How Fidelity Investments Makes Money

Fidelity makes money from the assets and activity of the people and institutions that use its platforms. The main engines are: 1. Asset management fees on Fidelity mutual funds, ETFs, money market funds and managed accounts ($7.1 trillion in its own funds at the end of 2025). 2. Workplace Investing, where Fidelity administers 401(k), 403(b), health savings and stock plans for employers and earns recordkeeping and plan fees. 3. Personal Investing, the retail brokerage and advice business that earns interest on cash and margin balances, options and trading revenue, and advisory fees from managed accounts such as Fidelity Wealth Services. 4. Institutional services, including clearing, custody and technology for registered investment advisers and broker-dealers through Fidelity Institutional and National Financial Services. 5. Digital assets, including custody and trading through Fidelity Digital Assets and the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC). The workplace business is also a funnel. Many employees first meet Fidelity through an employer plan and later roll savings into Fidelity IRAs, brokerage accounts or advised relationships. In 2025 the firm gathered $657.3 billion in net new assets and averaged 4.4 million trades a day, up 31%. Fidelity is private. The Johnson family is widely reported to own a large minority stake, with the rest held by current and former executives, so the firm reports selected figures in an annual report rather than SEC 10-K filings.

Fidelity is growing by deepening relationships rather than winning on price alone. Recent moves include the unified managed household platform launched in 2024, the Fidelity Trader+ platform launched in September 2025 (about 1.4 million average users by year-end), new active ETFs such as the CLO ETFs launched in early 2026, and continued digital-asset products including FBTC and crypto trading.