Launched in December 2008, the company claims WealthCentral is the industry's first Web-based, open technology platform that "integrates advisors' most critical operational systems, from portfolio management and customer relationship management (CRM) to financial planning, portfolio rebalancing and trading, into one unified workstation. Advisors have the flexibility to use only those applications that best meet their specific practice needs."
"Historically, data at the custodial level has flowed out to third parties for them to use in assisting with the advisor's reporting and rebalancing," says Ed O'Brien, senior vice president and head of technology of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services. "But WealthCentral in bi-directional, meaning we can recapture information from third parties that the advisor is using in order to save time and streamline processes."
A key difference for the platform, O'Brien says, is that while platforms of this type are traditionally centered around individual accounts, WealthCentral is centered around relationships.
"It allows the advisor to deal with the head of household on a more holistic level," O'Brien adds, "especially when rebalancing and running reports."
Because WealthCentral's applications "talk" with each other, advisors only have to enter client information into the system once. The system then automatically updates and reconciles information across WealthCentral's various applications; and because WealthCentral is Web-based, with all applications and client data hosted by Fidelity and third-party providers, it can dramatically help simplify an advisor's need to manage technology.
While already integrating third-party applications from market-leading firms such as Oracle, Advent, EISI and Northfield, Fidelity says it will be offering clients greater choice by integrating additional third-party applications in the future.
