Schwab also believes that there is a trend away from frequent performance reporting in favor of a more diversified approach. “Some advisors want to generate performance reports less frequently and supply other types of information,” says Hathi. She cited Schwab market commentaries and advisor-generated content as examples of other information that advisors will be able to make available to their clients through the new, enhanced OpenView Mobile platform.

Finally, Schwab just announced plans for its own “robo-advisor” service: Schwab Intelligent portfolios.

Fidelity
Fidelity is working on a number of technology enhancements, but Ed O’Brien, senior vice president of technology platforms at Fidelity Institutional, is most excited to talk about the automation of the client on-boarding process. This digital process allows advisors to open accounts, initiate asset transfers and accept e-signature authorizations all in one package. It is available to all Fidelity advisors now. “Having a seamless online experience is becoming expected by prospects and clients,” O’Brien says. “We want to help advisors meet those expectations.”

There’s more to this than meeting client expectations and helping advisors project a tech-savvy image, however. It’s also about quality. According to O’Brien, in this new, seamless process, some of the firms that are using all of the tool’s functionality are reporting up to a 50% reduction in NIGO (not in good order) transactions. It also allows clients to open and fund accounts in minutes instead of hours or days. Firms using the system report that they can open an account, get an account number and submit the transfer-of-asset paperwork in under eight minutes.

This is just the first phase of Fidelity’s work in this area. Before year’s end, the firm will begin allowing third parties to connect to this system. It is expected that the Athene Group’s Skience for Salesforce will be the first such integration, but more are sure to follow in 2015. In addition, Fidelity intends to extend this digital request and authorization process to other common work-flow tasks in the near future.

Mobile check deposits have been a big success at Fidelity—the company took in more than $1 billion in these deposits during the first year they were available. Mobile depositing allows faster processing, creates fewer errors and saves account holders the cost of shipping checks overnight. Advisors are able to initiate investments for clients faster, which improves client satisfaction.

Fidelity is in the process of building additional functionality in this area as well. For example, the company plans to provide advisors with check reporting so they can see who deposits money remotely and who still sends checks directly to Fidelity by mail. This will allow advisors to educate clients about the latest technology and improve the client experience. Fidelity will also enhance the mobile check deposit interface. For example, if a client wants to deposit a check to an IRA account, the interface will show contributions year to date, so clients don’t inadvertently exceed annual contribution limits.

Before year’s end, advisors will be able to initiate future dated transactions so they can, for example, schedule monthly income distributions to a client in advance.

In 2015, Fidelity will make money movement APIs available to third parties, so advisors and their clients can access this new money movement functionality through other applications. Fidelity envisions this being used by broker-dealer platforms, by third-party software providers to advisors and by mobile apps targeting the consumer.