House of Fidelity

Wall Street Journal editor Justin Baer ’97 MS explores the famously secretive, family-owned company Fidelity in his new book. House of Fidelity: The Rise of the Johnson Dynasty and the Company That Changed American Investing details the history of the financial services giant from its founding in 1946 by Edward C. Johnson II, whose family owned a dry-goods store in Boston, to its explosive growth and omnipresence today.  

The book pulls back the curtain on familial succession battles that raged throughout the 1970s as Johnson’s son Edward C. “Ned” Johnson III took over the company, and again in the 2010s when Ned’s daughter Abby Johnson took the reins — despite overt challenges from a still largely male workforce and industry.  

According to Baer, Fidelity is largely famous for helping lead the charge into money market accounts as well as the shift to 401(k)-driven retirement plans. Baer estimates that one in five Americans today have some form of account with Fidelity, which manages more than $15 trillion. 

But, unlike many similar financial giants, Fidelity remains a privately held company under the control of one family. Baer says he was intrigued to look inside such a massive yet opaque company partly because so little is known about its inner workings. 

Baer describes the book as an “epic family saga” replete with power struggles — part Succession, part The Crown. 

“The Crown, like my book, is built around a family. And as time marches forward, you have all these historic, important figures intersect with them. I was looking at historical moments like the bear market of the 1970s and the financial crisis of 2008 ... through the lens of this one company, of this one family, while big things happening outside the window were affecting us all.”