House of Fidelity
The Rise of the Johnson Dynasty and the Company That Changed American Investing
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4.3 • 20 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
The gripping, definitive account of the private family behind one of the most powerful financial institutions in the world.
“Pulls the curtain back on one of the country's most powerful and mysterious financial institutions … It’s a must read.” ―William D. Cohan , New York Times bestselling author of Power Failure
When Edward C. Johnson 2d founded Fidelity in 1946, investing was a pursuit reserved for the elite. Today, more than $15 trillion flows through Fidelity’s customer accounts and investment funds—touching the lives of one in five American adults. Fidelity helped invent modern retail investing: democratizing access to mutual funds, introducing the 401(k), and upending the need for traditional brokers. But behind the scenes of this financial juggernaut is a family saga unlike any other.
In House of Fidelity, veteran journalist Justin Baer tells the definitive story of the Johnsons—a New England dynasty that fiercely guarded control of their company while reshaping Wall Street. From the founder’s bold leap into Boston’s insular investing circles, to the meteoric rise of Peter Lynch, to behind-closed-doors battles over succession and legacy, Baer reveals a company and a family locked in a delicate balance of innovation, influence, and internal power struggles.
House of Fidelity is a sweeping history of American investing—and the dynasty that came to define it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wall Street Journal editor Baer debuts with a labyrinthine history of Fidelity Investments. one of the world's most powerful financial institutionsBaer recaps the company's evolution from its 1946 founding in Boston by Ted Johnson, who pioneered mutual funds that let small investors buy into professionally managed portfolios of stocks and bonds. His son Ned took over Fidelity in 1972 and cultivated a vast new business in administering 401(k) retirement plans for millions of workers who constituted a gigantic pool of customers for Fidelity funds and other financial services. In more recent years, the company has innovated with zero-fee index funds and bitcoin investments. Along the way, Baer revisits company scandals, including traders' acceptance of bribes from brokers they bought stock from and a convoluted familial succession melodrama. (Ned barred his daughter Abigail, a Fidelity executive, from replacing him, whereupon she tried to oust him from the company; the two reconciled and Abigail later became an effective CEO, Baer reports.) Baer argues cogently that Fidelity has been a leader in the democratization of Wall Street, but the narrative bogs down in eye-glazing details of mundane office politics. The result is an overstuffed and undershaped portrait of a Wall Street institution.
