Page 27 - Investment Advisor June 2022

A

New Age

of
Advice

Clients are seeking more personalization and wealth planning

from their advisors, as money management takes a backseat.

By Jeff Berman

nvestor clients increasingly want more personalization that has values aligned with theirs, while “investors increas-
and for their advisors to spend more time on financial ingly want to invest in line with their sort of values” and have
Iplanning than managing their money, according to a “portfolio with purpose.”
Michael Durbin, president of Fidelity Institutional. There are many ESG solutions available now and “they’re
“The era of personalization is here, and it’s not going to growing by leaps and bounds every day” although “adoption is
go away,” he said recently at the Securities Industry and still relatively weak,” he said, noting only 38% of advisors use
Financial Markets Association’s Private Client Conference in an ESG solution for clients now.
Aventura, Florida. The way to fight that latter issue, however, is with the third
“We think the capability is coming fast and furious, and “P” that Fidelity is focusing on, he said: portfolio construction.
fairly cheaply in order to do it,” he said during a panel discus- Advisors should be building portfolios that are personalized
sion on “Priorities for Private Wealth Management,” noting and sustainable.
personalization through digital engagement practices is one of sure they know how to take an entire portfolio [and] their
“We’ve got to provide the advisor with the tooling to make
Photo-illustration: Chris Nicholls The ‘Four P’s” my clients into the water fund.’ … [A] greater premium” really
the key areas that Fidelity is focused on.
whole practice and embrace sustainable, not just ‘Oh, I put
needs to be placed on “refreshing portfolio construction,”
Personalization is one of the “four P’s” that Fidelity is focused
Durbin added.
on, said Durbin, who also serves as chair of the SIFMA board’s
That also would help Fidelity’s fourth “P,” which is pri-
Private Client Wealth Management Subcommittee.
vate markets, he continued. After “fits and starts,” access to
The second P is “purpose,” Durbin said, which refers specif-
ically to environmental, social and governance. “We needed a
alternative investments is increasing and it’s “here to stay,”
P,” he joked. Increasingly, employees “want to work for a firm”
he predicted.
JUNE 2022 INVESTMENT ADVISOR 25