Merriam-Webster defines turnkey as complete and ready to operate. When evaluating turnkey asset management platforms (TAMPS), advisors must be on guard for cases where the label turnkey has been liberally applied. 

According to "Pensions & Investments," demand for outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) services by institutional investors has surged by 86% since 2017. Why? Because investing has become much more complicated and, coupled with the increased volatility of the markets, doing it properly demands more time and focus from advisors, time that they don’t have or would rather spend growing the business and helping clients realize their financial goals.

Every independent advisor confronts the need to add additional staff at some point in their career. The demands to effectively serve and advise a growing clientele and meet increasing regulatory requirements warrant offloading many tasks advisors handle themselves.

A number of powerful undeniable factors continue to drive financial advisor demand for a truly independent, modern and flexible investment management platform. Most prevalent among these factors is advisor need to escape stifling bureaucracy.

“The platform that makes it easy to do business the way I determine is best for my clients and that helps me build equity value in my practice will be my partner.”

Cobbling together multiple systems from different companies, including corporate RIAs, custodians, asset managers, and software applications is consuming precious time advisors should be spending advising investors. But as trusted stewards of client investment portfolios, the critical operational, administrative, and compliance functions must be completed precisely with great care. Someone must do this time-consuming work, but it does not have to be the advisor personally.