Why a TAMP's 13F Looks Different From a Single RIA's

Two large institutional 13F filings disclose roughly $147 billion and $373 billion in US equity holdings. Both look like RIA-style books at first glance — top of book is ETFs, the long tail is individual stocks, no concentrated single-name conviction bets. But one filing has a top-10 concentration of 44.9% and the other has 22.7%. Reading the same way, you'd say the second one is more diversified or more passive. That reading misses the actual structural difference: one filing aggregates across thousands of independent advisors, and the other reflects one firm's model portfolio.

The first filing is Creative Planning at $147.4B / 2026Q1. The second is Envestnet Asset Management at $373.6B / 2026Q1. After reading this article, you should be able to identify a TAMP (turnkey asset management platform) 13F vs a single-firm RIA 13F within 30 seconds of opening the filing.

What Is a TAMP?

A turnkey asset management platform (TAMP) is technology + investment infrastructure that independent financial advisors use to manage client portfolios. The TAMP provides:

• Trading and rebalancing infrastructure — automated drift management, tax-loss harvesting, model portfolio implementation.
• Model portfolio menus — pre-built allocation templates that advisors can adopt for client mandates (e.g., "60/40 Growth Conservative," "All-Cap Value with International Tilt").
• Custodial integration — connections to Schwab, Fidelity, Pershing, and other custodians for asset safekeeping.
• Reporting and billing — performance reporting, fee billing, compliance recordkeeping.

The advisor signs up for the platform, picks which model portfolios to use, and applies them to client accounts. Discretionary investment authority for the underlying client assets generally rests with the TAMP because the TAMP executes the trades — even though the advisor selected the model portfolio. This regulatory arrangement is what creates the 13F filing obligation at the TAMP level.

Envestnet is the largest TAMP in the US by assets under management on its platform. Other notable TAMPs: AssetMark, Orion, SEI Investments, Russell Investments, AdvisorPort.

What Is a Single-Firm RIA?

A registered investment advisor (RIA) provides direct discretionary asset management services to clients. The RIA designs model portfolios, executes trades, and serves clients directly through its own advisor staff. The 13F reflects the RIA's firm-level allocation decisions applied across its client base.

Creative Planning is the largest independent RIA in the US by assets under management. The firm is led by Peter Mallouk and serves wealth-management clients with discretionary asset allocation across thousands of accounts.

The Structural Differences in the 13F

The same regulation (Form 13F-HR) produces visibly different filings between a TAMP and a single-firm RIA because of the underlying business model difference. Three reliable signals:

Signal 1: Top-10 Concentration

Filer Type	Top-10 Concentration	Why
Single-firm RIA	40-50%	One model portfolio applied to all clients clusters ETF allocations at the top
TAMP aggregator	20-30%	Thousands of advisors with different model preferences diversify the aggregate
Hedge fund	60%+	Concentrated stock-picking by design
Sovereign passive	30-40%	Index-cap weight at top of book

Creative Planning at 44.9% top-10 vs Envestnet at 22.7% top-10 fits the pattern exactly.

Signal 2: Position Count vs AUM

• Single-firm RIA: Position count tends to scale roughly linearly with AUM. Creative Planning at $147B has 4,753 positions — roughly one position per $31M of AUM.
• TAMP aggregator: Position count saturates earlier because thousands of advisors hold overlapping individual stocks for SMA mandates. Envestnet at $373B has 4,703 positions — roughly one position per $79M of AUM, more than twice the AUM density per position.
• Hedge fund: 30-300 positions at any AUM scale.
• Sovereign passive: 1,500-3,000 positions, index-aligned distribution.

Signal 3: Style Co-occurrence

The most distinctive signature of a TAMP is the simultaneous presence of style-opposed ETFs at top-of-book size. Envestnet's 2026Q1 disclosure shows:

• IVE (iShares S&P 500 Value) at $5.86B (1.57% of book)
• IVW (iShares S&P 500 Growth) at $5.58B (1.49% of book)

Combined they are 3.06% of the book. A single-firm RIA would choose one style tilt or the other for its model portfolio. A TAMP has both because some platform-advisors prefer Value and others prefer Growth. The simultaneous co-occurrence at meaningful weight is the cleanest TAMP fingerprint available.

Compare against Creative Planning's 2026Q1 disclosure, which shows IVV (broad S&P 500) at $15.69B but no separate style-split positions at comparable size. The single-firm RIA does not need to express both Value and Growth simultaneously because its model portfolios all share the same style framework.

What the TAMP Filing Is Actually Telling You

The Envestnet disclosure is a structurally unique source of information: it captures advisor-level allocation decisions in aggregate. Three useful reads:

• Style sentiment. If IVE materially outgrows IVW quarter-over-quarter, the platform's advisors are rotating toward Value. If IVW outgrows IVE, the rotation is toward Growth. This is a clean read of independent-advisor industry style preference that is not available anywhere else.
• Active ETF adoption. The DYNF position ($6.34B / 1.70%) — BlackRock's Dynamic Megacap actively-managed ETF — at top-of-book size means the platform's advisors are meaningfully adopting active-ETF strategies. The growth rate of DYNF over time is the industry signal.
• International / EM allocation drift. The combined IEMG + VEA + IEFA allocation at ~6-7% reflects the platform's advisor base's structural international weighting. Quarter-over-quarter changes signal macro-allocation sentiment shifts.

What the Single-Firm RIA Filing Tells You

The Creative Planning disclosure is different: it captures one firm's model portfolio choices applied to its discretionary client base. Useful reads:

• House-level allocation framework. The firm's preferred ETF lineup (IVV, BND, VEA, SPDW, SPMD, IEMG, VV) is the literal model portfolio. Changes in these weights are deliberate house-level decisions, not aggregated advisor sentiment.
• Bond allocation as macro signal. Creative Planning's BND weight (6.5% in 2026Q1) is a duration-positioning decision at the firm level. A shift toward TLT or a trim of BND would signal a deliberate macro framework change.
• SMA-tail composition. The 4,743 long-tail positions reflect tax-loss harvesting, legacy concentrated positions, and client-specific holdings. Quarter-over-quarter shifts here are mostly client-flow-driven.

30-Second Triage

1. Open the filer's 13F summary. Note AUM, position count, top-10 concentration.
2. Check for style co-occurrence. If you see IVE + IVW at comparable weights, or VBR (small-cap value) + VBK (small-cap growth) simultaneously, it's a TAMP.
3. Compute AUM-per-position. < $30M per position = single-firm RIA. $50M+ per position = TAMP aggregator.
4. Look at the firm name. "Wealth Management," "Capital Planning," "Private Wealth" → single-firm RIA. "Asset Management Inc" attached to a platform / technology brand → likely TAMP.

The full taxonomy is in the platform's filer-type classification — see the Learn library for related explainers on how to read different kinds of institutional 13Fs.

FAQ

What is a TAMP?

A turnkey asset management platform (TAMP) provides technology and investment infrastructure that independent financial advisors use to manage client portfolios. TAMPs offer model portfolios, automated rebalancing, custodial integration, and reporting. They file 13F at the platform level because discretionary trading authority rests with the TAMP for accounts using its model portfolios.

What is the difference between a TAMP and an RIA?

A registered investment advisor (RIA) provides direct discretionary asset management to clients through its own advisor staff. A TAMP provides infrastructure that independent advisors use to manage their own clients. The TAMP's 13F aggregates across thousands of advisors with different model preferences; the single-firm RIA's 13F reflects one firm's house-level model portfolio choices.

Which TAMP files the largest 13F?

Envestnet Asset Management Inc is the largest TAMP by assets under management on its platform. Its 2026Q1 13F filing disclosed $373.58 billion across 4,703 positions. Other notable TAMPs include AssetMark, Orion, SEI Investments, and Russell Investments.

What is Creative Planning?

Creative Planning is the largest independent RIA in the US by assets under management. Led by Peter Mallouk, the firm provides direct discretionary wealth-management services to thousands of high-net-worth client accounts. Its 2026Q1 13F disclosed $147.42 billion across 4,753 positions reflecting the firm's house-level model portfolio choices.

How can I tell if a 13F is a TAMP or an RIA?

Check top-10 concentration (20-30% for TAMP, 40-50% for RIA), AUM-per-position ratio ($50M+ for TAMP, sub-$30M for RIA), and style-pair co-occurrence (TAMPs hold both Value and Growth ETFs at top-of-book size; single-firm RIAs choose one style). The platform-level filer-type classification on 13F Insight also distinguishes the two.

Why does a TAMP hold both Value and Growth ETFs?

A TAMP aggregates across thousands of independent advisors with different style preferences. Some platform advisors prefer Value-tilted model portfolios (using IVE), and others prefer Growth-tilted model portfolios (using IVW). The TAMP's 13F captures both simultaneously at meaningful weight because the underlying advisor base disagrees on style — and the disagreement is the structural feature of the platform.