The two giants add new features to their joint trading and custody platform. Fidelity has upgraded its services to the more than 200 bank trusts and third-party administrators (TPAs) it works with through its RIA Group by linking its custody platform with SunGard's Transaction Network (STN).

The tie-in with Fidelity "has given our customers access to one of the most advanced sets of automated trading and brokerage services available," says Bob Ward, COO of SunGard's STN business unit. "By creating an integrated platform that supports a wide spectrum of investment processes, the STN-Fidelity solution provides customers with tools to help them acquire, grow, manage and service their businesses - today and into the future."

Naming of parts

The renovated platform features directed-trustee services program, a payment and reporting program for brokers who support retirement plans, and an online revenue management tool. The new features are meant to help trust and TPA firms improve their wealth- and retirement-planning services.

"With 78 million boomers preparing to retire and American workers being asked to shoulder more of the burden of saving for their retirement, the role of trust institutions and TPAs is likely to grow exponentially in the coming years," says Fidelity senior v.p. Jim Taylor. "While the initial focus on the joint offering has been on providing trust institutions straight-through processing capabilities by integrating trust accounting and custody systems, the latest set of enhancements are designed to help TPAs drive profitable growth and support the increasingly complex financial needs of their clients."

For example, Fidelity says the new directed-trustee services will make it easier for TPAs to manage qualified retirement plans by allowing them to access Fidelity's professional trustee services. This way, plan sponsors can reduce risk, audit expenses, and reduce administrative costs.

Access to Fidelity's Institutional Broker Network gives broker-dealers an additional resource on compliance maters as well as a way to make automatic payments of asset-based fees through the National Securities Clearing Corporation's Commission Settlement service.

The online revenue-management tool is supposed to help TPAs keep track of commission payments from various fund companies across various retirement plans.

Fidelity's RIA Group custodies more than $290 billion in assets on behalf of more than 3,800 RIAs, bank trusts and TPAs -- with RIAs predominating. In all Boston-based Fidelity has over $3.2 trillion in assets in custody and $1.5 trillion in assets under management.

Wayne, Pa.-based SunGard provides software and investment-processing services to financial-service companies. -FWR

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