Fidelity Institutional® to Offer Retirement Advisors and Recordkeepers Access to Fidelity’s Workplace Managed Account Offering

—Portfolio Advisory Service at Work (PAS-W) has seen Rapid Adoption in Fidelity Recordkept Plans due to its Personalization, Turnkey Customer Experience, and Ability to Help Drive Outcomes

—With More Advisory Firms Moving into Retirement Plan Space, Fidelity is Now Expanding Access to Independent Advisors and Recordkeepers to Help Them Scale and Grow their Retirement Business

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Managed accounts are becoming increasingly popular among plan sponsors, plan participants, and the advisors who work with them, due to an increased focus on fiduciary responsibility, financial wellness and retirement readiness.¹ Based on this demand, Fidelity Institutional (FI) announced today that they are expanding access to Fidelity^® Portfolio Advisory Service at Work (PAS-W) – Fidelity’s managed account offering which provides investment management of workplace retirement accounts – to retirement advisors and recordkeepers.

Fidelity research has found that there’s been a significant increase in the number of advisory firms moving from accommodating retirement plan requests to growing their retirement plan businesses.² As this growth accelerates, so, too, does the need for solutions to help advisors manage that growth in an efficient and scalable way, while providing personalized solutions and better outcomes for plan participants. PAS-W can make this simpler by providing retirement advisors and recordkeepers with a managed account service that seamlessly integrates into their offering.

“Many firms are focused on scale and looking to grow their retirement business efficiently while ensuring plan participants have the customization they need,” said Michael R. Durbin, head of Fidelity Institutional Product. “We see PAS-W as a way to drive efficiency and outcomes at every level: for participants, plan sponsors, retirement advisors and recordkeepers.”

“Our goal with expanding access to PAS-W to retirement advisors and all recordkeepers is to provide them with a more personalized and customized investment management solution; one that goes beyond the cookie cutter solutions available today and helps them grow and scale their businesses,” said Sangeeta Moorjani, head of Fidelity’s Workplace Managed Accounts business. “An increasing number of employers and employees are recognizing that a managed account is a great option for people who may not have the experience or confidence to manage their own retirement savings, especially during times of market uncertainty.”

The first independent recordkeepers to use the PAS-W offering – Sentinel Benefits, Alliance Benefit Group of Michigan, and Alliance Benefit Group-Rocky Mountain – have a solution that integrates directly into the FIS Relius Administration platform.

With the increasing demand for fiduciary services in the marketplace, Fidelity’s PAS-W offering provides advisors with another solution to support their retirement plan business. This offering expands Fidelity’s already robust offering that includes providing advisors with comprehensive retirement plan solutions via a network of independent recordkeeping firms. In addition, through third-party relationships, Fidelity provides access to solutions designed to help advisors effectively manage their retirement plan business and deliver fiduciary services to both plan sponsors and participants.

Fidelity’s managed accounts platform recently surpassed one million enrolled customers with more than 300,000 of them in workplace savings plans. Fidelity has delivered asset allocation strategies to plan participants for more than 25 years, and 97 percent of employees who join PAS-W stay invested and maintain their accounts.³

Investment management for PAS-W is offered through Strategic Advisers, Inc. (SAI), a registered investment adviser and a Fidelity Investments Company. SAI acts as an ERISA 3(38) investment manager and accepts fiduciary responsibility for making investment decisions on behalf of participants.

For more information on PAS-W, advisors, recordkeepers or plan sponsors can contact their Fidelity representative or click here.

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 $6.1 trillion, including managed assets of $2.2 trillion as of April 30, 2017, we focus on meeting the unique needs of a diverse set of customers: helping more than 26 million people invest their own life savings, 23,000 businesses manage employee benefit programs, as well as providing more than 12,500 financial advisory firms with investment and technology solutions to invest their own clients’ money. Privately held for 70 years, Fidelity employs 45,000 associates who are focused on the long-term success of our customers. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit https://www.fidelity.com/about.

About Fidelity Institutional
Fidelity Institutional offers clearing, custody, investment products, brokerage and trading services to a wide range of financial intermediary firms. More than 12,500 financial advisory firms rely on Fidelity Institutional’s innovative technology and deep expertise to help more than 8 million accounts make some of the most complex, important decisions of their lives. Fidelity Institutional's goal is to help clients thrive by supporting the growth of their businesses, enhancing their operational efficiency and delivering insights that help to drive confidence, clarity and results.

Fidelity ® Portfolio Advisory Service at Work is a service of Strategic Advisers, Inc., a registered investment adviser and a Fidelity Investments company. This service provides discretionary money management for a fee.

This communication is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Unless otherwise disclosed to you, in providing this information, Fidelity is not undertaking to provide impartial investment advice, or to give advice in a fiduciary capacity, in connection with any investment or transaction described herein. Fiduciaries are solely responsible for exercising independent judgment in evaluating any transaction(s) and are assumed to be capable of evaluating investment risks independently, both in general and with regard to particular transactions and investment strategies. Fidelity has a financial interest in any transaction(s) that fiduciaries, and if applicable, their clients, may enter into involving Fidelity’s products or services.

The registered trademarks and service marks appearing herein are the property of FMR LLC.

Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions provides clearing, custody, or other brokerage services through National Financial Services LLC or Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, Members NYSE, SIPC.

Products and services provided through Fidelity Institutional Asset Management^® (FIAM) to investment professionals, plan sponsors and institutional investors by Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company, Inc., 500 Salem Street, Smithfield, RI 02917.

© 2017 FMR LLC. All rights reserved. 801434.1.0

¹ Re: advisor statistic: The Fidelity Financial Advisory Community (FAC) is a panel research program that explores various topics of interest with advisors throughout the year. Research engagements are conducted via online surveys and are kept blind (Fidelity not identified). This one-question poll was administered April 5^th thru 6th, 2017. Participants included 360 advisors who manage client assets either individually or as a team, and work primarily with individual investors. These advisors are from a mix of banks, independent broker-dealers, insurance companies, regional broker-dealers, RIAs, and national brokerage firms (commonly referred to as wirehouses), with findings weighted to reflect industry composition. The panel is maintained and all research conducted by an independent firm not affiliated with Fidelity Investments. Re: plan sponsor and plan participant statistic: GFK plan sponsor sentiment survey that polled 212 corporate benefits managers in Q1 2015 to ask about their emotional vs. rational drivers behind using professional guidance for not only their personal finances (including retirement), but also other tasks that they may not have the skill, will or time to perform themselves. For the purposes of the survey, Managed Accounts are defined as professionally managed accounts in the workplace. Respondents included benefits managers that utilize Fidelity Workplace Managed Accounts or other Managed Account providers.
² Among Fidelity Clearing & Custody clients; “emerging” retirement advisors are defined as having $50M+ in retirement assets or $20-$50M in retirement assets > 10% TAUM.
³ Fidelity record kept data on percentage of participants who maintained a PAS-W account, measured from January 1, 2010, to February 28, 2015 (excludes NonQual plans and FMRCo plans).