Fidelity Investments announced Monday that advisors who use the firm’s WealthCentral technology platform can now make trades with a new iPhone and Android app.
The approximately 1,500 advisors using WealthCentral can download the new application from iTunes or Android Market, then immediately start using their smart phones to trade and answer orders for their clients, according to Ed O’Brien (left), head of technology at Fidelity’s Institutional Wealth Services.
Advisors are able to trade stocks, ETFs and mutual funds via a simplified trade ticket and view immediate order status details using the apps.
“Combining innovative mobile technologies with WealthCentral’s powerful open technology platform can continue to help advisors maximize their productivity and deliver an exceptional client experience,” O’Brien said in a Monday interview.
The WealthCentral platform began as a website in late 2008, and this year Fidelity added a mobile application to the platform after conducting a pilot program that included making live trades. To address potential security concerns over end client data, Fidelity’s security walls include single-use PINs and tokens with constantly changing access codes.
Regardless of the access point, advisors using WealthCentral can choose which users in their office can make trades for a client, O’Brien noted.
“A lot of what we’re doing is just adding an access point,” he said. “Everything except the front end is the same except the access point.”