5 Red Flags to Avoid When Choosing a TAMP

As the independent wealth management landscape continues to evolve, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing market and economic uncertainty, the value that a financial advisor provides changes with it. Today’s advisor is expected to be a financial planner, guidance counselor, confidant and goalkeeper across the client’s entire book of business.

And for most advisors, building those client relationships is their greatest strength. It’s how they ultimately drive the loyalty, retention and referrals that contribute to business growth.

But to focus on those client relationships, something has to give. Financial advisors, many of whom are also small-business owners, can’t afford to spend the majority of their time managing tedious back-office functionality — or hiring, onboarding and training employees to do it for them.

Advisors are facing ever-increasing competition from other RIAs and their robo counterparts. The recent hiring environment has added further complications. These dynamics make it critical to find ways to offload lower-value tasks without adding manual labor or having to spend the time vetting, implementing and maintaining technology.

Working with a turnkey asset management platform — TAMP for short — enables financial advisors to focus on providing holistic, professional guidance and support to their clients. How? The TAMP takes on those less valuable but still business-critical middle- and back-office tasks.

But not all TAMPs are created equal. To effectively drive the focus and competitive advantage today’s advisor needs, it’s important to know what to look for — and what to stay away from — in a TAMP partner.

Follow our guide to avoid the five most common red flags we see in the TAMP space.

Colin Falls is president of GeoWealth.