BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fidelity Institutional today announced general availability of new digital service tools that make it even easier for advisors to navigate WealthscapeSM, its advisor technology platform, as clients increasingly leverage its digital tools in today’s environment. Advisors can now seamlessly interact with the Wealthscape Virtual Assistant for answers to everyday questions about using the platform, as well as more easily find information through enhanced Platform Search functionality. Both tools are accessible from anywhere in Wealthscape, resulting in an integrated workflow that saves advisors time because they can quickly access help when and where they need it. Fidelity also released new integrated learning experiences, called Smart Walkthroughs, to continue to drive digital adoption and advisor efficiency by walking users through key tasks and highlighting best practices.
The new features add to Fidelity’s existing digital capabilities, including paperless account onboarding, as well as its robust, award-winning service offering, both of which have been increasingly important in recent months as more advisors work remotely.
“Leveraging our financial strength to invest in technology that meets clients’ needs has long been a focus across Fidelity, and that includes developing digital tools that make it easier for advisors to do their jobs,” said Lisa Burns, head of platform technology, Fidelity Institutional. “We’ve seen a rapid uptick in adoption of the many tools we offer as the industry shifts to a new way of working, and are now releasing new features that make it even easier for advisors to navigate our platform so they can spend more time engaging with their clients and delivering higher levels of value.”
Advisors can ask the Wealthscape Virtual Assistant questions as they work, such as “how do I set up standing instructions?” and “how do I locate my clients’ tax forms?” The result is an intuitive, user-friendly experience that offers support directly embedded in advisors’ existing workflows and helps them work more efficiently. The Virtual Assistant becomes even smarter as advisors use it by leveraging artificial intelligence to predict what information a user might need based on their activity on the platform, resulting in an even more seamless client experience. Engaging clients using natural language makes it easy for them to identify what they are looking for, and machine learning helps to quickly and accurately deliver meaningful answers.
Fidelity’s Digital Tools Help Advisors Serve Clients in Today’s Remote Environment
Fidelity has seen a significant increase in digital tool adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many advisors switched to working remotely. For example, the number of transactions using eSignature for money movement increased 103% between February and April, resulting in increased efficiency and faster processing. Digital tool adoption for both clearing and custody account opening also grew, including a 45% increase in new account eSignature adoption for custody in the same time period.
Additionally, Fidelity Institutional opened more than 100,000 new accounts in Q1 2020, a 25% increase over Q1 2019.
New Tools Complement Fidelity’s Robust Service Offering
The Virtual Assistant and other digital tools build on the service offered by Fidelity’s award-winning client experience team, who managed historic call volumes in March while working remotely beginning mid-month, and maintained service metrics and standards consistent with previous year-to-date measures.
“Even with notably high call volumes in the past few months, our service teams continue to deliver best-in-class support, helping advisors navigate a challenging time with the same high level of service they’re accustomed to getting from us,” said Joe Kurtzer, head of client experience for Fidelity Institutional. “We’re focused on digitally empowering advisors and investing in new tools that will help them work more seamlessly and deliver even better experiences for their clients.”
Ongoing Enhancements to Wealthscape Platform and Mobile Apps Continue to Transform How Advisors Do Business
Fidelity continuously invests in its technology enterprise-wide, leveraging its scale to develop new capabilities and enhancements that meet the unique needs of each of its customers, including improving client experiences by digitizing key transactions and functions. Later this year, Fidelity will roll out additional digital tools to enhance Wealthscape client service, including a new online chat feature that is currently in pilot, which allows for quick and easy interaction with Fidelity’s tech support team.
Additionally, in June Fidelity will launch a new front-end order entry tool for alternative investment subscriptions, redemptions and capital commitments. The new online order ticket increases transaction transparency and creates efficiencies for advisors when placing orders in alternative investments through Wealthscape.
Fidelity will also begin to roll out refreshed Wealthscape and Wealthscape InvestorSM platform and mobile experiences, delivering a simplified design and customer-focused workflow, as well as more features and functionality in the digital onboarding experience, later this year.
For more information about Wealthscape, please visit go.fidelity.com/Wealthscape.
About Fidelity Investments
Fidelity’s mission is to inspire better futures and deliver better outcomes for the customers and businesses we serve. With assets under administration of $7.9 trillion, including discretionary assets of $3.1 trillion as of April 30, 2020, we focus on meeting the unique needs of a diverse set of customers: helping more than 32 million people invest their own life savings, 22,000 businesses manage employee benefit programs, as well as providing more than 13,500 financial advisory firms with investment and technology solutions to invest their own clients’ money. Privately held for more than 70 years, Fidelity employs more than 40,000 associates who are focused on the long-term success of our customers. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit https://www.fidelity.com/about.
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