Fidelity Investments has announced new enhancements to its wealth management platform, Fidelity Managed Account Xchange (FMAX), that it will be making over the course of the next 18 months along with wealth management software provider Envestnet.

Fidelity has had a relationship with Envestnet for more than 20 years, and in that time the two companies have created several products and services for advisors. However, there has been a lack of uniformity among those services, meaning an advisor has had to log in to multiple portals to engage in the different services, according to Andrew Stavaridis, Envestnet’s chief relationship officer and group head of wealth solutions distribution. The FMAX platform serves clients in the institutional space such as RIAs, broker/dealers and family offices, among other entities.

The two firms came to realize that Envestnet needed to incorporate its integration capabilities more deeply into the Fidelity platform.

“It’s really about removing friction in an advisor’s day-to-day, which is often a result of navigating multiple point solutions,” said Gary Gallagher, head of wealth advisory and portfolio solutions at Fidelity Institutional, in an interview. “We are looking to do that by deepening integrations and aligning on a joint technology road map to introduce more FMAX capabilities in a more focused way.”

The enhancements to the FMAX platform, which aim to make it more holistic, fall under three distinct categories. First, the firms will introduce a series of overlays that advisors can implement with their portfolios to make them more tax efficient. Second, advisors will be able to better customize the model portfolios that Fidelity provides, Gallagher said.

“Many advisors like to take turnkey models, but increasingly advisors like to have the flexibility to customize them, and we’re now allowing that level of customization even as a model type framework,” he said.

The third aspect will be to incorporate Envestnet’s Insurance Exchange, which gives advisors access to annuities and insurance products through the FMAX platform. 

“In moving away from different account-opening processes for an advisor for a single account, we’ll be able to open up all of that with Fidelity in kind of a single process,” Stavaridis said in an interview.

The firms hope to improve on reporting and for that will bring in Envestnet’s Vantage Reporting platform, which allows brokers to view not only their custody and clearing assets within Fidelity, but also those held at other firms. Reps will be able to view outside accounts, though they won’t be able to make changes to them within the FMAX platform, Fidelity said. But a rep can still compile reports based on all the information, including diagnostics, performance and positions.

“[It] really speaks to the need advisors have to see the comprehensive view of their client position and value,” Gallagher said. “Not just seeing the assets that fit in a Fidelity brokerage account but actually seeing all those assets and technology, and that’s a really valuable component that really broadens the lens for advisors to see their whole book of business.”

Fidelity will also be launching a streamlined version of FMAX called FMAX Essentials that’s geared for small to midsize firms. The services will resemble those on the main platform, though the investment menu will be more curated, with more concentrated investor offerings, Gallagher said. 

Not all the enhancements will be going live right away. The tax overlays and model portfolio customizations are currently available, but the rest will roll out over time. 

Fidelity did not disclose a specific time line on when the services or additional new features will be available; a spokeswoman said the firms are now focusing on incorporating the Vantage reports and Insurance Exchange, while the rest will come later, possibly in 2025.

The additional enhancements will not impact the price of FMAX, Gallagher said. 

The two firms are hoping that by incorporating more of Envestnet's technology into the Fidelity platform, it can make advisors’ day-to-day lives a little easier. 

“This is about building a true wealth management platform where the experience is eliminating that swivel chair that advisors are confronted with today,” Stavaridis said. “A lot of our mutual clients are asking about that.”