Pontera, a technology provider serving advisors in managing held-away assets, is pushing back publicly on 401(k) goliath Fidelity Investments in an attempt to crack the financial giant’s over 24 million active retirement plan savers.
Pontera CEO Yoav Zurel, whose firm has been critical of Fidelity in the past, issued an open letter to the firm on Friday, calling on it to allow third-party financial advisors to use Pontera to view and manage clients’ so-called held-away retirement assets.
In the over 1,300-word letter, Zurel positions Fidelity’s block of credential sharing systems like Pontera as a disservice to retirement savers who either want (or may want in the future) financial advisors to more easily manage workplace retirement assets along with the rest of their portfolio.
“Unlike checking accounts, credit cards, taxable investments, IRAs and other financial products, Americans do not get to choose their 401(k) provider,” Zurel wrote. “Personalized advice and management from a participant-chosen advisor helps counter that lack of choice; it allows for holistic planning, tax optimization strategies and navigation of investment products both simple and complex.”
Fidelity did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pontera’s remarks on Friday.
It has publicly stated, dating back to September 2024, that it was blocking credential sharing systems—without naming Pontera directly—to protect client information and assets.
“Fidelity is announcing that the company will begin taking steps to prevent platforms reliant on credential sharing from accessing and taking action in customer accounts held at Fidelity,” it wrote at the time. “This change is with customers’ best interests in mind to enhance security and reduce customer data exposure.”
In his new letter, Zurel said that on Sept. 5, 2025, Fidelity upped its security measures against the firm by “locking out tens of thousands of its own customers from their accounts for choosing to work with financial advisors outside of Fidelity’s ecosystem.”
“What we’re seeing is an anticompetitive power grab,” Zurel wrote. “Fidelity compelling customers to use Fidelity advisors for customers’ own 401(k) accounts, or no advisors at all.”
The country’s largest 401(k) providers, which include Fidelity, Empower, the Vanguard Group, Alight Solutions, TIAA and Principal Financial Group, have a communication line to millions of savers in the U.S.’s roughly $13 trillion defined contribution retirement market.
When retirement savers roll out those assets to individual retirement accounts or other investment platforms, financial advisors will often take over direct management—but until then, those assets are often kept away from wealth managers, even at times when they are managing other assets for active clients.
Zurel founded New York-based Pontera in 2012 to connect financial advisors with participant assets without managing them directly or needing them to roll out of 401(k) provider accounts. Over the years, it has secured partnerships with thousands of RIAs and wealth managers for its services, including Ameritas, Hightower Advisors, RFG Advisory, Savant Wealth and Steward Partners.
Zurel argues in his letter that these partnerships do not risk client information or safety, with Pontera’s services certified under industry security standards, including SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001.
“Advisors using Pontera do not—and cannot—see the participants’ credentials or access the participants’ accounts,” he wrote. “Our partnerships with leading organizations across the industry, who have independently assessed Pontera’s security infrastructure, further underscores this.”
He also stated that Pontera had reached out to Fidelity to collaborate on leveraging one of their application interfaces for the services or creating a new one, but they had not responded.
In the meantime, other 401(k) and investment services providers have announced partnerships with Pontera. The firm recently announced a deal with record keeper Manulife John Hancock Retirement to provide advisor management of workplace retirement accounts. It also partners with Morningstar, BNY’s Pershing and wealth technology platform provider Orion.
In his letter, Yuvel positioned Pontera’s business model as a “battle” for the right to manage and advise on people’s workplace savings accounts.
“On one side, consumer choice—the freedom for Americans to choose who helps them and their families with one of their most important financial decisions: their plan for retirement,” he wrote. “On the other, an entrenched institutional incumbent highly conflicted and motivated by their own economics. Until now, we’ve fought this battle quietly. That changes today.”
