What Would You Do With 9 Extra Hours a Week?

Key Takeaways

Advisors outsourcing at least 20% of assets reported saving 9.1 hours per week, or approximately 473 hours annually.
WisdomTree research found 90% of investors welcomed third-party model portfolios, suggesting clients may be more comfortable with outside expertise than advisors expect.
Outsourcing creates capacity, but advisors determine its value by redirecting reclaimed time toward planning, client relationships, prospecting and more complex needs.

Nine hours.

That number jumped off the page when I reviewed AssetMark’s 2026 Impact of Outsourcing Study.

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Advisors outsourcing investment management for at least 20% of their assets reported saving an average of 9.1 hours per week.¹ Annualize that and you get approximately 473 hours, or nearly 12 standard 40-hour workweeks.

I’m passionate about this topic because I think we sometimes talk about outsourcing the wrong way.

The conversation often starts with portfolios: Who builds them? Who trades them? Who rebalances them?

Those are important questions.

But I believe the more strategic question is:

What are you going to do with the time you get back?

Because outsourcing creates capacity. It does not automatically create growth.

Think Like a Financial MD

I’ve previously written about what I call the Financial MD: an advisor who remains responsible for diagnosing a client’s needs, exercising judgment, coordinating resources and communicating the plan, while leveraging specialists where appropriate.

I continue to believe this is where our industry is headed.

Clients have functional needs: portfolio construction, trading, rebalancing and implementation.

They also have emotional needs: reassurance, clarity and behavioral guidance.

And then there are life-changing needs: retirement decisions, estate planning, family conversations and navigating major financial transitions.

Technology, model portfolios, SMAs and institutional investment resources can increasingly assist with that functional layer.

But they cannot replace the advisor who knows the family.

That distinction matters.

Delegating a portion of investment management does not mean delegating responsibility. In my view, it gives advisors an opportunity to concentrate their judgment where it can matter most.

Investors Are More Comfortable with Expertise Than Advisors May Think

One concern I’ve heard repeatedly over the years is that clients expect their advisor to manage everything internally.

Our research suggests otherwise.

WisdomTree’s proprietary research found that 90% of investors welcomed the use of third-party model portfolios. Additionally, 70% believed models may positively impact their overall portfolio, while 68% believed advisors using third-party models were providing a more sophisticated asset allocation approach backed by an asset manager’s research and technology.²

Models can give advisors access to institutional investment expertise, research and technology that would be difficult to replicate on their own.

That leads to an important mindset shift: many investors view outside expertise as an additional resource their advisor is accessing for them.

The Outsourcing Dividend

The potential benefits appear to extend beyond time savings.

In AssetMark’s 2026 study, 92% of advisors outsourcing investment management reported improved client retention, while 86% reported a greater ability to attract and serve high-net-worth clients. Advisors outsourcing nearly all their assets also reported almost three times the average weekly time savings reported by advisors outsourcing less than 20%.³

To me, this is where the outsourcing conversation gets much more interesting.

Creating capacity is step one. What matters next is whether advisors use that capacity to strengthen relationships, serve more complex clients and create opportunities for growth.

That brings us to the part advisors can actually control: what they do with the time they get back.

Turn Capacity into Something Valuable

Getting nine hours back is great.

Wasting those nine hours on more meetings, email and administrative work defeats the purpose.

If I were evaluating outsourcing inside an advisory practice, I would think about converting capacity in four steps.

Delegate deliberately. Identify recurring investment responsibilities that consume meaningful time without meaningfully differentiating the client experience.

Protect the time. If reclaimed hours aren’t intentionally reserved, the day-to-day demands of running a practice will quickly consume them.

Redirect the capacity. Put that time toward financial planning, proactive client conversations, family meetings, prospecting, centers of influence and deeper high-net-worth relationships.

Measure it. Track what happens: planning engagement, review coverage, referrals, prospect meetings, retention and penetration within larger relationships.

That last step is critical.

The goal isn’t to outsource more. The goal is to make the advisor more valuable.

Where the Financial MD Becomes Most Valuable

This becomes especially relevant as client complexity increases.

Affluent and high-net-worth families may need help coordinating taxes, estate planning, concentrated positions, liquidity events, multiple generations and outside professionals.

No advisor needs to personally perform every specialized function.

What clients need is someone who understands the full picture, knows which resources to bring in and remains accountable for coordinating the experience.

That, to me, is the Financial MD.

And that is why I view capacity as such a strategic resource.

The ultimate measure of outsourcing isn’t simply whether fewer hours are spent managing investments.

It’s whether those hours are reinvested into something clients value more.

Outsourcing creates the capacity. Advisors decide what that capacity becomes.

Continue the conversation at WisdomTree’s 3rd Annual Portfolio Solutions Summit on October 15. We’ll cover how advisors can leverage solutions across the whole portfolio, along with our latest market views and how they are reflected across WisdomTree’s model portfolios.

Register here.

¹AssetMark, 2026 Impact of Outsourcing Study. Conducted by 8 Acre Perspective among 745 financial advisors in March and April 2026.

²WisdomTree Models Research Initiative / 2020 WisdomTree Research Study.

³AssetMark, 2026 Impact of Outsourcing Study.

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