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Fidelity Investments, formerly known as Fidelity Management & Research (FMR), owned by FMR LLC and headquartered in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, 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 In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, refers to the total market value of all financial assets that a financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institutio ...
, and $15.1 trillion in assets under administration, . Fidelity operates a
brokerage firm A broker is a person or entity that arranges transactions between a Purchasing, buyer and a sales, seller. This may be done for a commission (remuneration), commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer b ...
, manages
mutual fund A mutual fund is an investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase Security (finance), securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV in ...
s, provides fund distribution and investment advice, retirement services,
index fund An index fund (also index tracker) is a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) designed to follow certain preset rules so that it can replicate the performance of a specified basket of underlying investments. The main advantage of index fun ...
s,
wealth management Wealth management (WM) or wealth management advisory (WMA) is an investment advisory service that provides financial management and wealth advisory services to a wide array of clients ranging from affluent to high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-hi ...
, securities execution and clearance, asset custody, and
life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typical ...
. It offers brokerage clearing and back office support and software products for financial services firms. It also offers a
donor-advised fund In the United States, a donor-advised fund (commonly called a DAF) is a charitable giving vehicle administered by a public charity created to manage charitable donations on behalf of organizations, families, or individuals. To participate in a dono ...
, 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) In the United States, a 401(k) plan is an employer-sponsored, defined-contribution, personal pension (savings) account, as defined in subsection 401(k) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Periodic employee contributions come directly out of their ...
plans and manages employee benefit programs for more than 28,800 businesses. 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.


History

The Fidelity Fund incorporated in Massachusetts on May 1, 1930, with Edward C. Johnson II serving as president. The corporate structure changed in 1946 and became known as Fidelity Management & Research (FMR). In 1969, the company formed
Fidelity International Limited Fidelity International Ltd (FIL) is a company that provides investment management services including mutual funds, pension management and fund platforms to private and institutional investors. Fidelity International was originally established in ...
(FIL) to serve non-U.S. markets and subsequently spun it off in 1980 into an independent entity owned by its employees. In 1982, the company began offering
401(k) In the United States, a 401(k) plan is an employer-sponsored, defined-contribution, personal pension (savings) account, as defined in subsection 401(k) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Periodic employee contributions come directly out of their ...
products. In 1984, it offered computerized stock trading. In 1991, Fidelity launched the first commercial
donor-advised fund In the United States, a donor-advised fund (commonly called a DAF) is a charitable giving vehicle administered by a public charity created to manage charitable donations on behalf of organizations, families, or individuals. To participate in a dono ...
. In 1995, Fidelity became the first mutual fund company to offer a
webpage A web page (or webpage) is a Web document that is accessed in a web browser. A website typically consists of many web pages linked together under a common domain name. The term "web page" is therefore a metaphor of paper pages bound together in ...
. In 1997,
Robert Pozen Robert Charles Pozen (born 1946), known as "Bob", is an American financial executive with a strong interest in public policy. He is the former chairman of MFS Investment Management, the oldest mutual fund company in the United States. Previously ...
was named
CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...
. 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. In September 2003, the company launched its first
exchange-traded fund An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund that is also an exchange-traded product, i.e., it is traded on stock exchanges. ETFs own financial assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, debts, futures contracts, and/or comm ...
, the Fidelity Nasdaq Composite Index Tracking Stock Fund (ONEQ). In 2007, the company changed its legal structure to a
limited liability company A limited liability company (LLC) is the United States-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of ...
; FMR LLC became the owning entity. In 2010, Fidelity Ventures, its
venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...
arm, was shut down, and many of the employees created Volition Capital. In 2011, Fidelity changed the name of its international division from Fidelity International to Fidelity Worldwide Investment and a new logo was introduced. In 2012, the company moved its Boston headquarters to 245 Summer Street. In 2014, Abigail Johnson became president and CEO of Fidelity Investments (FMR) and chairman of Fidelity International (FIL). She reduced dependence on open-ended mutual funds, instead having the company focus on financial advice, brokerage services, and
venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...
. In October 2018, Fidelity launched Fidelity Digital Asset Services, a separate entity dedicated to institutional cryptoasset custody and
cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership record ...
trading. In August 2018, Fidelity introduced mutual funds with no
mutual fund fees and expenses Mutual fund fees and expenses are charges that may be incurred by investors who hold mutual funds. Operating a mutual fund involves costs, including shareholder transaction costs, investment advisory fees, and marketing and distribution expenses. ...
. In May 2019, Fidelity launched cryptocurrency trading to institutional customers. In September 2019, Fidelity completed the
corporate spin-off A corporate spin-off, also known as a spin-out, starburst or hive-off, is a type of corporate action where a company "splits off" a section as a separate business or creates a second incarnation, even if the first is still active. It is distinct ...
of Eight Roads Ventures, its
venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...
division. It was known as Fidelity Growth Partners until 2015. In 2018, Eight Roads launched a $375 million European fund. In August 2021, Fidelity announced plans to hire 16,000 employees in 2021, including 9,000 during the second half of the year. In April 2022, Fidelity announced that it will start offering
Bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...
as an investment option in
401(k) In the United States, a 401(k) plan is an employer-sponsored, defined-contribution, personal pension (savings) account, as defined in subsection 401(k) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Periodic employee contributions come directly out of their ...
plans to participants whose employers have elected to include it in their plan. In January 2024, after receiving approval, Fidelity was one of several issuers that launched a spot
Bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...
exchange-traded fund An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund that is also an exchange-traded product, i.e., it is traded on stock exchanges. ETFs own financial assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, debts, futures contracts, and/or comm ...
(ETF). In July 2024, after receiving approval, Fidelity was one of several issuers that launched a spot
Ethereum Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (abbreviation: ETH) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capitalization. It is open-s ...
exchange-traded fund An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund that is also an exchange-traded product, i.e., it is traded on stock exchanges. ETFs own financial assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, debts, futures contracts, and/or comm ...
. In April 2025, Fidelity launched no-fee cryptocurrency trading in individual retirement accounts.


Notable mutual funds

Fidelity has three fund divisions: Equity (headquartered in
Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
), High-Income (headquartered in Boston) and Fixed-Income (headquartered in
Merrimack, New Hampshire Merrimack is a New England town, town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 26,632 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. There are four villages in the town: Merrimack Village (formerly known as So ...
).


Fidelity Contrafund

The company's largest equity mutual fund is
Fidelity Contrafund Fidelity Contrafund (symbol FCNTX) is a mutual fund operated and provided by Fidelity Investments. Its current manager is William Danoff, who has headed the fund since 1990. Contrafund's AUM (assets under management In finance, assets under m ...
, which has $145 billion in assets, making it the largest non-
index fund An index fund (also index tracker) is a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) designed to follow certain preset rules so that it can replicate the performance of a specified basket of underlying investments. The main advantage of index fun ...
in the U.S. and the largest fund managed by an individual. William Danoff has managed Contrafund since 1990.


Fidelity Magellan

Fidelity Magellan has $25 billion in assets. Its current manager is Jeffrey Feingold, who also manages the Fidelity Trend Fund. Founded by Ned Johnson in 1963 as the Fidelity International Fund during what
Peter Lynch Peter Lynch (born January 19, 1944) is an American investor, mutual fund manager, author and philanthropist. As the manager of the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments between 1977 and 1990, Lynch averaged a 29.2% annual return, consistently m ...
called the "great fund boom", it was renamed the Magellan Fund in 1965. As Lynch recounted, the early sales staff of the Magellan Fund was mostly part-time, traveling employees until the
1973–1974 stock market crash The 1973–1974 stock market crash caused a bear market between January 1973 and December 1974. Affecting all the major stock markets in the world, particularly the United Kingdom, it was one of the worst stock market downturns since the Great D ...
led to a severe decline in interest. Magellan was managed by Johnson from May 2, 1963, to Dec. 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 29% a year, more than doubling the growth rate of the benchmark S&P 500, and remains the best-performing mutual fund in history over such an extended period.


Devonshire Investors

The company's Devonshire Investors arm is a division that gives the owners of the company the ability to make other investments outside its funds. Investments include: * Seaport Center and 2.5 million square feet of office space in Boston. *
COLT Telecom Group Colt Technology Services Group Limited (formerly COLT Telecom Group S.A.) is a multinational telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Inde ...
Former investments include: * MetroRed *
Community Newspaper Company Community Newspaper Company, or CNC, was the largest publisher of weekly newspapers in eastern Massachusetts in the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century. It also published several daily newspapers in Greater Boston. The company's proper ...
, the largest chain of newspapers in suburban
Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, sold to the ''
Boston Herald The ''Boston Herald'' is an American conservative daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarde ...
'' in 2000 and now owned by
GateHouse Media GateHouse Media Inc. was an American publisher of locally based print and digital media. It published 144 daily newspapers, 684 community publications, and over 569 local-market websites in 38 states. Its parent company, New Media Investment Group ...
. * Fidelity paid $1.14 billion for Lanoga, the third-largest U.S. professional materials dealer, and $548 million for Hope Lumber, an Oklahoma-based supplier of trusses and other wood products. * In 2013, it sold Boston Coach, a
limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment which can be operated mechanically by hand or by a button electronically. A luxu ...
and black-car service, founded in 1985 by Ned Johnson after waiting too long for a taxi, to Harrison Global. * It formed
ProBuild Probuild was an Australian construction company that traded from 1987 until 2022. History Probuild was founded in 1987 by Phil Mehtren. In 2000 it was purchased by Wilson Bayly Holmes Ovcon. An attempt to sell the business to the China Commu ...
in 2006 and sold it to Builders FirstSource in 2015.


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 An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
startup companies A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses tha ...
via the company's subsidiary, F-Prime Capital Partners. An investigation by ''
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...
'' 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. An example included William Danoff's personal purchase of shares of
Alibaba Group Alibaba Group Holding Limited, branded as Alibaba (), is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology company specializing in E-commerce in China, e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology. Founded on 28 June 1999 in Hangzho ...
for 7 cents each; many shares were later purchased by the fund he manages. While the practice is not illegal, it poses a corporate conflict of interest. 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.


Document retention fines

In February 2007, the NASD, a division of the
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a private American corporation that acts as a self-regulatory organization (SRO) that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets. FINRA is the successor to the National Associati ...
, 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. In 2004, Fidelity Brokerage paid $2 million to settle charges by the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...
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.


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 who want to increase their investments in existing Destiny Plans that additional shares of the underlying fund can be purchased outside the Destiny Plans without paying the additional sales charges.


Employee stealing

In 2025, the company was fined $600,000 by the
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a private American corporation that acts as a self-regulatory organization (SRO) that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets. FINRA is the successor to the National Associati ...
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.


Accepting gifts from brokerages

In December 2006, the company was fined $42 million after some employees accepted gifts from salespeople of
Jefferies Group Jefferies Group LLC is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company that is headquartered in New York City. The firm provides clients with capital markets and financial advisory services, institutional b ...
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 The Wimbledon Championships, commonly called Wimbledon, is a tennis tournament organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association annually in Wimbledon, London. It is chronologically the ...
and the US Open tennis tournament; tickets to
Justin Timberlake Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and dancer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Prince of Pop", ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' honored him as the b ...
, U2, and
Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera ( , ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and television personality. Recognized as Cultural impact of Christina Aguilera, an influential figure in music and having received Public imag ...
concerts; and high-end wines such as 1993
Château Pétrus Pétrus is a Bordeaux, France, wine estate located in the Pomerol appellation near its eastern border to Saint-Émilion. A small estate of just , it produces a red wine entirely from Merlot grapes (since the end of 2010), and produces no sec ...
.


Marketing


Paul McCartney marketing campaign

Fidelity has experimented with marketing techniques directed to the
baby boomer Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the demographic cohort preceded by the Silent Generation and followed by Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964 during the mid-20th century baby boom that ...
demographic, releasing ''
Never Stop Doing What You Love ''Never Stop Doing What You Love'' is a not-for-resale compilation of various Paul McCartney and Wings songs created for the employees and clients of Fidelity Investments, a company in the financial services industry. The ex-Beatle became the mutu ...
'', a compilation of songs by
Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...
. McCartney became the firm's
spokesman A spokesperson, spokesman, or spokeswoman is someone engaged or elected to speak on behalf of others. Duties and function In the present media-sensitive world, many organizations are increasingly likely to employ professionals who have receiv ...
in 2005 in a campaign entitled "This Is Paul". On the day of the disc's release, company employees were treated to a special recorded message by Paul himself informing them that "Fidelity and ehave a lot in common" and urging them to "never stop doing what you love".


See also

*
List of US mutual funds by assets under management This is a list of mutual funds and ETFs in the United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, ...
*
Mutual fund A mutual fund is an investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase Security (finance), securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV in ...
s: **
Fidelity Contrafund Fidelity Contrafund (symbol FCNTX) is a mutual fund operated and provided by Fidelity Investments. Its current manager is William Danoff, who has headed the fund since 1990. Contrafund's AUM (assets under management In finance, assets under m ...
** Fidelity Magellan *
Fidelity International Fidelity International Ltd (FIL) is a company that provides investment management services including mutual funds, pension management and fund platforms to private and institutional investors. Fidelity International was originally established ...
*
Mutual fund fees and expenses Mutual fund fees and expenses are charges that may be incurred by investors who hold mutual funds. Operating a mutual fund involves costs, including shareholder transaction costs, investment advisory fees, and marketing and distribution expenses. ...
* Wealth Lab * Asset management in Singapore * '' Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. v. Manning'', a 2016 Supreme Court case involving
naked short selling Naked short selling, or naked shorting, is the practice of short-selling a tradable asset of any kind without first borrowing the asset from someone else or ensuring that it can be borrowed. When the seller does not obtain the asset and deli ...
claims against National Financial, a subsidiary of Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, and others.


References


External links

* {{Authority control 1946 establishments in Massachusetts Companies based in Boston American companies established in 1946 Financial services companies established in 1946 Financial services companies of the United States Privately held companies of the United States Investment management companies of the United States Multinational companies headquartered in the United States Mutual funds of the United States Online brokerages Online financial services companies of the United States Privately held companies based in Massachusetts Fidelity International Asset management companies