When financial advisors evaluate TAMPs, they typically encounter a familiar trade-off: comprehensive programs that reshape their practice into a predetermined mold or flexible platforms that require extensive customization and integration work. SS&C Black Diamond has engineered a different approach that seamlessly merges its cutting-edge technology platform with the renowned service culture of SS&C ALPS Advisors, its investment management and trading partner.
In an interview with The Wealth Advisor’s Scott Martin, Eric Hewitt, CIO and Head of New Product Development at SS&C ALPS Advisors, discussed how the integration of ALPS’s investment management capabilities with the SS&C Black Diamond® Wealth Platform creates a unified opportunity for advisors to access institutional-quality asset management without sacrificing the flexibility to run their practice according to their own vision. Rather than requiring advisors to adapt to platform limitations, Black Diamond has built a system where the technology adapts to individual practice needs.
Breaking Down Traditional TAMP Boundaries
The conventional TAMP model often presents an all-or-nothing proposition that leaves advisors feeling constrained. Black Diamond and ALPS have teamed up to address this fundamental challenge by reimagining how advisors access investment management services. “We’ve taken the TAMP experience and unbundled it,” Hewitt says. “We generally don’t call ourselves a TAMP. We go by the different services that we provide for our clients.”
The platform’s architecture allows advisors to select specific services based on their practice requirements. Whether an advisor wants to handle model construction personally while outsourcing trading and rebalancing or prefers to leverage institutional models while maintaining control over client customization, the platform and ALPS accommodate both approaches. “Our clients shouldn’t fit into our platform,” Hewitt emphasizes. “We should fit into how they operate their practice.”
The flexibility extends to workflow management, where advisors can maintain their preferred operational processes while accessing enhanced capabilities. Most advisors utilize a combination approach, handling certain aspects of portfolio management internally while outsourcing others to the platform. The modular design aims to eliminate the friction typically associated with TAMP adoption, allowing practices to evolve their usage over time rather than requiring wholesale operational changes.
Seamless Integration Through Intentional Engineering
The technical integration between ALPS’s investment management expertise and Black Diamond’s platform reflects a deliberate engineering approach designed to eliminate the handoffs and disconnects that plague many advisor technology stacks. “From the beginning, when we started [the collaboration], everything that we’ve done has been intentional,” Hewitt notes.
The native integration occurs at the Black Diamond Investment Management Services suite level, which encompasses portfolio construction, rebalancing, model marketplaces, proposals, and managed account services. By embedding ALPS’s capabilities directly into these workflows, advisors access a single platform rather than managing multiple logins and interfaces. The user experience benefits from Black Diamond’s design philosophy, which Hewitt describes as “the Apple of the investment technology world.”
The technical architecture supports real-time data flow between portfolio management and client account information, enabling dynamic model updates and automated rebalancing across client accounts. The integrated approach eliminates data synchronization issues and reduces the administrative burden associated with managing separate systems, allowing advisors to focus on client-facing activities rather than technology management.
Model Marketplace Innovation and Third-Party Management
The model marketplace addresses common advisor pain points through curated design rather than overwhelming product catalogs. “We were specific about not cluttering up the model marketplace environment,” Hewitt says.
The platform operates on a “gold copy” principle, where master models serve as the authoritative source for all assigned accounts. When third-party managers update allocations or holdings, changes flow automatically to the gold copy and cascade to associated client accounts. The system scales from one account to thousands, eliminating manual update processes.
Black Diamond manages third-party relationships centrally, handling due diligence, model updates, and manager communication while advisors retain implementation control. Custom tenant functionality allows each firm to see only relevant models, creating personalized experiences that range from simple filtering to comprehensive proprietary strategies.
Advanced Tax Optimization and Direct Indexing Capabilities
Tax efficiency represents a critical differentiator for advisory practices, particularly when managing high-net-worth client portfolios. Black Diamond has embedded sophisticated tax intelligence throughout the platform, recognizing that client outcomes depend on after-tax returns rather than gross performance. “That’s something that’s come through loud and clear in our conversations with our clients,” Hewitt says.
The development team has concentrated significant resources on tax optimization functionality, including tax-loss harvesting capabilities that can free up other portfolio components for strategic rebalancing.
The direct indexing capabilities integrate seamlessly with existing custodial relationships, removing the need for separate account structures that complicate client relationships and operational workflows.
Tax optimization extends beyond simple loss harvesting to encompass broader portfolio management strategies. Advisors can substitute exchange-traded fund (ETF) positions with separately managed accounts (SMAs) for high-net-worth clients, accessing individual equity exposure while maintaining tax-optimized management. The platform’s intelligence layer manages the complexity of coordinating multiple account types and strategies while presenting a unified view to advisors and clients.
Customization Without Complexity
Customization capabilities range from model selection to comprehensive portfolio personalization. Advisors can modify institutional-quality models by adding alternative investments, substituting asset classes, or incorporating specialized mandates without losing the benefits of systematic rebalancing and model updates. The platform coordinates different components automatically while maintaining scalability.
Personalization is also incorporated into the advisor experience itself, where interface preferences, reporting formats, and workflow sequences can be tailored to match established practice operations. The platform learns from advisor usage patterns and can suggest optimizations that reduce time spent on routine tasks while preserving the control and oversight that advisors require.
“What we want to do is unclutter that shelf and make it more specific to the advisor’s needs,” explains Hewitt. “The starting point for us is a clean, simple, more targeted solution that fits the advisor’s practice. Then they can customize from there.”
Outsourced Chief Investment Officer Services
Beyond investment management capabilities offered through the Black Diamond platform, ALPS can provide comprehensive outsourced CIO (OCIO) options for advisors seeking deeper investment management support. The service encompasses capital markets assumptions, research, due diligence, and white-labeled research capabilities that can enhance an advisor’s investment offerings without requiring internal expertise development. “My research team, it’s their favorite part of their day, thinking about asset allocation, doing bespoke research for our clients,” Hewitt notes.
The OCIO services operate on a flexible engagement model where advisors can access specific expertise areas rather than committing to comprehensive outsourcing. Advisors might engage the research team for alternative investment due diligence while handling asset allocation internally or request custom research for client presentations while managing portfolios themselves.
The service model accommodates different advisor capabilities and preferences. Some advisors built their reputation on investment expertise and prefer direct control, while others focus on financial planning and client relationships by outsourcing investment management.
Innovation Pipeline and Future Development
Black Diamond and ALPs continue expanding platform capabilities based on advisor feedback and market demands. Current development includes expanding SMA options and custom index capabilities that allow firms to create proprietary, branded indices.
The platform offers ETF creation services for larger advisory firms with significant assets that can transform successful SMA strategies into exchange-traded funds. The capability allows firms to monetize their investment expertise while providing clients additional investment options.
“We’ve been packaging up SMAs and using our ETF background and issuing ETFs for our clients that they can offer both to their clients and external investors,” Hewitt explains. The development roadmap prioritizes advisor efficiency and client service enhancements, focusing on solving specific advisor challenges.
A New Standard for TAMP Integration
SS&C Black Diamond has fundamentally reimagined the TAMP relationship by eliminating the traditional balancing act between comprehensiveness and flexibility. The seamless integration of Black Diamond’s technology platform with ALPS’s investment management heritage creates a solution where advisors access institutional-quality capabilities without sacrificing practice autonomy.
The platform’s success stems from recognizing that advisory practices are inherently diverse, requiring technology solutions that adapt rather than constrain. By unbundling traditional TAMP services and offering flexible engagement models, Black Diamond allows advisors to evolve their technology usage as their practice grows and changes. The platform demonstrates that the future of TAMP services lies not in universal solutions but in adaptive platforms that enhance advisor capabilities while preserving the unique value each practice brings to its clients.
____________________
