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Developing its strategy for a digital platform, Fidelity sought feedback on how to build it and what the final product should look like.
But repeatedly, Fidelity says, they were given another suggestion: consider eMoney Advisor.
?We had been working on the vision for our next-generation platform for Fidelity advisors and broker-dealers,? says Ed O?Brien, the head of platform technology at Fidelity Institutional.
?In meetings and calls with them we heard over and over that folks were either already using eMoney or liked the features and functionality, and a few of our partners even said, ?Why don?t you just go and buy eMoney??
Fidelity has been actively developing financial technology for some time -- it has an annual firm-wide technology budget of approximately $2.5 billion.
But in the end, time to market and eMoney Advisor?s loyal following in the RIA community were both factors in Fidelity's decision to acquire eMoney in February rather than build a platform in-house.
?We?ve been very good at providing tools for advisors, but we hadn?t seen a lot of technology that gets clients engaged in big decisions,? says O'Brien, who is responsible for the technology that underpins clearing provider title insurance provider Fidelity National Financial, which serves more than 500 broker-dealers and banks, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, which serves more than 2,500 independent advisors, and Fidelity Family Office Services, which counts more than 270 multi- and single-family offices as clients.
In his view, ?eMoney is incredibly strong in empowering advisors to make decisions, but it also engages investors in the...