Using a data sample of 448.1 x 10(6) psi(3686) events collected at root s = 3.686 GeV with the BESIII detector at the Beijing Electron-Positron Collider II, we search for the rare decay J/psi -> phi e(+)e(-) via psi(3686) -> pi(+)pi(-) J/psi. No signal events are observed and the upper limit on the branching fraction is set to be B(J/psi -> phi e(+)e(-)) < 1.2 x 10(-7) at the 90% confidence level, which is still about one order of magnitude higher than the Standard Model prediction.