By Karen DeMasters, FA-Mag.com
Fidelity Institutional has created a new wealth management platform for managed accounts that it will make available to advisors starting next year, Fidelity announced Thursday.
The platform, Fidelity Managed Account Xchange, will have advisory tools, programs and services, and investments products from Fidelity and other asset managers that are designed to make it easier for registered investment advisors and broker-dealers to create managed accounts for their clients, Fidelity said.
The demand for managed accounts is increasing rapidly, growing from $5.7 trillion in AUM during the second quarter of 2017 and expected to hit $8.1 trillion by 2020, Fidelity said.
“There’s been a clear shift in demand toward both planning-led experiences and fee-based business models, and managed accounts can help advisors deliver on both,” Anthony Rochte, head of Fidelity Institutional’s Investments and Technology Group, said in a statement. The new platform is designed to “make it easier for advisors to efficiently access and manage a range of investment solutions from both Fidelity and third-party providers,” he said.
The Xchange will be integrated with Wealthscape, eMoney Advisor and Envestnet, enabling advisors to plan, propose, invest and report in one streamlined workflow, Fidelity said. It will enable advisors to offer clients services from digital to full-service, and enable them to personalize offerings.