Fidelity Registered Investment Advisor Group today announced that it's changing its name to Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, a move the company says reflects the growing role that trust institutions and third-party administrators play in the wealth management space.
"This name change is in recognition of our changing client base," says Fidelity spokesman Steve Austin. "We're seeing enormous growth in assets from trust institutions, trust banks and third party administrators. Even though RIAs make up huge majority of our assets and we're still increasing resources for RIAs, our overall assets are growing so substantially that the company feels it's only fair to change name to reflect that."
Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services provides trading, custody and brokerage services. The company custodies more than $290 billion in assets for roughly 3,800 clients. Austin wouldn't comment on what percentage of assets are from advisors. "We don't disclose those numbers but I can tell you it's very large," he says.
According to Fidelity research, assets in personal trusts are expected to rise from $3 trillion today to $7 trillion by 2010, while money moving into TPAs has boosted their market share to 35%, up from 28% in 2000.