Fidelity is reinforcing its commitment to supporting growth-focused advisors with new additions to its custodial tech suite.
On Monday, it announced the launch of Wealthscape Intelligence, a new functionality within its Wealthscape brokerage platform for RIAs, broker-dealers, banks, and family offices, as well as other institutional clients. It also updated its platform with new capabilities to simplify and accelerate the account onboarding process.
In August last year, Fidelity announced an all-in-one tech stack and an advisory bundle for RIAs, both of which included access to Wealthscape.
Fidelity says its latest updates, available to all Wealthscape users, speak to the benefits of digital empowerment for wealth firms, citing its own research suggesting firms that use technology best practices achieve higher average client growth and AUM growth than their peers.
Jess Liberi, head of Institutional Wealth Management Services (IWMS) Platform & Technology at Fidelity, says Wealthscape currently supports 3,500 advisory firms across all wealth channels.
"[We] are seeing strong engagement across the spectrum – from smaller independent advisors who value the flexibility and depth of the platform, to mid-size and regional firms looking for robust infrastructure and growth support, to large enterprise firms that require scalable, integrated solutions," Liberi said in an email to InvestmentNews.
In the most recent T3 Advisor Software Survey this year, Wealthscape commanded an 18.47% market share among advisors in the custodial platforms segment, lagging only Schwab's Advisor Center, which topped the category with a 45.54% market share.
With the new Wealthscape Intelligence capability, Liberi says advisors will have a single, unified interface showing "action-oriented, data-driven information," with streamlined analytics and centralized reporting, highlighting opportunities to save time and better support their clients.
One example involves NIGOs – industry shorthand for transactions, applications, and documents that are "not in good order." Past research by Schwab suggests high error rates for traditional paper-based processes, with roughly 31% of paper forms coming back as NIGO compared to just 4% that are accomplished digitally. Going from manual to digital showed similar improvements for moving money, with NIGO rates dropping from 38% to just 5%.
With Wealthscape Intelligence, Liberi says a spike in NIGOs related to cashiering would trigger insights into which reps are driving the issue, with advisors then being prompted to review targeted training materials and examining detailed work items to mitigate future errors. It also provides high-level trend analyses on assets under administration and money movement, helping advisors find potential opportunities to deepen client relationships.
The new capability could also flag insufficient balance issues for accounts with systematic withdrawal plans, which could be used to support broader retirement income strategies. Depending on the specific instance, Liberi says the system could recommend actions such as transferring funds from other accounts, executing trades to free up more cash, or reassessing the portfolio to ensure distributions are met.
"Advisors can also see behavioral insights, like when a client hasn’t logged into their account in the past 30 days, along with prompts to re-engage and strengthen the relationship. And we continue to add insights based on feedback and demands from our clients, most recently surfacing accounts without beneficiaries or eDelivery consent," Liberi says. "It’s all about turning data into clear and prioritized actions, helping advisors stay proactive and client-focused."
Meanwhile, Wealthscape's latest digital onboarding capabilities expand on existing features within the system. According to Liberi, onboarding is "one of the most critical moments" for advisors in general, as it's "often the first impression in an overall client relationship."
"Historically advisors have voiced a number of pain points – too much paperwork, too many systems, and too many chances for errors," she says.
Among the latest enhancements, Fidelity has expanded its platform with additional registration types, as well as the opportunity to streamline workflows with larger multi-account bundles – up to 10 in a single workflow – support for bulk onboarding events, and a consistent click-to-agree signing experience for investors.
Wealthscape also now has the ability to connect with specific pieces of the advisor's tech ecosystem, customize the onboarding process with firm branding using Fidelity APIs, and allow firms to upload key documents directly for investors to review and approve during the onboarding process.
"Expanding our digital signing capabilities and real-time data validation in these ways allows us to continue to offer advisory firms a faster, smarter way to onboard clients with fewer NIGOs and less friction," Liberi says.
Luke Lee launched the company in 2016. It eventually issued $1.2 billion high-risk investments.
The company aims to bring Quicken's budgeting and investment tool tracking to its 20,000-plus advisor network
Americans may feel better about retirement, but new research suggests confidence and preparedness aren’t always the same thing.
A $2.97 million commission haul and rolled-over retirement money sit at the center.
He sold "safe" notes on his radio show. The SEC says he was never licensed.
Dan Biagini of American Equity says the steady decline of pensions, longer lifespans and a reset in interest rates are rewriting how advisors build retirement income
Direct indexing is on pace to outgrow ETFs and mutual funds. Northern Trust's Ken Lassner explains why the advisors who get it wish they had started sooner.
