Is Fidelity's move to put RIAs deeper into the cloud gonna make it rain?
'First to market' crows Fido. 'Not even close' counter other custodians. But one expert says the Boston-based firm's one-click platform could change everything
Fidelity
|NetX360
|Pershing
|Schwab
|TD Ameritrade
|WealthCentral
|ActiFi
|Technology Tools for Today
|FPPad
|External IT
Related Moves
Mark Tibergien sets up Ben Harrison to challenge Schwabitrade with a $150 million cut to Pershing's minimum and millions more to develop Veo-busting technology
The CEO suite hand-off in Jersey City pulls a trigger on a plan to bypass Fidelity's and eventually Schwab's custody units by luring disaffected RIAs.
March 11, 2020 at 7:58 AM
TD Ameritrade's board suddenly pushes out Tim Hockey after his big misread of RIAs; Tom Bradley name-dropped as successor
The CEO broke the TD promise never to compete with RIAs, took it back and got sent packing
July 23, 2019 at 4:30 AM
Fidelity will hire 4,000 staff in first half -- a staggering number but a tapering off from 'unprecedented' rate in 2021-2022 that catapulted it to 68,000 employees
The $10.3 trillion giant explains its hiring -- in a layoff environment -- as an RIA-like goal, namely having the human bandwidth to develop 'lifetime' relationships with its 40 million investors
February 17, 2023 at 2:49 AM
Pershing restores Ben Harrison as sole heir to Mark Tibergien -- for now -- but solo tenure may be temporary, with other top talent in the wings
Co-Head Maura Creekmore's departure leaves Harrison at the top by default, but the company is mum on future hiring and how much RIA autonomy gets sacrificed in name of 'convergence.'
January 19, 2023 at 3:31 AM
See more related moves
TD Ameritrade
Asset Custodian
Top Executive: Tom Nally
ActiFi, Inc.
Consulting Firm
Top Executive: Spenser Segal
FPPad.com
Consulting Firm
Top Executive: Bill Winterberg
Technology Tools for Today
Consulting Firm
Top Executive: Joel Bruckenstein
External IT
Specialized Breakaway Service
Top Executive: Ken Garber
Peter Giza
Kelly,
I think it a good play for Fidelity to leverage an outside entity to provide something that has been well commoditized. There really isn’t anything earthshattering outside Fidelity’s choice to buy versus build.
In 2009 I was in a search for a Cloud provider that actually wanted to understand the needs of this industry. At the recommendation of Desktone I was pointed to ICC Global Hosting in summer of 2009. Since that time ICC Global Hosting (www.iccgh.com) has been supplying virtual desktops, virtual offices, back up and recovery and instant-on office scalability.
I know the ExternalIT folks and they are a very competent team. But this is not a disruptive event rather it is basic component of Cloud computing.
For me the excitement is that after bringing this technology to advisors four years ago they are now willing to adopt this technology and being a part of that is gratifying.
A prediction came from RIMM’s CEO Thorsten Heins today that tablets will be dead in five years and that cell phones will be everyone’s portable computing platform that will plug into docks that will provide other user input and display capabilities.
This has started with many companies tossing their desktops and providing laptops and access to virtual offices via Cloud offerings from the likes of ICC and others.
Pete
Brian McGrath
I am having trouble seeing the innovation here. And it’s not very cost effective. It’s a commodity service that will undoubtedly be offered on lower cost platforms like Amazon Web Servies. Aside of the 'discount’, where is Fidelity’s value add?
