Boston-based Fidelity, which acquired eMoney Advisor in 2015, is building on that partnership to offer new tools to advisors through the technology platform Wealthscape. New capabilities to be launched next year include consolidated data, the Insights+Analytics tool, and advanced modeling and rebalancing. These tools are designed to help RIAs, broker-dealers, banks and family offices digitize their businesses.
“One key thing advisors really value is our deep integrations with eMoney, which help them put planning into action with capabilities like Money Movement and Account Maintenance. The eMoney integrations help strengthen client engagement and facilitate collaboration,” Canter says.
“Advisors also value the flexibility Fidelity offers. Firms have the option to deploy Wealthscape products off the shelf, mix and match between our solutions and third-party tools, or integrate our solutions with their proprietary platforms. We recently launched Integration Xchange, our open architecture digital store that firms can use to explore integration options to build the right solutions for their needs,” he adds.
Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions has been particularly successful at acquiring multi-billion-dollar breakaway teams. “Providing practice management, access to products, and access to world-class technology have really become table stakes for us. We think of ourselves as business consultants that happen to be in the wealth management vertical,” Canter says.
Competition among clearing and custody solutions providers “increases as the RIA space continues to grow. The numbers of RIAs grew 3.3% in 2018 [as of December] versus 2017 and that’s on the heels of 3% growth in 2017. Competition is everywhere, so specialization for advisors and custodians alike matters now more than ever,” Canter says.
TCA By E-Trade
TCA by E-Trade considers itself a disruptor of the custody channel.
Formerly Trust Company of America, the Englewood, Colo.-based firm was acquired by E-Trade in April and has taken full advantage of the well-known name, says Joshua Pace, TCA by E-Trade president.
“We already are taking a disproportionate share of the RIAs that are in motion. Since the acquisition was announced in late 2017, we have grown by $2 billion in assets,” he says.
TCA by E-Trade provides its own platform, Money Manager X-Change, to allow advisors to use third-party money managers and to efficiently trade, rebalance and manage assets.