Autor: Rainer Michael Preiss, Partner & Portfolio Strategist at Das Family Office in Singapore

Just because you have some money today does not mean you can always maintain your wealth. With the wrong bank and wrong sales driven portfolio some clients could become poorer than the ever feared or could imagine.

Wall street runs on narratives and before AI became a buzz word, old fashioned banks and bankers advocated the 60-40 portfolio approach, as the world and financial markets have evolved, in an increasingly trumped World. TPA is the new important concept investors and private clients should be aware off., in order to prosper and to maintain wealth in an increasingly trumped world.

In an era marked by geopolitical uncertainty, climate transition, global value-chain realignment, and shifting macroeconomic regimes, traditional investment frameworks—such as the 60/40 balanced portfolio or silo-based Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA)—are increasingly challenged.

Professional investors, sovereign wealth funds, advanced family offices, and sophisticated multi-asset managers are adopting a more flexible decision-making system known as the Total Portfolio Approach (TPA). First implemented at leading sovereign funds such as the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZ Super), TPA has since spread to private wealth platforms, endowments, and institutional allocators.

TPA represents a shift from asset-class ownership to total-portfolio problem solving, emphasizing risk, mission alignment, long-term real returns, and flexibility.

TPA can stand for both Third-Party Asset Allocation / Advisor (TPA) as well as Total Portfolio Approach

TPA in Asset Allocation

1. Third-Party Asset Allocation / Advisor (TPA)

In wealth and investment management, a TPA often refers to a Third-Party Advisor or Third-Party Asset Manager — an external specialist who designs or manages an asset allocation strategy for a client or institution.

• Key points:
• Used by private banks, family offices, and pension funds to outsource or benchmark portfolio construction.
• The TPA typically provides strategic asset allocation (SAA), tactical asset allocation (TAA), and manager selection.
• Examples of TPA providers: BlackRock Solutions, Mercer, Russell Investments, SEI.
• Advantages:
• Access to specialist expertise and quantitative models.
• Independent view separate from a bank’s product bias.
• Scalability for smaller institutions or family offices without internal CIO teams.
• Disadvantages:
• Added cost layer (advisory or management fee).
• Possible misalignment of incentives if not fiduciary.
• Limited customization unless using segregated mandates.

2. Total Portfolio Approach (TPA)

In modern portfolio theory, TPA may also mean the Total Portfolio Approach — a holistic method that integrates all asset classes (public, private, liquid, illiquid) into a unified risk-return framework.

• Core idea:
• Instead of siloing portfolios (e.g., ‘equities,’ ‘fixed income,’ ‘alternatives’), all assets are analyzed together against the investor’s total objectives — such as real return, drawdown tolerance, and liquidity needs.
• Features:
• Unified risk budgeting: every investment competes for total-portfolio capital.
• Dynamic asset allocation: integrates both top-down (macro) and bottom-up (opportunity-driven) inputs.
• Common among sovereign wealth funds and endowments (e.g., GIC Singapore, CPP).

• the Total Portfolio Approach (TPA), a framework gaining traction among institutional investors seeking to manage portfolios more coherently in increasingly dynamic and complex market environments. While Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) has long served as the dominant paradigm—offering structure and clarity in stable regimes—its reliance on fixed weights and static assumptions has proven less effective amid growing allocations to illiquid assets, macroeconomic regime shifts, and liquidity constraints.

The challenge is not that SAA is wrong—it’s that it was designed for a different world. A world of simpler portfolios, more stable regimes, and lower cross-asset complexity. In today’s context, where portfolios are exposed to time-varying risks, liquidity frictions, and shifting macroeconomic conditions, the assumptions underlying SAA can become constraints rather than safeguards.

Jayne Bok, head of Asian investments at Willis Tower Watson, says that “TPA is not a specific model with a singular destination, but rather a range of approaches”. Charles Hyde,* head of asset allocation at NZ Super, calls it a “state of mind”. And Jacky Lee, head of the Total Portfolio Group at Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, and Redouane Elkamhi, a finance professor at the Rotman School of Management, describe it in a paper earlier this year (their emphasis) “not [as] a single set of rules, but a shift in mindset.”

To become a successful investor and to protect capital “mindset” is increasingly more important than mere “skill-set” just like bitcoin completed gold, TPA should complete SAA strategic asset allocation.