To help registered independent advisers develop additional business with ultrawealthy clients, Fidelity Investments has started a program that will allow them to use the Boston company's family office services.
The move enables advisers to give clients with more than $50 million of investable assets access to Fidelity Family Office Services, a business dedicated to supporting single-family offices. These services include a dedicated relationship management team and investment analyst/trader, and an open architecture reporting system that supports programs such as partnership services and general ledger export services.
Advisers' ultra-high-net-worth clients also will be able to attend private events designed to network with family offices and share best practices.
"The typically complex account structures and sophisticated investment needs of ultra-high-net-worth families often require advisers to offer a more advanced set of solutions," Michael R. Durbin, the president of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, said in a press release Monday.
"With Fidelity's dedicated family office business, we are positioned to give advisers access to the resources they need to help them effectively and efficiently meet the distinct needs of this market segment."
The program complements the support Fidelity has been providing RIAs that serve as multifamily offices.
Three RIA client firms of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services already are working with Fidelity Family Office Services to service existing ultra-high-net-worth family clients.
Fidelity is talking with 50 firms that have expressed interest in the offering.
In addition to custody and brokerage services, the new ultra-high-net-worth offering provides dedicated client service, investment services and reporting and administrative services.
Scott Dell'Orfano, an executive vice president and head of sales and relationship management for Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, said in an interview Friday that many RIAs have at least "one or two" clients with a net worth of more than $100 million.
"I think there a lot of assets held away from RIAs in a bank or a custodian that an RIA has an opportunity to consolidate by using our service," he said. "This could really help an RIA grow their book of business."
Fidelity has been offering family office custodial services for three years, Dell'Orfano said, and has 120 clients with $20 billion of assets under management.
He said that with just over 3,000 RIAs that custody assets with Fidelity, there is a significant opportunity to add business.
