Amplify & Ned Davis Research launch managed portfolios

Amplify has partnered with Ned Davis Research to offer managed portfolios to financial advisers through its platform. The arrangement brings Ned Davis Research investment models to advisers using multiple custodial platforms.

The service is designed to let advisers apply Ned Davis Research models across client accounts while handing trading, rebalancing, and performance reporting to Amplify. That shifts day-to-day portfolio administration away from advisers, who continue to manage client relationships and broader investment strategy.

The partnership links a technology provider serving wealth management firms with an independent investment research house known for institutional market analysis. It reflects a broader push in the advice sector to combine model-based investing with outsourced operations as firms seek to reduce manual work and standardise portfolio delivery.

Under the arrangement, Ned Davis Research provides model portfolios based on its market research, while Amplify handles implementation across custodians. This removes the need for advisers to build and maintain comparable models internally if they want to use the research in client accounts.

Amplify positions itself as a platform for registered investment advisers, broker-dealers, TAMPs, and multi-family offices. Its system includes client onboarding, model marketplace access, trading, surveillance, billing, analytics, and reporting.

Ned Davis Research has built its business around market and investment research used by institutional and advisory clients. Here, its models are being delivered in a format that can be used as a managed portfolio service rather than as research alone.

The offering is aimed at advisers seeking to combine external research with outsourced portfolio operations. In practice, that means advisers can retain client relationships while passing execution and account-level maintenance to a third-party platform.

Aaron Brodt, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Amplify, described the operational focus behind the deal.

"We're focused on helping advisors reduce the operational burden of building and managing portfolios so they can dedicate more time to the work that creates the greatest value for clients," Brodt said.

"By combining Ned Davis Research's trusted investment expertise with Amplify's turnkey execution capabilities, we're making it easier for advisors to deliver sophisticated portfolio solutions at scale," he added.

The partnership also gives Ned Davis Research another route into the adviser market through a platform-based distribution model. Instead of requiring firms to translate research into portfolios and run them internally, the company can place its models directly into advisers' operating workflows.

Brian Sanborn, CFA, Global Head of Investment Solutions at Ned Davis Research, said the move was intended to make that research easier to apply in practice.

"Our team has spent decades helping advisors make more informed investment decisions through objective, data-driven research," Sanborn said.

"Through our partnership with Amplify, advisors can now put that research to work with professionally managed portfolios while maintaining the flexibility and client relationships that define their practices," he added.

The structure of the arrangement also sheds light on how such platform partnerships are commercialised in the wealth management market. Disclosure accompanying the announcement said Ned Davis Research compensates Amplify based on a percentage of assets under management using Ned Davis Research model portfolios on the platform, in exchange for access, distribution support, and administrative services.

That model is common in parts of the advisory ecosystem, where research firms, model providers, and technology platforms increasingly work together to broaden distribution and simplify implementation. For advisers, the appeal often lies in reducing in-house operational demands while maintaining a consistent investment approach across a growing client base.

Amplify said its platform is built around a cloud-based, multi-custodial framework, allowing advisers to use the service across different custodians rather than being tied to one provider. That interoperability is central to the pitch for firms that manage assets in several places and want a single operational layer for model implementation.

For Ned Davis Research, the partnership extends its presence beyond research delivery into model execution. For Amplify, it adds a recognised research brand to its model offering for advisers seeking externally developed portfolio strategies.

Advisers will continue to lead client relationships and investment strategy, while Amplify manages trading, rebalancing, and performance reporting across client accounts.