Fidelity Investments

Fidelity Investments, formerly known as Fidelity Management & Research (FMR), is a big company that helps people manage their money. It was started in 1946 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Fidelity is one of the largest companies in the world for helping people invest their money, with over $5.9 trillion in investments that they manage directly.

Fidelity offers many services to help people with their money. They have a brokerage firm where people can buy and sell stocks and other investments. They also manage mutual funds and index funds, give advice about investing, and help people plan for retirement. They even provide life insurance and help businesses with employee benefits like 401(k) plans.

The company is mostly owned by the family of its founder, Edward C. Johnson II, especially his granddaughter Abigail Johnson. They also make investments to help grow the company and support the founding family. These investments have included big real estate projects and other businesses.

History

The Fidelity Fund started in Massachusetts on May 1, 1930, with Edward C. Johnson II as its leader. By 1946, it was known as Fidelity Management & Research (FMR).

Over the years, Fidelity grew in many ways. In 1969, it created a group to serve people outside the United States. In 1982, it began offering special retirement savings plans called 401(k)s. By 1995, it was the first to offer its services online. In 2014, Abigail Johnson became its leader and focused more on giving financial advice and helping with investments.

Fidelity kept changing and growing. It started offering special investment funds called exchange-traded funds in 2003. In 2018, it began working with digital money called cryptocurrency. By 2022, it let people choose to invest in Bitcoin through their retirement plans. In 2024, it helped create special investment funds for Bitcoin and Ethereum. In 2026, it planned to launch its own digital money called the Fidelity Digital Dollar.

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).

Fidelity Contrafund

The company's largest equity mutual fund is Fidelity Contrafund, which has $145 billion in assets, making it the largest actively managed mutual fund in the U.S. 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. It was founded by Ned Johnson in 1963 as the Fidelity International Fund and was renamed the Magellan Fund in 1965. Under Peter Lynch's leadership from 1977 to 1990, Magellan grew very quickly, more than doubling the growth rate of the S&P 500.

Legal issues and controversies

Fidelity Investments has faced several legal issues and fines over the years. In some cases, employees were found to have conflicts of interest when investing in companies before they became public, which created situations where the company could benefit from its own employees' early investments.

The company has also been fined for not keeping proper records, misrepresenting investment plans, and for employees stealing money from clients. Additionally, some employees accepted expensive gifts from other companies, which broke company rules. These incidents led to various fines and requirements for the company to improve its practices.