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Industry Spotlight > Clearing and Custodial Firms

Fidelity’s Assets Top $11T as New Retail Accounts Jump 39%: Q2 Earnings

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What You Need to Know

  • In reporting another strong quarterly update, Fidelity said AUM and AUA grew in Q2 from last year.
  • New retail account openings increased 39% to 1.7 million, 41% by investors 35 years old or younger.
  • The number of accounts opened by investors 35 or younger jumped 65% to 697,000.

Fidelity on Wednesday reported strong growth for the second quarter of 2021, with assets under management increasing 26% from the second quarter last year to $4.2 trillion.

In the quarterly update, Fidelity also reported that its assets under administration, which includes those under management, grew 33% from Q2 last year to $11.1 trillion.

New retail account openings, meanwhile, increased 39% to 1.7 million, and 41% of those accounts were opened by investors 35 years old or younger. The number of accounts opened by investors 35 or younger jumped 65% to 697,000.

At the end of the second quarter, Fidelity accounts totaled 82.8 million, up 11% from the year-ago quarter. But accounts were down from 83.4 million at the end of the first quarter.

Total daily average trades grew 14% from the year-ago quarter to 2.6 million. But that was down from 3.5 million in the first quarter.

New, Expanded Services

Fidelity’s second quarter was also marked by new and expanded services. For example, the firm said it built on its commitment to educate and support the next generation of investors by launching the Fidelity Youth Account, a no-fee saving, spending and investing account designed for teens 13 to 17.

The company, meanwhile, expanded its active fixed income exchange-traded fund offering to include the Fidelity Preferred Securities & Income ETF, now available on Fidelity’s retail brokerage platform.

Fidelity also launched five sustainable mutual funds and ETFs focused on companies addressing climate change, prioritizing and advancing women’s leadership and development, providing environmental solutions or supporting efforts to reduce their environmental footprints, or have proven or improving sustainability practices.

Also new was Fidelity Agency Lending, a digital platform that manages all aspects of securities lending for asset managers and other financial institutions. FAL also announced the commercial expansion of the business to non-Fidelity asset managers and other institutions.

In addition, the firm rolled out the Wealth Advisory Institute, a comprehensive wealth management educational and training program it said was designed to help wealth management firms and their advisors expand their businesses.

The company introduced Sherlock, a digital assets analytics solution that helps institutional investors research digital assets more efficiently by bringing together comprehensive data coverage and easy-to-use, intuitive analytics tools in one central location

Fidelity also released an improved user interface on its mobile app with streamlined navigation and a more intuitive trading experience, including a new quote and trade ticket experience, and launched the Fidelity Health App.

There were also new updates released for Fidelity’s Integration Xchange, its open architecture digital store that helps wealth management firms build and manage custom technology solutions and integrations with more than 200 fintech firms.

Fidelity also launched “Trends in Portfolio Construction,” a digital experience showcasing trends the company has seen through its analysis of over 4,000 portfolios, helping advisors evaluate next steps for their clients’ portfolios, it said.

To support increased call volumes and digital engagement, Fidelity announced it’s hiring thousands of new associates across its customer support and technology functions.

Fidelity onboarded more than 4,200 associates in the quarter and welcomed 1,000 summer interns, it said.

The company also announced the opening of regional call centers in Smithfield, Rhode Island and Durham, North Carolina. In addition to the six other U.S. regional centers, these will be the “home bases for hundreds of new customer-facing phone associates,” it said.

(Photo: Shutterstock)


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