 | |
 Headquarters at 245 Summer Street in Boston | |
| Formerly | Fidelity Management and Research Company |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1946; 79 years ago (1946) (as Fidelity Management & Research) |
| Founder | Edward C. Johnson II |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Abigail Johnson (CEO) |
| Products | |
| Services | |
| Revenue |  US$32.7 billion (2024) |
| US$10.3 billion (2024) | |
| AUM | US$5.9 trillion (2024) |
| Owner | Abigail Johnson and family (roughly 40%) Current and former employees (roughly 60%) |
Number of employees | 77,000 (2024) |
| Website | fidelity |
| Footnotes / references [1][2] | |
Fidelity Investments, formerly known asFidelity Management & Research (FMR), owned by FMR LLC and headquartered inBoston,Massachusetts, United States, provides financial services. Established in 1946, the company isone of the largest asset managers in the world, with $5.8 trillion in discretionaryassets under management, and $15.1 trillion in assets under administration, as of December 2024[update].[3]
Fidelity operates abrokerage firm, managesmutual funds, provides fund distribution and investment advice, retirement services,index funds,wealth management, securities execution and clearance, asset custody, andlife insurance. It offers brokerage clearing and back office support and software products for financial services firms. It also offers adonor-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 of401(k) plans and manages employee benefit programs for more than 28,800 businesses.[3]
Abigail Johnson, granddaughter of founderEdward 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.[4][5][6][7]
The company also makes investments on its own account for the benefit of the founding family and its executives.[8] Investments have includedSeaport Center and 2.5 million square feet of office space in Boston;[9]COLT Telecom Group;[10] MetroRed;[11]Community Newspaper Company;[12] Lanoga;[13] Hope Lumber;[13]ProBuild;[14] and Boston Coach.[15]
The Fidelity Fund incorporated in Massachusetts on May 1, 1930, withEdward C. Johnson II serving as president.[16] The corporate structure changed in 1946 and became known asFidelity Management & Research (FMR).[2]
In 1969, the company formedFidelity International (FIL) to serve non-U.S. markets and subsequently spun it off in 1980 into an independent entity owned by its employees.[17]
In 1982, the company began offering401(k) products.[2] In 1984, it offered computerized stock trading.[2]
In 1991, Fidelity launched the first commercialdonor-advised fund.[18]
In 1995, Fidelity became the first mutual fund company to offer awebpage.[19]
In 1997,Robert Pozen was namedCEO.[20]
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.[21]
In September 2003, the company launched its firstexchange-traded fund, the Fidelity Nasdaq Composite Index Tracking Stock Fund (ONEQ).[22]
In June 2004, the company acquiredWealth Lab; it was decommissioned in 2020.[23]
In 2007, the company changed its legal structure to alimited liability company; FMR LLC became the owning entity.[24]
In 2010, Fidelity Ventures, itsventure capital arm, was shut down, and many of the employees created Volition Capital.[25]
In 2011, Fidelity changed the name of its international division from Fidelity International to Fidelity Worldwide Investment and a new logo was introduced.[26]
In 2012, the company moved its Boston headquarters to 245Summer Street.[27]
In 2014,Abigail Johnson became president and CEO of Fidelity Investments (FMR) and chairman ofFidelity International (FIL).[28] She reduced dependence on open-ended mutual funds, instead having the company focus on financial advice, brokerage services, andventure capital.[29]
In October 2018, Fidelity launched Fidelity Digital Asset Services, a separate entity dedicated to institutional cryptoasset custody andcryptocurrency trading.[30][31]
In August 2018, Fidelity introduced mutual funds with nomutual fund fees and expenses.[32]
In May 2019, Fidelity launched cryptocurrency trading to institutional customers.[33]
In September 2019, Fidelity completed thecorporate spin-off of Eight Roads Ventures, itsventure capital division. It was known as Fidelity Growth Partners until 2015.[34] In 2018, Eight Roads launched a $375 million European fund.[35][36]
In August 2021, Fidelity announced plans to hire 16,000 employees in 2021,[37] including 9,000 during the second half of the year.[38]
In April 2022, Fidelity began offeringBitcoin as an investment option in401(k) plans to participants whose employers have elected to include it in their plan.[39]
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.[40]
In January 2024, after receiving approval, Fidelity was one of several issuers that launched a spotBitcoinexchange-traded fund (ETF).[41]
In July 2024, after receiving approval, Fidelity was one of several issuers that launched a spotEthereumexchange-traded fund.[42]
In April 2025, Fidelity launched no-fee cryptocurrency trading in individual retirement accounts.[43]
Fidelity has three fund divisions: Equity (headquartered inBoston, Massachusetts), High-Income (headquartered in Boston) and Fixed-Income (headquartered inMerrimack, New Hampshire).[3]
The company's largest equity mutual fund isFidelity Contrafund, which has $145 billion in assets,[44] making it the largest actively managed mutual fund in the U.S.William Danoff has managed Contrafund since 1990.[45]
Fidelity Magellan has $25 billion in assets.[46] Its current manager is Jeffrey Feingold, who also manages the Fidelity Trend Fund. It was founded byNed 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 the1973–1974 stock market crash led to a severe decline in interest.[47] 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 theS&P 500, making it the best-performing mutual fund in history over such an extended period.[47][48]
Owners and employees of the company are able to invest in pre-IPOstartup companies via the company's subsidiary, F-Prime Capital Partners. An investigation byReuters 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.[49] An example includedWilliam Danoff's personal purchase of shares ofAlibaba Group for 7 cents each; many shares were later purchased by the fund he manages.[50] While the practice is not illegal, it poses a corporate conflict of interest.[49][51] 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.[49]
In February 2007, the NASD, a division of theFinancial 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.[52]
In 2004, Fidelity Brokerage paid $2 million to settle charges by theU.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.[53]
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.[54]
In January 2025, the company was fined $600,000 by theFinancial 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.[55][56]
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.[57]
In December 2006, the company was fined $42 million after some employees accepted gifts from salespeople ofJefferies 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 the2004 Super Bowl,Wimbledon Championships and theUS Open tennis tournament; tickets toJustin Timberlake,U2, andChristina Aguilera concerts; and high-end wines such as 1993Château Pétrus.[58][59][60]
Media related toFidelity Investments at Wikimedia Commons
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