Glossary · Firm structure
A TAMP takes some or all of the investment operation off an advisory firm's desk — model management, trading, rebalancing, reporting and usually billing — and runs it centrally.
The word covers four arrangements with little in common: a model marketplace, an overlay manager, a platform, and an operating partner. Firms shopping for the last frequently buy the third, because both are sold with the same word.
One question separates them: after we sign, who actually does the work? If the answer is a screen, you bought software. If it is a named person, you bought an operating partner.