Advyzon, a software company that wealth managers use to run their businesses, said on Tuesday that it has launched a turnkey asset management platform (TAMP) to help advisors build investment portfolios. The TAMP was a “natural evolution” for the company, an executive said, because Advyzon’s customers have expressed interest and other advisors are seeking similar solutions.
Almost all wealth management practices lack the necessary personnel to successfully build their own model portfolios and customize them for clients. Even if a group of advisors can do that, their time is often better spent with clients and growing their business. An increasing number of advisors have come to that conclusion and have begun outsourcing some or all their investment management duties to TAMPs.
TAMPs include a broad group of firms that range in size and offer different services. In addition to managing portfolios, the largest TAMPs have developed or added software that advisors need to run their businesses, making the turnkey solutions more all-encompassing.
With Advyzon, a Chicago-based company founded in 2012 by the former chief architect of Morningstar Office, advisors get portfolio management and reporting, billing, a customer relationship management system, document management, and other software. They can also now outsource much of their investing responsibilities through Advyzon Investment Management (AIM).
AIM offers risk-based, active and passive investment models that use mutual funds and ETFs, as well as a tax-sensitive ETF model, an ESG model, an alternative model, and separately managed accounts. Advisors also get tools and resources to help them optimize portfolios and take advantage of tax-loss harvesting.
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Other TAMPs offer similar features, but according to Lee Andreatta, AIM’s chief executive, Advyzon’s people and technology are what differentiate it. Brian Huckstep, the chief investment officer at AIM, previously spent 15 years as a senior portfolio manager and head of U.S. Asset Allocation at Morningstar, where he managed $14 billion in assets. Meghan Holmes, the chief operating officer at AIM, held a variety of roles at Schwab Advisor Services during her 14-year stint there.
Hailin Li, Advyzon’s founder and CEO, is a “second-to-none” technologist who has constructed a foundation that other TAMPs don’t have, Andreatta told RIA Intel. Advyzon has built all of its services, including AIM, from scratch, enabling it to create a better user experience for advisors. “Even well-fused software is imperfect because of their disparate data sets,” said Andreatta, who was previously the vice president of enterprise software, data, and consulting services at Morningstar, and who also worked at FolioDynamix, a portfolio management software company acquired by Envestnet in 2017.
Some of the largest TAMPs, including Envestnet, have been formed with the help of mergers and acquisitions. In 2020, a frenzied interest in TAMPs developed after Genstar Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, announced that it had purchased a stake in Orion Advisor Solutions and planned to merge it with Brinker Capital.
Advyzon is also a “mission-driven” company focused on helping advisors do the best they can for investors, a philosophy that Andreatta said resonates with the 1,100 wealth managers who use the software. Advyzon is not a subsidiary of an asset manager or owned by outside investors.
“We’re truly independent,” Andreatta said. “We’re a true fiduciary in its purest sense, and the [AIM] models…are our version of the best foot forward as a fiduciary.”
Michael Thrasher (@Mike_Thrasher) is the editor of RIA Intel and based in New York City.
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