Mobile application sure to attract attention from users of Apple's ubiquitous smartphone
Advisers who use the Fidelity WealthCentral technology platform and an iPhone can now get “inquiry,” or read-only, access to their entire book of business on the smart phone using a dedicated application.
Called WealthCentral Mobile, this is the first salvo from Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services in developing an iPhone application for financial advisers (click the following text to see screen shots of WealthCentral Mobile). A Fidelity retail iPhone application has been available for some time now.
The program allows advisers to look up client and account details, including client profile information, positions and balances for brokerage and non-brokerage accounts, transaction history details and current account alerts. Advisers can also view up-to-the-minute market news and stock quotes using the app.
In addition, advisers can customize WealthCentral Mobile to fit their specific work styles. Future versions of the apps will include various enhancements such as trading, interactive charting and sophisticated look-up capabilities for account details.
The program can also leverage the many integrations Fidelity has made with third-party-technology partners by bringing in data from their systems, as well. For instance, WealthCentral Mobile users can pull data from portfolio-reporting specialists Advent Software Inc. and Black Diamond Performance Reporting.
Page Clark-Santello a director of product management with IWS, and Edward O'Brien, senior vice president and head of technology with Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, walked Investment News through a demonstration of the WealthCentral Mobile application at the Technology Tools for Today Conference today.
“Advisers not only can maximize their productivity but deliver an exceptional client experience while helping accelerate the growth of their practices,” Mr. O'Brien noted.
Porting WealthCentral to the Apple smart phone no doubt will appeal to many iPhone-toting advisers. “Our advisers are frequently away from the office when a client needs help or immediate answers to their questions,” said Rick Adkins, an adviser and chief executive of The Arkansas Financial Group Inc. “The new WealthCentral app is a great efficiency tool for our staff, providing access to the same timely, integrated account data regardless of whether or not we are in the office. In addition to having access to client information, we find great benefit in the third-party market news and quote details that are incorporated — all without having to exit the app.”
While it is unclear at present just how many of Fidelity's 3,000 independent registered investment advisers are currently also iPhone users, development of the application represents an investment in the mobile future, according to Mr. O'Brien.
“This is not a point-in-time investment rather an ongoing one,” he said, “We now have folks fully dedicated to mobile development going forward.”
Fidelity is also readying a version of WealthCental Mobile for the popular Android mobile operating system, Mr. O'Brien noted.
The application is available to WealthCentral users for free from the AppStore on the iPhone or at itunes.com/appstore. It uses the same credentials an adviser would to log in to WealthCentral from the desktop.
