Fidelity Investments has begun offering proprietary research on alternative investments to advisors on its platform.
The research is on Fidelity's Wealthscape platform for no additional charge, the company said. The research covers third-party portfolio strategies in sectors including private credit, equity and real estate.
“Everything we’re doing ... is around Fidelity’s commitment to helping advisors and their clients on their journey of including alternatives in their portfolios,” said Darby Nielson, chief investment officer with the Fidelity Institutional group. “Education and research are some of the biggest hurdles for advisors to get alternatives into their portfolios.”
According to a surveyFidelity conducted in 2021 of more than 200 advisors, 54% identified investment manager research as the most important factor in expanding their use of alternatives.
Additional research conducted last fall of almost 500 respondents found that more than half said access to due diligence of underlying strategies and managers was a barrier for investing in intermittent liquidity and illiquid alternatives. Most said communicating the strategy to clients was another hinderance to using alternatives.
“Advisors need the education so that they can communicate things to their client,” Nielson said.
Along with the research available through the Wealthscape portal, Fidelity also publishes white papers on alternatives. The latest one, the fourth in the series, focuses on “Evaluating Alternative Strategies.”
“The more advisors can learn about alts and include in the portfolios ... they can start to reap the potential of alternatives that we identified in our research,” Nielson said.