{"id":21674,"date":"2024-04-10T01:27:01","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T01:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thinkadvisor.com\/2024\/04\/09\/fidelitys-zooming-in-to-help-smaller-rias-get-to-the-next-level\/"},"modified":"2024-04-10T01:27:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T01:27:01","slug":"how-fidelitys-helping-smaller-rias-get-to-the-next-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2024\/04\/10\/how-fidelitys-helping-smaller-rias-get-to-the-next-level\/","title":{"rendered":"How Fidelity’s Helping Smaller RIAs ‘Get to the Next Level’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The higher rate of U.S. inflation, heightened market volatility and increased business expenses account for a 40% decline in RIA assets under management, according to Fidelity Investments\u2019 2023 Benchmarking Survey. Organic growth dropped from 8.2% in 2021 to less than 4% in 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOrganic growth is one area where we\u2019ve seen a challenge across the board,\u201d Noni Robinson, head of emerging RIA at Fidelity Institutional, says in an interview with ThinkAdvisor.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the smaller and mid-sized RIA segment, organic growth is a significant issue since these firms typically lack dedicated staff to help them \u201cevolve to the next level,\u201d Robinson notes.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Fidelity, among other firms, is making a concerted effort to help such custody clients by supporting them in such areas as technology integration, operating efficiencies, scaling and portfolio construction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other areas of RIA concern are cybersecurity and attracting talent. In the interview, Robinson cites a Fidelity white paper that details five areas of focus for drawing talent, like creating \u201ca destination workplace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Robinson, who joined Fidelity in 2022 after more than 23 years at Vanguard \u2014 <\/i>most recently as head of retirement plan client services of the Institutional Investor Group \u2014 <\/i>explains much of the plan for RIAs that she developed. That includes Acceleration, a program now being rolled out that\u2019s designed specifically for smaller high-growth RIAs.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the interview, Robinson says that Fidelity hired her to provide \u201ca refreshed vision and strategy\u201d for the emerging RIA segment of the firm\u2019s custody clients.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are highlights of our conversation: <\/span><\/p>\n

THINKADVISOR: What\u2019s the biggest challenge facing both emerging and long-established RIAs?<\/b><\/p>\n

NONI ROBINSON<\/b>: There are a few prevalent trends we\u2019ve identified. In our 2023 Benchmarking Study that [covered] 2022, a couple of things rose to the top.<\/span><\/p>\n

No. 1: Organic growth is one area where we\u2019ve seen a challenge across the board. <\/span>It dropped below 4%, down from a high in 2021 of 8.2%. <\/span>So this is an area of focus for RIAs.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re currently conducting our 2024 study, which will include analysis of 2023 performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

What caused that big decrease?<\/b><\/p>\n

A couple of headwinds contributed to it: higher inflation, higher market volatility, increased expenses in running their businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, there\u2019s been a lot of merger-and-acquisition activity with larger firms [buying smaller ones]. <\/span>So organic growth has been a challenge for many RIAs.<\/span><\/p>\n

What else is an issue for emerging and mid-sized RIAs?<\/b><\/p>\n

The tech stack: These RIAs have six or more technology solutions that they\u2019re using to run their businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

The integration of [all those] can become challenging. <\/span>This too is an area of focus for most RIAs regardless of size.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do small and mid-sized RIAs need from your team that larger firms typically would not?<\/b><\/p>\n

Many small RIAs have only one to three people in their offices. They often don\u2019t have a dedicated chief technology officer or a dedicated business development function. So they\u2019re wearing lots of hats.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because many of the smaller RIAs don\u2019t have [a big] staff as the larger RIAs do, they\u2019re looking to us to provide expertise and additional support.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, they\u2019ll have questions about technology integration and comparing different options to customize their tech stack.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The higher rate of U.S. inflation, heightened market volatility and increased business expenses account for a 40% decline in RIA assets under management, according to Fidelity Investments\u2019 2023 Benchmarking Survey. Organic growth dropped from...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[1],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/how-fidelitys-helping-smaller-rias-get-to-the-next-level.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}