Low Cost Advisor

February 7, 2022

Fidelity Investments Review – Low Cost Advisor

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Account Types

Fidelity has among the widest range of account types in our survey of brokerages for individuals, families, businesses and managed accounts.

Beyond the typical joint and individual taxable brokerage accounts and tax-advantaged retirement accounts, the company offers every type of account an individual or business could need. Some of the more unique account types include Solo 401(k)s for the self-employed and small businesses and 529 accounts for college savings.

The array of account types fall into these categories:

  • Taxable investing
  • Individual retirement accounts (IRAs)
  • Business accounts
  • Saving and investing for a child
  • Saving for medical expenses
  • Estate planning
  • Trusts
  • Charitable giving
  • Managed accounts
  • Annuities and life insurance

Desktop Platform

Fidelity’s standard desktop platform offers a full range of analysis capabilities and tools needed to screen and research investments. The portfolio analysis tools break down holdings by stock and fixed income, investment ratings, style and sector.

There are multiple portfolio analysis screens, including performance, dividends, asset allocation and fund rankings. Users can link external accounts for a 360-degree portfolio view and analysis.

The platform’s research offerings are among the best in the online brokerage space and include extensive third-party research and access to fixed income specialists.

Fidelity Account Trader Pro

The Fidelity trading platform and tools rank among the top three of our surveyed brokers. This downloadable trading platform is a complete solution for new-to-experienced traders and investors, scoring near-perfect marks for the most important features.

Active traders will benefit from level II quotes, heat mapping, a trade journal and more than 45 market filters. Users can customize their trading experience, and the Active Trader Pro goes head-to-head with top platforms like TD Ameritrade’s thinkorswim and Schwab’s StreetSmart Edge.

Advanced and customizable features include:

  • Alerts
  • Portfolio builder
  • Trade journal
  • Heat mapping
  • AI assistant
  • Watch lists
  • Level II quotes
  • Screeners
  • Extended hours trading
  • Multi-leg options trading

The platform is easy to use and has most of the features traders need including real-time analytics and trading ideas. The platform lacks a short locator and paper trading, but that’s about the only weakness.

Charting

The platform’s charting capabilities rival the best and are suitable for day, active and technical traders. Fidelity’s Active Trader Pro platform shines with its advanced technical analysis capabilities, drawing tools and tabbed charting, all available for no additional fee.

Customizable chart features include:

  • 114 chart indicators
  • Ability to trade from chart
  • Drawing tools
  • Historical trades
  • Ability to save chart settings as template

Order Types

Fidelity received a perfect score on our survey for order types. Beginner-to-experienced investors can access most order types including conditional and durational orders. Multi-leg options orders are also available. Note that some conditional orders are not available on the mobile app.

Available order types include:

  • Market, limit, day
  • Trailing stop
  • Good til cancelled (GTC)
  • One cancels the other (OTO)
  • Limit on open/close
  • Market on open/close
  • Short selling

Fidelity is known for superior order execution, and price improvement saved clients more than $1.6 billion on trades in 2020. The company claims to be the only firm that voluntarily reports full price improvement savings with the Financial Information Forum (FIF) standards. If you’re a frequent trader, then this is an important money-saving feature.

Fidelity Managed Portfolios

Fidelity managed portfolio options are expansive. There are various tiers of managed accounts from basic and hybrid robo-advisors to fully managed portfolios at a variety of service and price points. Watch out for fees, however, as some surpass those of competitors.

Fidelity’s robo-advisor digital and hybrid managers are the Fidelity Go and Fidelity Personalized Planning and Advice. The basic Fidelity Go platform provides a diversified investment portfolio and automatic rebalancing. It requires no minimum investment amount and offers fee-free investment management for accounts worth less than $10,000. The investment management fee is $3 per month for accounts with balances between $10,000 and $49,999. This switches to a percentage-based fee model of 0.35% of assets under management (AUM) annually for accounts worth $50,000 or more.

Fidelity Personalized Planning and Advice combines Fidelity Go with live financial advisors for a more customized experience. The minimum investment amount is $25,000, and the fee is 0.50% AUM per year.

Fidelity’s additional wealth management solutions provide various levels of service, strategies, pricing and customization:

  • Portfolio Advisory Services has a $50,000 minimum and provides access to a dedicated team of financial advisors for a 1.10% AUM annual fee
  • Wealth Management requires a $250,000 minimum and offers a dedicated financial advisor. Fees range between 0.50% and 1.5% AUM annually, and services cover in-depth strategies, estate planning, insurance and more.

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