Fidelity Releases Online LifeStage Planning Tool for Financial Advisors

In the hot and heavy world of mutual funds, Fidelity Investments reigns supreme, but even a mutual fund complex the size of Fidelity wants to do all it can to maintain its market leading position.

The Web, as many have come to understand, possesses the powers to disintermediate as well as enjoin. Whether the online medium works for or against your firm depends on how it is used, and Fidelity is working fastidiously to ensure that it doesn't find itself left behind in the Internet rush. Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Co., the Fidelity division that provides investment management services to all types of financial advisors, has unveiled a new portion of its AdvisorXpress Web site. This service affords investment professionals with access to non-financial information answering questions such as, 'I want to start a new business, what do I need to do?' The intent is to arm investment professionals with tools that will elevate them above the melee of online trading sites and market information. And, of course, by offering its clients, the advisors, with greater resources, Fidelity looks to distinguish itself in the ever-crowded fund world.

Deidre Nectow, senior vice president, strategy and planning, couldn't stress enough the importance of these types of tools to the investment professional. "The evolution of online trading and the Web has put a lot of pressure on them because it has reduced trading commissions, and has made available a lot of research, screening tools, calculators and advice," Nectow says. "The demand for quality advice is going up, and the investment professional is asking how do I retain my clients?" With more and more people looking to invest online, either as their primary channel or as an alternative, financial advisors were telling Fidelity that they needed more powerful tools and services to retain clients and assets. According to Fidelity's research, though, investors that choose to use a financial advisor-as opposed to the completely self-directed investor-are most interested in a trust relationship with someone who has both their life and financial interests at heart.

Fidelity is first affording registrants to the site information geared for the "new retiree," but plans to add earlier life stage categories in the summer, including those for new parents and young adults. LifeStage Planning is parsed into three areas: Profile Your Clients, Search and My Clients. The profile section allows financial advisors to rate their clients' life-time goals. As advisors chart their clients' interests and dreams, the back-end database begins extracting articles and information that might be appropriate.

Andrea Pollinger, vice president, product development, admits that LifeStage Planning may very well evolve into a more complete customer relationship management (CRM) solution-merging this lifestyle data with portfolio holdings--but for the launch of the online service, Fidelity was sensitive to the financial advisor's desire to maintain a wall between the fund provider and portfolio data. "We have a fairly large recordkeeping system for all the accounts, and to pre-populate these profiles with that information would be a lay-up," Pollinger points out. "But, it's a question of building the trust with our own clients, that we've done this as a convenience factor, not to pillage the database for other purposes. I don't think it's a question of whether we'll do it. It's just a matter of time."

As such, all that is required from an investment professional using the system is a name of the client. LifeStage Planning proved to be two-year project, from concept to product. Application development was all completed in-house by Fidelity's E-Commerce division and performed on Sun Microsystems' ATG Dynamo e-commerce application development tool. The system sits on Sun Solaris servers residing at various Fidelity locations around the country.

While enabling financial advisors with the tools they need to compete in this changing world, the service is also intended to bolster the relationship these advisors have with Fidelity, Nectow points out. "It's so competitive in the fund world that, to get an audience with a room full of brokers, it can't be, did you see this Fidelity Growth Opportunity Fund's performance last month? That's not enough of a story" she says. "I think we have to find ways to educate and advance the business causes of our clients, otherwise they don't want to hear from us. There is a necessity for us to do this, to gain access to them."