Fidelity Investments is cutting prices on some of the support services it provides independent advisors through its Institutional Wealth Services (FIWS) unit. The move follows a June 2009 price-trimming initiative by Fidelity's rival Charles Schwab Corp.'s June  for RIAs.

Fidelity's price reductions will help independent advisors select a custodian on the basis of "the overall longterm value of the platform’s technology, products and service, as opposed to short-term pricing incentives," according to a company press release.

Starting next month, Fidelity will cut annual service fees for the Oracle CRM application of its WealthCentral advisor-desktop technology suite by between 10% and 35%, and cut by 50% the annual cost of Advent’s WealthCentral-delivered multi-custodial platform for 2010 and 2011.

On the investment-platform side, Fidelity is waiving annual position fees for alternative-investment accounts, annual trustee fees for personal-trust accounts, and annual custody fees for accounts in Fidelity’s Separate Account Network.

For trading and account-transitions, Fidelity is eliminating commissions on electronic equity and options trades, and cutting - without limit to as to number of accounts or amounts waived - transfer-of-account fees for advisors who are new to Fidelity from 1 October 2009 through 30 June 2010.

These new pricing initiatives are an example of our focus on making the strategic, long-term investments that give advisors the tools to help them succeed,” says FIWS president Michael Durbin.

In June, Schwab said it would waive online equity-trade commissions for 12 months, reimburse new-account transfer charges through the end of this year and eliminate 2010 licensing fees for its proprietary portfolio-management software.

FIWS custodied more than $320 billion in assets on behalf of more than 3,500 institutional clients at the end of June 2009. Schwab's RIA-support unitserved more than 5,500 independent firms and custodied $477.2 billion at the end of 2008.