AssetMark buys $9.5 billion TAMP business from Vestmark

Portfolio management and trading software Vestmark is selling Adhesion Wealth, its turnkey asset management platform for registered investment advisers, to another TAMP, AssetMark Financial Holdings Inc.

AssetMark will take ownership of Adhesion, which manages $9.5 billion in client assets, according to its most recently filed Form ADV. AssetMark listed $90.8 billion of assets across its business as of March 31.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2022; terms were not disclosed.

Last August, AssetMark CEO Natalie Wolfsen had said the company would be an active acquirer of technology companies and could look to pick up some smaller TAMPs.

Adhesion expands AssetMark’s ability to serve the RIA market, Wolfsen said in a statement. Adhesion claims to serve 2,800 fee-based advisers across 180 RIAs, and has a model marketplace with more than 400 asset managers and strategist that can complement AssetMark’s existing suite of services for RIAs.

“Meeting financial advisors where they are and helping them maximize their potential is a key tenet of AssetMark’s strategy,” Wolfsen said in the statement. “As advisors accelerate their growth by increasing the services they provide clients, the addition of Adhesion Wealth further strengthens our ability to serve the rapidly expanding RIA market with an ecosystem of flexible, purpose-built solutions that drive growth, efficiency and scale.”

AssetMark and Adhesion will continue to use technology provided by Vestmark, which acquired Adhesion in 2018 but has been looking for a buyer since February, according to Citywire. Vestmark didn't respond to a request for comment.

The deal comes as Orion Advisor Solutions, a competing portfolio management fintech, is rapidly growing its TAMP business. Orion acquired boutique investment and trading firm TownSquare capital in May, bringing the total assets on the Orion TAMP to $60 billion.

There are $3 trillion in assets managed by TAMPs, a figure that's only expected to grow, according to a report by The Wealth Advisor. In a ranking of the top 25 TAMPs, Wealth Advisor named Morningstar’s Managed Advisor Wealth Platform the all-around best TAMP, followed by AssetMark and Orion.