Key Takeaways
- Outsources investment management and back-office tasks.
- Advisors keep client oversight and regulatory control.
- Fees range from 0.85% to 2.80% AUM.
- Supports scalable, cost-effective portfolio management.
What is Turnkey Asset Management Program (TAMP)?
A Turnkey Asset Management Program (TAMP) is a technology-driven platform that outsources investment management, portfolio allocation, reporting, and compliance, allowing financial advisors and institutions to focus on client relationships without managing back-office complexities. TAMPs streamline tasks such as trade execution and account reconciliation, often integrating with custodians for seamless asset movement.
These platforms support a broad range of strategies including ETFs, mutual funds, and separately managed accounts, making them a versatile tool for wealth management professionals. Understanding how TAMPs operate can help you optimize your advisory services and client outcomes.
Key Characteristics
TAMPs offer a comprehensive, scalable solution with distinct features suited for various advisory needs:
- Outsourced Investment Management: Delegates research, portfolio construction, and rebalancing to specialized providers, reducing advisor workload while maintaining oversight.
- Integrated Backoffice Support: Handles critical functions like backoffice operations, billing, and regulatory reporting efficiently.
- Flexible Investment Vehicles: Includes options such as unified managed accounts and ETF wraps, enabling customized portfolio construction aligned with client goals.
- Fee Structures: Typically ranges from 0.85% to 2.8% of assets under management, varying by service scope and scale.
- Technology-Enabled Client Portals: Provides transparency and real-time reporting, enhancing client engagement and satisfaction.
How It Works
Advisors select from a variety of model portfolios or strategies available on the TAMP platform, such as tactical asset allocation approaches that adjust exposure based on market conditions. Once chosen, the TAMP executes trades, manages rebalancing, and handles tax optimization, while the advisor retains control and responsibility for client relationships.
These platforms often integrate with custodians and utilize automation to streamline processes like trade reconciliation and billing, freeing advisors to focus on financial planning and growth. The turnkey nature means you don’t need to build or maintain complex infrastructure, leveraging economies of scale and institutional expertise instead.
Examples and Use Cases
TAMPs serve a wide spectrum of clients and advisory models, from mass affluent to ultra-high-net-worth households:
- Family Offices: Unified managed households allow comprehensive management across multiple family members' portfolios.
- High Net-Worth Individuals: Use of segregated managed accounts supports tailored investment strategies with tax efficiency.
- Financial Advisors: Benefit from outsourcing complex portfolio management to focus on client acquisition and service.
- Corporate Entities: Companies like Delta rely on specialized asset management platforms to optimize their investment holdings and cash management.
Important Considerations
When evaluating a TAMP, consider compatibility with your custodian and the diversity of available investment strategies to ensure alignment with your clients’ needs. The quality of technology infrastructure and support services directly impacts operational efficiency and client satisfaction.
Fees should be weighed against the value added through time savings, risk mitigation, and access to institutional-quality research. Additionally, understanding how tactical asset allocation is implemented within portfolios can provide insights into potential performance and risk profiles.
Final Words
Turnkey Asset Management Programs streamline portfolio management and back-office tasks, allowing you to focus on client relationships while leveraging specialized investment expertise. To determine if a TAMP fits your business, compare platforms’ fees and services to find the best match for your clients’ needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
A TAMP is a technology platform that outsources investment management, portfolio allocation, reporting, and compliance tasks to specialized providers, allowing financial advisors to focus on client relationships and business growth.
TAMPs handle back-office functions like trade execution, tax optimization, and regulatory reporting, freeing advisors from operational burdens. They also transfer investment performance liability to the TAMP, while advisors maintain client relationships.
Advisors can choose from over 500 institutional strategies including ETFs, mutual funds, equities, bonds, separate managed accounts, and fixed income options, often integrated with client portals and held-away account tools.
There are product TAMPs that offer proprietary strategies and in-house research, and platform TAMPs that serve as technology hubs for third-party strategists and models, providing a wide range of investment options.
TAMP fees generally range from 0.85% to 2.80% of assets under management, depending on the scale and specific services provided by the platform.
Yes, TAMPs are scalable to serve clients from mass-market to ultra-high-net-worth families, offering solutions like unified managed accounts and households tailored for individual or family portfolios.
TAMPs often integrate directly with custodians for seamless asset movement and provide a single platform where advisors can submit client strategies that the TAMP executes as a sub-advisor.
Using a TAMP saves costs associated with building in-house systems, reduces operational risks, improves scalability, and lets advisors focus more on client acquisition and personalized financial planning.

