Fidelity Investments on Friday named Scott Couto as president of Fidelity Financial Advisor Solutions, the unit formerly known as Fidelity Investments Institutional Services that distributes investment management products and solutions to intermediaries, including advisors affiliated with wirehouses, independent broker-dealers and RIA firms. The appointment and name change takes effect immediately.
Couto (left), a CFA, had been interim head of the unit since early this year, following the December 2010 departure of Peter Cieszko. In June, American Century announced that Cieszko would be joining the fund company this summer in the newly created position of senior vide president, North America, with responsibility for all institutional and intermediary sales. Couto joined Fidelity in 2009 from Evergreen Investments, where he had been COO and head of the fund firm’s intermediary business; Cieszko had been a top executive at the firm as well.
Prior to being named interim head of the renamed unit at Fidelity, Couto had been executive vice president of product management and marketing for Fidelity Investments Institutional Services.