Fidelity Investments

Fidelity Investments, formerly known as Fidelity Management & Research (FMR), is a large company that helps people manage their money. It started in 1946 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Fidelity is one of the biggest companies in the world for helping people invest their money.

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.

History

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

Over time, Fidelity grew in many ways. In 1969, it started serving 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. William Danoff has managed Contrafund since 1990.

Fidelity Magellan

Fidelity Magellan was founded by Ned Johnson in 1963. It was renamed the Magellan Fund in 1965. Under Peter Lynch's leadership from 1977 to 1990, Magellan grew very quickly.

Legal issues and controversies

Fidelity Investments has had some legal problems and fines. In some cases, employees made investments in companies before they were public, which could give the company an unfair advantage.

The company has also been fined for not keeping good records, giving wrong information about investment plans, and for employees taking money from clients. Some employees also took expensive gifts from other companies, which broke the rules. These issues led to fines and made the company change how it does things.