Brokerages intensively deploy TAMP models, and the "core middle platform" for buy-side investment advisory transformation is here

Financial Association March 29 News (Reporter Wang Chen) In the wave of deepening public fund fee reforms, pilot projects for fund advisory moving towards normalization, and wealth management accelerating the switch to buy-side advisory, the TAMP (Turnkey Asset Management Platform) model, derived from mature overseas markets, is becoming an important testing ground for domestic brokerage firms’ wealth management transformation.

According to reports, several brokerages, including CITIC Securities, GF Securities, Guotai Junan Securities, Hua’an Securities, Guoyuan Securities, AVIC Securities, and Huatai Securities, have made clear plans for their layouts.

What is TAMP? Simply put, TAMP is a digital middle platform that provides “plug-and-play” solutions for front-line advisors by integrating the full spectrum of capabilities, including client management, asset allocation, trade execution, compliance risk control, investment research strategies, and operational clearing.

The brokerages interviewed generally indicated that the core value of TAMP lies in reducing the burden on advisors, enhancing service efficiency, and ensuring compliance, addressing current pain points such as advisors’ energy being consumed by a large amount of transactional work, limited service radius, and insufficient standardization. It is a key infrastructure for brokerages transitioning to buy-side advisory.

What exactly is TAMP?

TAMP stands for Turnkey Asset Management Platform, which is a segmented business model under the highly specialized division of labor in the wealth management industry. Unlike financial management apps directly aimed at investors, TAMP serves B-end practitioners such as investment advisors, financial planners, brokers, and family offices. It integrates front, middle, and back office capabilities through a one-stop platform, allowing advisors to achieve “plug-and-play” functionality.

“In simple terms, TAMP packages all the tools, processes, compliance, operations, and strategies needed for advisors to work, so advisors do not need to build systems, create reports, or handle compliance themselves, allowing them to focus on servicing clients,” a person from a brokerage’s wealth management department told Financial Association reporters.

Functionally, TAMP covers the entire chain from client management, risk assessment, asset allocation, strategy generation, trade execution, portfolio rebalancing, compliance risk control, performance attribution, report generation, operational clearing, to training support. Essentially, it is about outsourcing the middle and back office functions of advisory, improving efficiency in output per unit time.

After more than 30 years of development abroad, TAMP has formed a mature business model, primarily charging based on AUM, subscription fees, and fixed annual fees. Huabao Securities indicated that the domestic market is still in the early exploratory stage, transitioning from 1.0 fund distribution platforms and 2.0 tool-based service platforms to 3.0 comprehensive service platforms, without unified standards or mature profit models yet formed. However, the direction of platform-based, intensive, and fully entrusted services has gained industry consensus.

“TAMP is not just a simple system, but a complete ecological system that serves advisors and supports the buy-side advisory business model,” noted an interviewee from a brokerage. The core of domestic brokerages adopting TAMP is shifting the logic from “selling products” to “managing accounts,” transitioning from channel revenue to advisory fee income.

Brokerages Implementing TAMP Model at Multiple Points

Financial Association reporters learned that more than 10 brokerages are actively promoting the construction of TAMP or similar TAMP platforms, showcasing a pattern of leading firms independently developing while small and medium-sized institutions cooperate with third parties.

Leading brokerages leverage their advantages in capital, technology, licensing, and investment research to choose to build their own platforms, creating comprehensive closed-loop capabilities. Huatai Securities launched an advisor work cloud platform, Aorta, which, although not directly named TAMP, has integrated core modules such as customer relationship management, portfolio management, compliance risk control, and strategy support. It has also connected with the Changle Wealth App’s C-end platform, covering retail, high-net-worth, and institutional clients, becoming a benchmark for independent exploration in the industry.

“Our platform is positioned for internal empowerment + external openness. It not only serves our own advisors but also gradually outputs capabilities to partner institutions, making TAMP the core middle platform for wealth management,” revealed a person from a leading brokerage.

CITIC Securities, GF Securities, Guosen Securities, and Hua Xi Securities are all deeply laying out in the TAMP field, relying on the collaborative advantages of research, asset management, and wealth management to build an integrated advisory operation platform, promoting the upgrade from product distribution to account management. Guotai Junan Securities has partnered with Vertex Software to launch a dedicated TAMP platform, characterized by “consulting + technology” integration, achieving layered client reach, standardized services, optimized asset allocation, and full-process compliance risk control.

Hang Seng Electronics’ business experts also revealed to reporters that the company is developing a TAMP platform around “research-investment-advisory,” leveraging AI large models, which has been launched in several leading brokerages and banks. The platform provides dual digital support for KYP research and investment allocation and the advisory business development platform.

Small and medium-sized brokerages, constrained by research and development investments, technical reserves, and talent teams, tend to cooperate with mature third-party platforms to quickly fill capability gaps at low cost. Hua’an Securities, Guoyuan Securities, and AVIC Securities have all chosen to partner with Yingmi Fund to quickly implement closed-loop services for client management, strategy formulation, trade execution, and post-investment tracking by introducing TAMP systems.

“Developing TAMP in-house requires significant investment, long cycles, and high risks, which is unrealistic for small and medium-sized brokerages. Connecting to mature platforms quickly meets regulatory and business needs while allowing focus on client service and advisor capability development,” a wealth management person from a small brokerage told reporters.

From the perspective of implementation effectiveness, the efficiency of brokerage advisory operations has generally improved under the collaborative model, with significant improvements in the standardization of client suitability management, portfolio management, and post-investment services, laying a foundation for the transition to buy-side advisory.

Why TAMP Has Become an “Essential Need” for Brokerage Transformation

Currently, brokerages face multiple bottlenecks in wealth management transformation, while TAMP possesses strong adaptability in terms of efficiency, cost, compliance, and commercial model upgrades, and is viewed as a key solution to address industry pain points.

The most direct value is liberating advisors. Many industry insiders admit that in the traditional model, advisors expend a lot of energy on repetitive tasks such as data organization, report creation, order placement, and compliance documentation, leaving insufficient time for asset allocation, client engagement, and behavior guidance. TAMP automates back-office work through a middle platform, allowing advisors to return to their professional advisory roles.

Moreover, it significantly reduces costs and increases efficiency. Building a complete advisory system requires substantial investments in system development, research, compliance, and operational costs, with platform construction costs often exceeding tens of millions. TAMP achieves resource sharing and capability reuse through platformization, drastically reducing initial investments and ongoing operational costs, and quickly equips firms with the conditions for buy-side advisory development.

At the same time, TAMP can strengthen compliance guarantees. The requirements for suitability, portfolio operations, risk disclosure, and post-investment reporting in fund advisory businesses continue to increase. TAMP incorporates standardized processes, risk control models, compliance checkpoints, and full-process documentation, achieving full link control, reducing operational risks, and aligning with regulatory requirements for fiduciary duties.

More importantly, TAMP supports commercial model upgrades. In the context of reduced public offering fees, product distribution and trading commissions are continuously compressed, making the advisor service model based on AUM more sustainable. TAMP, centered on account management, asset allocation, and ongoing client engagement, naturally aligns with long-term service fee logic, driving brokerages’ revenue structure from short-term commissions to stable advisory fees.

(Financial Association Reporter Wang Chen)