In today’s wealth management landscape, OCIOs and asset managers sit at the center of immense value creation. They shape research, design models, and define investment philosophies — but too often, those insights never make it to the client portfolio. Advisors remain disconnected from enterprise guidance, and the impact of well-intentioned research gets lost in translation.
This is the gap Sage was built to close.
Many firms invest heavily in model portfolios, research reports, and thought leadership. But what happens next?
The truth is: advisors don’t always use models. And they have good reasons.
- They want control. Advisors pride themselves on tailoring solutions. Standardized models can feel impersonal or restrictive — especially for top-tier clients.1
- Industry trends confirm this shift toward customization. According to a 2024 State Street Global Advisors report, the number of advisors who selectively customize models or alternate between model portfolios and custom-built solutions has nearly doubled since 2019 — from 25% to 49%. At the same time, reliance on core model portfolios has fallen by 15%.2 These numbers tell a clear story: advisors want to maintain discretion while still benefiting from enterprise research. Customization isn’t just preferred — it’s becoming the standard.
- Customization is non-negotiable. A WealthManagement.com survey found that many advisors prefer SMAs over models, citing “limited flexibility” and “higher fees” as key reasons.3
- Transparency is essential. If advisors don’t fully understand or trust what’s inside a model, they won’t risk presenting it to a client.
- Client expectations aren’t always aligned. According to Advisor Perspectives, advisors may struggle to explain model value in a way that resonates — so they skip it altogether.
So while firms may publish guardrails and investment philosophies, they often fail to reach the portfolio level. This is the last-mile problem.
For OCIOs and asset managers, this creates a persistent challenge: they know personalization scales trust, but delivering it efficiently has been near impossible.
Even elite consulting teams, with well-earned credibility, struggle to keep up. Spreadsheets, manual workflows, and long turnaround times limit how many advisors they can reach — and how many assets they can influence.
It’s not just about building great portfolios. It’s about getting those portfolios adopted.
Enter Sage: Built for Real-World Adoption
Sage is a collection of intelligent agents trained to deliver tailored, enterprise-aligned guidance that advisors will actually use.
Here’s how it works:
- Advisor Input: Sage gathers insights from advisor preferences, client needs, and historical behaviors.
- Enterprise Guidance: It embeds your research, models, and priorities from the home office or OCIO team.
- AI-Driven Matching: TIFIN’s proprietary AI creates portfolio recommendations, narrative context, and alerts — tailored to the advisor’s unique approach.
All of this gets delivered directly to the advisor, tailored across their book of business and personalized down to the individual client level. Sage doesn’t ask advisors to change how they work — it enhances it.
For OCIO teams and asset managers, Sage isn’t just about doing the same work faster. It’s about driving better results:
- 75% faster turnaround times
- 4x advisor reach with the same consulting staff
- Deeper advisor buy-in, with content that is customized — not canned
Sage makes it possible to scale personalization without losing the human element. That’s why it resonates where other tech falls short.
Sage shifts the narrative. This isn’t about flooding advisors with more content — it’s about giving them recommendations they understand, trust, and want to use. It respects advisor autonomy. It honors enterprise philosophy. And it turns research into action at scale.
Because the best model portfolios are the ones that actually make it into the client conversation.
2SSGA