AssetMarks helps his firm with a lot of the workload that it wouldn’t otherwise be able to do itself.

“Because of their expertise, because of their scale of employees, they really can get things done more effectively than we would have been able to do independently. And they have a bigger voice with the custodian than a firm like mine would have,” he added.

Paulson advises clients to look at what matters most to them and narrow it down to one or two areas of importance.

She added that there are many advisors out there who believe clients come to them because of their great investment acumen.

Clients “are much more concerned about ‘When am I gonna retire?’ ‘What do I wanna do in retirement and am I gonna be able to do that?’” Paulson said. “‘When [and where] do my kids wanna go to college?’ Sometimes advisors think that’s what’s most important, is the actual investments, and that’s mildly interesting to the clients. Outcome is all they care about. ‘Am I gonna be OK?’”

For more information and to attend the webinar Dec. 7, click here. Registration is ongoing and is free to attend. The webinar is the last of the RIA Labs for 2023.