Scott MacKillop, the turnkey asset management platform pioneer who left GeoWealth earlier this year, has joined the board of WealthTech Strategy Partners as a senior advisor focused on building out the investment bank’s TAMP-related work.
In the new role, MacKillop will join five other senior advisors at the investment bank, which is solely focused on wealthtech and led by co-founder and CEO Kendrick Wakeman. Founded in 2023, the Boston-based firm specializes in capital raising, strategic partnerships, startup acquisitions and venture capital deals.
MacKillop was CEO of First Ascent Asset Management, which he founded in 2016 to introduce flat-fee investment management to the market. He sold that firm to GeoWealth in 2023, telling WealthManagement.com in January of this year he was leaving the company because the integration of the two firms was complete. He also said he would look for opportunities to work with firms doing “positive” work in the space and was not interested in starting his own firm.
MacKillop said he met Wakeman about 15 years ago and had always considered him “one of the smartest” people in the space as well as “thoughtful” about the industry.
“A lot of the things happening now in the wealth management space are related to technology, and Wealthtech Strategy Partners is right in the middle of that,” he said.
TAMPs have grown in use among financial advisors in recent years as a way to help simplify portfolio management. The market has ballooned to more than $2 trillion in assets, according to the most recent 2024 report by research and analytics firm Aranca. First Ascent had about 80 RIAs on the platform and $1.4 billion in assets when GeoWealth acquired it.
When it comes to advising on TAMPs, MacKillop sees several interesting areas, including the potential for continued growth as advisors look for ways to streamline.
“Advisors are being called on to do more and more and more,” he said. “Any form of outsourced solutions management they can avail themselves of will be increasingly important.”
He also sees the TAMP space fragmenting in an “interesting” way, with fund strategists overseeing what he called “giant, supermarket-type platforms.” While they still work with advisors, they also compete with massive asset managers like BlackRock and Goldman Sachs against near-free model portfolios (minus internal expense ratios).
“All of those people have to figure out how they play in the space,” he said. “They need to figure out what their role will be and how they will differentiate and stand out.”
He also pointed to the rise of “technology TAMPs,” or firms building out their own systems to support the bigger platforms with multiple manager options. His former firm, GeoWealth, and providers like Envestnet and Orion are pushing ahead in this area.
Finally, there is the capital and M&A that will play a role in shaping the sector.
“There is a lot of capital sitting on the sidelines that wants to be in this space,” he said. “This gives me an opportunity to be part of that and maybe influence how it all comes together.”
Prior to First Ascent, MacKillop had been president at a variety of financial services and TAMP firms, including Frontier Asset Management, US Fiduciary Services, Trivium Consulting, Portfolio Management Consultants and ADAM Investment Services.
In addition to the advisory role, he will continue serving on the board of directors for the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard.
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