Ed O'Brien Archives

Ed O’Brien to become CEO of eMoney Advisor

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Bill Winterberg in Technology

Ed O’Brien hired as CEO of eMoney Advisor

Quick Take:

Ed O’Brien, former head of platform technology, Fidelity Institutional, will leave the company to become CEO of eMoney Advisor
As eMoney CEO, O’Brien will report to Fidelity Wealth Technology president Mike Durbin
Prior to assuming the eMoney CEO role, O’Brien reported directly to Durbin for seven years
Durbin stresses the CEO search included “a long list of candidates”
I’m taking a “wait and see” attitude to see if eMoney can continue its aggressive innovation as a digital wealth management provider with O’Brien as CEO

(3 minute read) (Updated 4:01pm ET)

In a press release yesterday, eMoney Advisor announced Edward O’Brien was hired as Chief Executive Officer of the firm.

Wait and See

I’m not as overly enthusiastic as others seem to be on the prospects of innovation from eMoney Advisor.

I posted a poll on Twitter to survey my followers whether they think the hiring of O’Brien as CEO of eMoney is positive, negative, or let’s wait and see.

It’s a close race between a positive and the “let’s wait and see option,” and I fall into the wait and see camp.

Fidelity First?

In order to maximize its acquisition of eMoney (for a reported $250 million), Fidelity needs assurance that eMoney’s product roadmap will directly benefit the custodian’s various lines of business in order make a return on their investment.

And once Edmond Walters abruptly resigned as CEO of eMoney in September 2015, Fidelity was granted the opportunity to fill the vacant position with an individual who can strongly influence eMoney’s strategy in Fidelity’s favor.

It makes a lot of sense that Ed O’Brien, a long-time Fidelity executive with decades of industry experience, fill the CEO position.

Don’t get me wrong: few in the industry have O’Brien’s experience and tenure leading teams to develop financial services technology, and that experience should directly benefit eMoney.

This is most definitely a good thing.

But when it comes to developing an innovative, yet untested/unproven, feature versus developing the market of Fidelity’s existing customers, who wins?

Technically Independent

Even though eMoney Advisor will continue to operate “technically” as an independent organization, I cannot help but connect the dots that the hierarchy of O’Brien under Durbin will influence the eMoney Advisor product roadmap.

O’Brien is not only a Fidelity insider, he has reported directly to Fidelity Wealth Technologies president (and former Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services president) Mike Durbin for over seven years.

When originally acquired, eMoney was organized under the yet-to-be-announced Fidelity Wealth Technologies, a division of Fidelity Enterprise Services led by president Michael Wilens. Fidelity waited several weeks after the eMoney acquisition to announce the creation of Fidelity Wealth Technologies, according to the company spokesperson.

eMoney was technically never organized directly under Wilens and Fidelity Enterprise Services, as the company has always been under the direction of Durbin’s Fidelity Wealth Technologies group.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Durbin most definitely anticipated the connection I made, stressing how O’Brien topped a long list of “both internal and external candidates.”

Durbin also took the liberty to call out doubters (such as myself), saying in an open letter posted to the eMoney blog.

Don’t buy it? No problem – actions speak louder than words. And I welcome you to watch and see for yourself how it continues to unfold.

Ok. I’m watching.

See, I’m just a guy in Atlanta who wants to help advisors sort through copious (and often confusing) technology options for their business so they can be better advisors. I’m not the head of a major custodian, CEO of a technology vendor, or even an executive of a multi-billion dollar RIA.

But I take my role seriously to navigate what can be a very murky and (sometimes) conflicted fintech ecosystem.

I can’t help but imagine how the connection between O’Brien and Durbin will steer eMoney’s strategy to favor Fidelity relationships ahead of other innovation.

Yet I agree with Durbin: Actions will speak louder than words.

Will eMoney’s existing culture of relentless innovation and development continue to flourish, or will O’Brien’s longtime bond with Fidelity suppress eMoney’s characteristic risk-taking in favor of the parent company’s interests?

I so want the former scenario to transpire, but hey, business is business, and it’s not always possible to satisfy multiple objectives at once.

Let’s wait and see.

Updated: The following corrections to the original post have been made

Ed O’Brien’s former title corrected to head of platform technology, Fidelity Institutional.
At the time of acquisition, eMoney Advisor was structured under Fidelity Wealth Technologies, a division of Fidelity Enterprise Services, and not directly under Wilens’ Fidelity Enterprise Services group, according to the company spokesperson
Corrected timetable, adding O’Brien’s reporting change in July 2013 and structure of eMoney under Durbin’s yet-to-be-announced Fidelity Wealth Technologies group

Timetable

If you’re not completely in the know regarding the events that preceded this news, here’s a timetable of what’s happened.

I also made two flowcharts (being updated now, so check back soon) showing the hierarchy of Fidelity’s different businesses that illustrates how not much has changed between Durbin and O’Brien before and after the eMoney acquisition.

Prior to July 2013, O’Brien reported to Mike Durbin, president of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services
In July 2013, O’Brien reports under Ron DePoalo, CIO for Fidelity Institutional, when the company aligned the platform technology team across the clearing and custody businesses
Fidelity acquires eMoney in February 2015 and places CEO Edmond Walters under Durbin’s yet-to-be-announced Fidelity Wealth Technologies group
Weeks later, Fidelity officially announces the combination of the clearing and custody businesses, creating a new Fidelity Wealth Technologies group with Mike Durbin as president. O’Brien remains under DePoalo in Fidelity Institutional, Walters remains under Durbin as originally structured
In September 2015, Walters resigns and Durbin assumes the interim CEO role for eMoney
In March 2016, eMoney Advisor hires O’Brien as CEO of eMoney
As a business unit under Fidelity Wealth Technologies, O’Brien will once again to report to Durbin in his new role as eMoney Advisor CEO

Exclusive tour of Fidelity Institutional’s Office of the Future

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Bill Winterberg in Efficiency, Technology

Fidelity Institutional’s Office of the Future shows how an adviser’s future office may not be a physical office at all

Recently I was invited to tour Fidelity Institutional’s Office of the Future, the company’s bold statement on where it believes the adviser’s future workplace is headed.

Irony notwithstanding, Fidelity Institutional’s Office of the Future does, in fact, occupy a physical space in the company’s Smithfield, RI campus located about an hour’s drive south of its Boston, Mass. headquarters.

Ed O’Brien, head of platform technology for Fidelity Institutional, gave me a personal tour of the Office of the Future to highlight tools and technology advisers can use to invest in their own progressive workplace. A virtual Office of the Future tour is available on Fidelity’s website at https://fidelityinstitutional.fidelity.com/fi/campaigns/office-of-future/fidelity.html

The Office of the Future is segmented into four distinct areas, each highlighting specific concepts and tools in technology that advisers can deploy in their office: the briefing room, the “anywhere adviser” zone, the collaborative office, and the home environment.

Briefing Room

OOTF1

In the briefing room, advisers will find large, HD displays connected to a virtual conferencing system. Advisers can use HD video conferencing to create an interactive bridge with colleagues in remote offices, back office support at the home office, or even with clients (but more on that in the home environment).

In addition, the briefing room is not filled with large, encroaching conference tables. Instead, advisers will find an inviting circle of chairs surrounding a large Lenovo Horizon II 27-Inch All-in-One Touchscreen Desktop where they can sit on the same side of the table with clients and begin to navigate through documents, reports, and other on-screen information in an engaging, dynamic setting.

“Anywhere Advisor” Zone

OOTF2

Fidelity’s O’Brien understands that the adviser no longer does 100% of his or her work in the physical office, and has the need to be productive no matter where his or her travels may lead. So Fidelity’s second room is nicknamed the “anywhere advisor” zone, where advisers can try technology that supports productivity while away from the traditional office.

O’Brien demonstrated the presentation apps on tablet devices that synchronize annotations and markup to any virtual meeting attendee, a Celluon EPIC Virtual Keyboard for the ability to type on any flat surface, a Pebble Steel Smart Watch to view notifications and incoming call information without taking one’s phone out of a pocket or handbag, and the arguably controversial Google Glass.

Collaborative Office

OOTF3

In the collaborative office, O’Brien is quick to point out that there are no physical servers supporting the devices in the office. Instead, the collaborative office features three different styles of workstations, from the low-cost tablet and virtual desktop configuration up to the fully-loaded multiple monitor and HD video conferencing equipment from Cisco.

In addition, the collaborative office features a green screen backdrop that advisers can use to create their own video content for clients and prospects, and use the video to add their own background images, graphics, and other information to make compelling content for their audience (much like I do with my own FPPad Bits and Bytes broadcasts).

The Home Environment

OOTF4

Finally, the last stop on the Office of the Future tour is the home environment, where O’Brien says more and more of the adviser-client interactions will take place.

Clients are increasingly seeking convenient options to work with financial advisers, and that includes the ability to chat and engage with an adviser from the comfort of their own living room.

Video chat services like Skype, Google Hangouts, and Apple FaceTime allow clients to have productive, meaningful conversations with their adviser, without dealing with the hassles of driving to an adviser’s office or even identifying advisor they want to work with that happens to have an office near their home. Using this technology, clients are free to work with an adviser anywhere in the United States and conduct those meetings at times convenient to them.

Fidelity adds remote check deposit feature to the WealthCentral Mobile app

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Bill Winterberg in Technology

WealthCentral Mobile from Fidelity now allows advisers to snap photos of checks and deposit them into clients’ eligible Fidelity accounts

Weeks after LPL introduced remote check deposit in its app, Fidelity becomes the first custodian to offer the functionality to its advisers.

Fidelity Investments® introduced remote check deposit support for financial advisers with the latest update to the Fidelity WealthCentral Mobile app.

Fidelity WealthCentral Mobile has been available for iOS and Android devices for roughly two-and-a-half years, and its latest update introduces the remote check deposit feature widely popular among retail banks and financial institutions.

A First for RIAs

Snap photos of checks and deposit them using the Fidelity WealthCentral Mobile app

Fidelity, the third-largest custodian by number of advisers, is not the first institution to offer remote check deposit capabilities to advisers. That distinction is awarded to LPL Financial, which released a new version of LPL Mobile in conjunction with its LPL Focus 2013 conference last month in San Diego (see LPL Financial Unveils Enhancements to Technology Platform at Annual Financial Advisor Conference).

However, Fidelity does get recognition as being the first institutional custodian for independent RIAs to offer remote check deposit to its advisers.

Prior to the general release of remote check deposit to the adviser community, Fidelity worked with about a dozen firms in a pilot period, covering a wide range of business models and services.

“Natural Progression”

“We see this as a natural progression in the mobile space.” Ed O’Brien

“We see this [remote check deposit] as a natural progression in the mobile space,” said Ed O’Brien, head of technology for Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, adding, “further enhancing our technology as we support the ‘anywhere advisor.'”

But advisers eager to download Fidelity WealthCentral Mobile and start depositing client checks right away with their mobile device will need to be patient.

Enrollment Required

Fidelity does have a qualification process for any adviser interested in becoming eligible to use remote check deposit. Advisers must first complete a remote deposit agreement and update their internal policies and procedures with appropriate steps for remote deposit.

The qualification process can take anywhere from one to six weeks, depending on the environment at the requesting firm. Remote deposit can be used by independent RIAs all the way up to institutional clients who clear under National Financial, which is the reason for such a wide range in implementation time.

“Each adviser is unique, so we want to first make sure we understand their needs and processes to ensure a successful deployment,” said O’Brien.

Deposit Limits

Deposits made through the mobile app are limited to $250,000 per check, and the same $250,000 limit applies to total daily deposits per account, which should cover a significant portion of checks received by advisers.

In general, there are no specific account restrictions for remote check deposit. Any account with deposit privileges, whether it’s brokerage, retirement, college savings, or trust, can accept deposits via mobile devices.

For all the details regarding the updates to WealthCentral Mobile, read the press release from Fidelity Investments.

Fidelity selects External IT for a cloud-based virtual desktop solution for financial advisers

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Bill Winterberg in Technology

Fidelity selects External IT to deliver a “first-of-its-kind solution” to advisers

In a press release today, Fidelity announced it has selected External IT as the exclusive provider of a cloud-based virtual desktop solution to financial advisers.

The Cloud Virtual Desktop

Advisers who custody client assets with Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services® (IWS) will soon leverage External IT’s technology known as the OS33 Portal Desktop.

According to Ed O’Brien, head of technology for Fidelity IWS, pricing for the virtual desktop will be approximately $150 per user per month.

Native, Not Watered-Down

In the virtual desktop solution, advisors will find familiar programs including Adobe Acrobat, the Microsoft Office 2010 suite, Quickbooks and more.

External IT users get access to full versions of the office productivity software through Citrix Receiver, not scaled down web-based counterparts with limited functionality.

The External IT dashboard with office productivity programs included (click to view full size image)

File Access

The virtual desktop also supports traditional file management, accessed in two ways.

First, a file manager interface can be accessed directly within the web browser, allowing users to browse a file directory structure similar to those found in most computer operating systems.

The alternate file access method actually launches a separate file manager window that looks just like the Windows 7 file explorer. Users can browse files and folders in both the hosted file system as well as their local hard drive using the External IT file manager window. Worth noting is that the search field works in this separate file manager window just as it does in the native Windows 7 operating system, so users may find this method a bit faster to find documents and files.

Mobile

The External IT solution is also accessible from mobile devices using the standard mobile web browser. Users have a few options when working with office files like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

The mobile optimized External IT dashboard, viewed on an iPad (click to view full size image)

First, the full versions of Office programs can be streamed to the mobile device using the Citrix Receiver app. However, most will find that attempting to touch menu bars and manipulating the cursor is challenging on non-touch optimized software.

Therefore, if users have appropriate permissions, Office documents can be downloaded and opened in third party apps such as QuickOffice Pro HD or Office² HD. Changes can then be uploaded back into the External IT solution.

Security

Advisers will also benefit from a wide array of security features available in the External IT solution. Users can easily add and delete (aka provision) employee accounts, prohibit file downloads onto personal devices, and enforce multi-factor authentication when users log in.

Reactions

For reaction on the solution announcement, I reached out to several providers of virtual desktop solutions for those in financial services.

Wes Stilman, CEO of Right Size Solutions. “If the custodian desires, it provides an opportunity to integrate their technology with a cloud provider.”

“If the custodian desires, it provides an opportunity to integrate their technology with a cloud provider. For example, it could simplify single sign on,” said Wes Stillman, president of Right Size Solutions.

“The potential negative for the custodian is that the cloud provider has to earn consistent high marks,” added Stillman. “Should the quality of service falter, it could reflect badly on the custodian.”

For this reason, Fidelity arranged dedicated support for advisers from External IT and also aligned support times with the equity and bond market schedule, according to O’Brien.

O’Brien added that advisers always have access to the online External IT help desk and can also call in for support during both peak and non-peak hours.

Ryan Terwedo, founder and CEO of CloudRIA: “Depending on how they are providing the [virtual desktop] window, the user experience is not great.”

Ryan Terwedo, founder and CEO of cloudRIA, agrees with Stillman’s sentiment of the provider’s service quality, including the user experience.

“Depending on how they are providing the [virtual desktop] window, the user experience is not great,” said Terwedo. “Microsoft Word was never designed for anything but being installed on a local windows machine.”

Video Spotlight: Fidelity Institutional head of technology Ed O’Brien on WealthCentral enhancements and mobile apps

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Bill Winterberg in Video Spotlight

Today’s video spotlight features a discussion with Ed O’Brien, Senior Vice President and head of technology for Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services.

O’Brien starts off with an update of the WealthCentral platform and the latest enhancements added by the company, addresses mobile apps and how advisers have adopted new interactivity, and finishes with e-signature options available for Fidelity’s partners.

(click here to view on YouTube)

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