Fidelity Investments

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English Template:Infobox company Fidelity Investments, formerly known as Fidelity Management & Research (FMR), owned by FMR LLC and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, provides financial services. Established in 1946, the company is one of the largest asset managers in the world, with $5.8 trillion in discretionary assets under management, and $15.1 trillion in assets under administration, Template:As of.<ref name=about>Template:Cite web</ref>

Fidelity operates a brokerage firm, manages mutual funds, provides fund distribution and investment advice, retirement services, index funds, wealth management, securities execution and clearance, asset custody, and life insurance. It offers brokerage clearing and back office support and software products for financial services firms. It also offers a donor-advised fund, Fidelity Charitable, for clients seeking to donate securities. It processes 3.5 million daily average trades. It is one of the largest providers of 401(k) plans and manages employee benefit programs for more than 28,800 businesses.<ref name=about/>

Abigail Johnson, granddaughter of founder Edward C. Johnson II, and her family and their affiliates own a roughly 40% interest in the company. The remainder is owned by current and former executives.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The company also makes investments on its own account for the benefit of the founding family and its executives.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Investments have included Seaport Center and 2.5 million square feet of office space in Boston;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> COLT Telecom Group;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> MetroRed;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Community Newspaper Company;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Lanoga;<ref name=stumbles/> Hope Lumber;<ref name=stumbles>Template:Cite news</ref> ProBuild;<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref> and Boston Coach.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

History

The Fidelity Fund incorporated in Massachusetts on May 1, 1930, with Edward C. Johnson II serving as president.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The corporate structure changed in 1946 and became known as Fidelity Management & Research (FMR).<ref name=heritage/>

In 1969, the company formed Fidelity International (FIL) to serve non-U.S. markets and subsequently spun it off in 1980 into an independent entity owned by its employees.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1982, the company began offering 401(k) products.<ref name=heritage/> In 1984, it offered computerized stock trading.<ref name=heritage/>

In 1991, Fidelity launched the first commercial donor-advised fund.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1995, Fidelity became the first mutual fund company to offer a webpage.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1997, Robert Pozen was named CEO.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2001, Geode Capital Management was established to run and incubate investment strategies for FMR. In 2003, it was spun off as an independent company.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In September 2003, the company launched its first exchange-traded fund, the Fidelity Nasdaq Composite Index Tracking Stock Fund (ONEQ).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In June 2004, the company acquired Wealth Lab; it was decommissioned in 2020.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2007, the company changed its legal structure to a limited liability company; FMR LLC became the owning entity.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2010, Fidelity Ventures, its venture capital arm, was shut down, and many of the employees created Volition Capital.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2011, Fidelity changed the name of its international division from Fidelity International to Fidelity Worldwide Investment and a new logo was introduced.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2012, the company moved its Boston headquarters to 245 Summer Street.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2014, Abigail Johnson became president and CEO of Fidelity Investments (FMR) and chairman of Fidelity International (FIL).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She reduced dependence on open-ended mutual funds, instead having the company focus on financial advice, brokerage services, and venture capital.<ref name=afraid>Template:Cite news</ref>

In October 2018, Fidelity launched Fidelity Digital Asset Services, a separate entity dedicated to institutional cryptoasset custody and cryptocurrency trading.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In August 2018, Fidelity introduced mutual funds with no mutual fund fees and expenses.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In May 2019, Fidelity launched cryptocurrency trading to institutional customers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In September 2019, Fidelity completed the corporate spin-off of Eight Roads Ventures, its venture capital division. It was known as Fidelity Growth Partners until 2015.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2018, Eight Roads launched a $375 million European fund.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In August 2021, Fidelity announced plans to hire 16,000 employees in 2021,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> including 9,000 during the second half of the year.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In April 2022, Fidelity began offering Bitcoin as an investment option in 401(k) plans to participants whose employers have elected to include it in their plan.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In January 2023, Fidelity acquired Shoobx, a provider of automated equity management operations and financing software which was folded into Fidelity’s Stock Plan Services business.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In January 2024, after receiving approval, Fidelity was one of several issuers that launched a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In July 2024, after receiving approval, Fidelity was one of several issuers that launched a spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In April 2025, Fidelity launched no-fee cryptocurrency trading in individual retirement accounts.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Notable mutual funds

Fidelity has three fund divisions: Equity (headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts), High-Income (headquartered in Boston) and Fixed-Income (headquartered in Merrimack, New Hampshire).<ref name=about/>

Fidelity Contrafund

The company's largest equity mutual fund is Fidelity Contrafund, which has $145 billion in assets,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> making it the largest actively managed mutual fund in the U.S. William Danoff has managed Contrafund since 1990.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Fidelity Magellan

Fidelity Magellan has $25 billion in assets.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Its current manager is Jeffrey Feingold, who also manages the Fidelity Trend Fund. It was founded by Ned Johnson in 1963 as the Fidelity International Fund and was renamed the Magellan Fund in 1965. The early sales staff of the Magellan Fund were mostly part-time, traveling employees until the 1973–1974 stock market crash led to a severe decline in interest.<ref name=beating>Template:Cite book</ref> Magellan was managed by Johnson from May 2, 1963, to December 31, 1971, Lynch from May 31, 1977, to May 31, 1990, and Harry W. Lange from 2005 to 2012. Under Lynch's leadership Magellan averaged a 29% annual return, more than doubling the growth rate of the S&P 500, making it the best-performing mutual fund in history over such an extended period.<ref name=beating/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Legal issues and controversies

Conflict of interest with employee/owners' personal investments

Owners and employees of the company are able to invest in pre-IPO startup companies via the company's subsidiary, F-Prime Capital Partners. An investigation by Reuters in 2016 identified multiple cases where F-Prime Capital Partners was able to make investments in shares at a fraction of the price later paid by funds managed by Fidelity Investments. Because of regulations, the funds are not allowed to make the same early venture capital investments as F-Prime Capital Partners. However, the funds allegedly made large investments in companies after they go public in which shares are already owned by Fidelity employees via F-Prime Capital Partners.<ref name=richer>Template:Cite news</ref> An example included William Danoff's personal purchase of shares of Alibaba Group for 7 cents each; many shares were later purchased by the fund he manages.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> While the practice is not illegal, it poses a corporate conflict of interest.<ref name=richer/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The same Reuters investigation documents six cases (out of 10) where Fidelity Investments became one of the largest investors of F-Prime Capital companies after the start-up companies became publicly traded. Legal and academic experts said that major investments by Fidelity mutual funds - with their market-moving buying power - could be seen as propping up the values of the investments made by F-Prime Capital, to the benefit of Fidelity insiders.<ref name=richer/>

Document retention fines

In February 2007, the NASD, a division of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, fined four FMR-affiliated broker-dealers $3.75 million for alleged registration, supervision and e-mail retention violations. The broker-dealers settled without admitting or denying the charges.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2004, Fidelity Brokerage paid $2 million to settle charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that employees altered and destroyed documents in 21 of its 88 branch offices between January 2001 and July 2002. Fidelity has internal inspections every year to make sure it is complying with federal regulations. Management was accused of pressuring branch employees to have perfect inspections and gave notice of the inspections and that at least 62 employees destroyed or altered potentially improper documents maintained at branch offices including new account applications, letters of authorization and variable annuity forms.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>

Misrepresentations

In May 2007, NASD fined two Fidelity broker-dealers $400,000 for preparing and distributing misleading sales literature promoting Fidelity's Destiny I and II Systematic Investment Plans, which were sold primarily to U.S. military personnel. As part of the settlement, the FMR affiliates were required to notify Destiny Plan holders that additional shares of the underlying fund can be purchased without paying additional sales charges.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>

Employee stealing from clients

In January 2025, the company was fined $600,000 by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for lax supervision after an employee stole $750,000 from the accounts of 37 international clients over an eight year period from 2012 to 2020.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Tardy processing

In May 2025, the company was fined and censured by federal regulators for taking weeks to complete certain customer transactions that should have taken days.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Accepting gifts from brokerages

In December 2006, the company was fined $42 million after some employees accepted gifts from salespeople of Jefferies Group in violation of the company's policies. The firm was fined an additional $3.75 million in February 2007 and $8 million in 2008. Gifts included private chartered flights, tickets to the 2004 Super Bowl, Wimbledon Championships and the US Open tennis tournament; tickets to Justin Timberlake, U2, and Christina Aguilera concerts; and high-end wines such as 1993 Château Pétrus.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• List of mutual funds in the United States by assets under management

External links

• Template:Official website