Is Fidelity Investments Safe?
Fidelity Investments is a household name in the brokerage industry. We have analyzed Fidelity so you can decide whether Fidelity is a trustworthy company and whether you should choose it as your broker.
Fidelity Company Overview
Fidelity is one of the longest-standing brokers still around today, as it has been in business since 1946. It is one of the largest privately held financial-services companies in the U.S. Fidelity’s business spans the globe, employing over 80,000 associates across 11 countries, 14 global regional sites, and 215 Investor Centers.
When analyzing the numbers that Fidelity’s business does, they are staggering. Fidelity services
over 57 million individual clients. It has over
$7.0 trillion of assets under management and over
$17.9 trillion of assets under administration. In its Q1 2026 business update, Fidelity reported $7.0 trillion in managed assets and $17.9 trillion in assets under administration.
Fidelity Better Business Bureau (BBB)
The first place that most people start when trying to determine whether a business is legitimate is
the BBB. Fidelity has an A+ rating with the BBB. Fidelity is not BBB accredited. According to the BBB, Fidelity has 1,346 complaints closed in the last 3 years and 377 complaints closed in the last 12 months. That might sound like a lot, but when you consider the fact that Fidelity has
over 57 million clients, that is still a small percentage of its customer base.
Fidelity Regulators and Oversight
Fidelity operates in one of the most heavily regulated industries in the world: the financial industry. Not only that, but as a broker-dealer, it is in a subcategory of the financial industry that makes it subject to extremely stringent regulations.
Dozens of state securities regulators, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) are just some of the watchdogs that oversee Fidelity’s business. Fidelity is subject to strict reporting requirements by these authorities on a regular basis.
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Fidelity FINRA & SEC Registrations
As mentioned, Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC is registered and regulated by both the SEC and FINRA. Fidelity’s CRD number with FINRA is 7784, and its SEC number is 8-23292, if you would like to look it up. Fidelity is registered with the SEC, 2 self-regulatory organizations, and 53 U.S. states and territories. Fidelity’s current BrokerCheck report shows 24 regulatory events and 128 arbitration disclosures, which are available to the public for review on FINRA’s website.
FDIC & SIPC Insurance
One way to inspect the legitimacy of a broker is to look at what type of protection it offers you and
your money. Fidelity has both SIPC and FDIC insurance, depending on the kind of cash holding you have. If you use Fidelity’s FDIC-Insured Deposit Sweep Program to hold your cash, deposits swept into program banks are eligible for FDIC insurance, subject to FDIC limits and program rules. Assuming all participating banks have available capacity, a customer could have up to $4 million of uninvested cash in Fidelity Cash Management and IRA accounts covered by FDIC insurance.
If you hold your cash in money market funds inside a Fidelity brokerage account, the funds are not FDIC insured, but they are generally covered by SIPC as securities. SIPC covers up to $500,000 in securities per customer, including up to $250,000 for cash held in a brokerage account. SIPC does not protect against market losses. For further safety, Fidelity also provides excess of SIPC coverage that applies after SIPC coverage is exhausted.
Fidelity Alternative Account Protections
If Fidelity’s insurance protections don’t give you enough peace of mind, then its Customer Protection
Guarantee should help ease your nerves. Fidelity’s Customer Protection Guarantee states that Fidelity will
cover you for losses from unauthorized activity in covered accounts, provided the activity was due to no fault of
your own. All clients are automatically covered by this guarantee for eligible cash and securities in covered accounts.
Fidelity Account Security
Fidelity has an impressive number of security measures in place to protect investors’ accounts from scams and hackers. For the Fidelity mobile app, you can set up biometric login using either your fingerprint or face, depending on your phone. If you ever have to call Fidelity customer service, you can choose to enroll in Fidelity MyVoice, which verifies your identity based on your unique voiceprint.
Fidelity allows you to set up optional 2-factor authentication when logging in to the website or mobile app. You can also set up security text alerts for different types of triggers on your account, such as any time a new bank account is linked to your Fidelity account. Lastly, Fidelity offers a feature called Money Transfer Lockdown, which is an optional feature that you can turn on and off yourself that blocks most electronic money transfers out of your account when turned on.
Is Fidelity a Scam or Legitimate? The Verdict.
It would be one of the largest and most sophisticated scams in the history of the world for Fidelity to pull off what it is doing without being a legitimate operation. The sheer size of Fidelity’s worldwide business and the numbers of its business alone are strong evidence that it is running a legitimate operation. Plus, when you take into consideration the amount of regulation and scrutiny that Fidelity’s business undergoes every single day, the clear verdict is that Fidelity is not a scam, and it is completely legitimate.
Fidelity Review: Investing
Fidelity customers can open brokerage and investment-advisory accounts. With either investment strategy, Fidelity has a standard lineup of asset classes:
- Stocks, including over-the-counter and foreign issues
- Bonds, brokered CDs, and other fixed-income securities
- Funds (including mutual, exchange-traded, and closed-end)
- Annuities
- Cryptocurrencies
- Options
Not all accounts will have access to all products. For example, the company’s budget advisory account, Fidelity Go, only has access to Fidelity Flex mutual funds. These have no expense ratios, and the program is fully automated. Fidelity Go has no advisory fee for balances under $25,000 and charges 0.35% per year for balances of $25,000 or more, which includes unlimited 1-on-1 coaching calls.
For a more thorough investment experience, Fidelity operates a wealth-management program that comes with access to human advisors. Through a wealth-management relationship, a wide range of financial services can be obtained, including retirement planning, life insurance, and help with charitable giving.
Cash Features
Fidelity offers a hybrid bank-brokerage account called the Cash Management Account, which comes with a Visa debit card, checkwriting, bill pay, and FDIC-insured sweep eligibility for uninvested cash, subject to program limits and conditions. The account can provide up to $4 million of FDIC insurance coverage for eligible swept cash if all participating banks have available capacity. Money market funds are also available, but they are not FDIC insured.
The debit card offers ATM fee reimbursements at ATMs displaying the Visa®, Plus®, or Star® logos, and Fidelity does not charge foreign transaction fees.
Fees and Minimums
Fidelity charges very little for its accounts and has minimal requirements. Brokerage accounts have no minimums, and Fidelity Go has no minimum to open, although at least $10 is needed to invest. Advisory and wealth-management accounts have varying requirements. The cash account has no minimum and no recurring fees.
Most trades are commission-free, although Fidelity Digital Assets charges a 1% fee on buy and sell crypto transactions, except that no fee applies to buying or selling FIDD with U.S. dollars. Online options trades cost $0 per trade plus 65¢ per contract. Some secondary bonds and CDs are $1 each, and trades of foreign stocks have commissions that vary by national exchange.
Margin
Margin trading is available at Fidelity. Here is the current margin interest rate schedule:
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Debit Balance
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Fidelity Margin Rates
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above $1,000,000
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7.5%
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$500,000 – $999,999
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7.8%
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$250,000 – $499,999
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10.075%
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$100,000 – $249,999
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10.325%
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$50,000 – $99,999
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10.375%
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$25,000 – $49,999
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11.325%
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$10,000 – $24,999
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11.825%
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$0 – $9,999
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11.825%
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A cash account can easily upgrade to margin trading on Fidelity’s website. Downgrading from margin to cash requires a phone call.
Website
Fidelity’s website provides many tools, including:
- Full-screen charting with technical studies and drawing tools
- Extensive stock research with free analyst reports
- Pop-up order ticket with short-selling option
- Conditional orders (OCO and OTO)
- Advanced options tools with a strategy builder
Mobile App
The Fidelity mobile app offers:
- Charting in vertical and horizontal mode
- Multiple trade tickets for stocks, options, and mutual funds
- Option spreads
- CD yield matrix
- Price and technical alerts
- Market news and video content
Our Recommendations
Active Stock Trading: Fractional shares, foreign stocks, and Active Trader Pro
make Fidelity a top choice.
Retirement Planning & Long-Term Investing: Fidelity’s tools and advisory services
make it a great option.
Beginners: Fidelity’s managed accounts, including those with human advisors, are
ideal.
Small Investors: No account minimums and fractional shares make Fidelity
unbeatable.
Mutual-Fund Trading: With thousands of mutual funds, Fidelity offers extensive options.
Fidelity Review Verdict
Fidelity is one of the best investment firms in the industry. However, futures and forex traders will need to look elsewhere.
Updated on 6/10/2026.
Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience
as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing
expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found
managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.
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