Is Fidelity Investments Safe?
Fidelity Investments is a household name in the brokerage industry. We have analyzed Fidelity in order for you to be able to decide if you believe Fidelity is a trustworthy company and if you should choose them as your broker.
Fidelity Company Overview
Fidelity is one of the longest-standing brokers that are still around today as they have been in business for over 75 years. They are one of the largest privately-held businesses in the U.S. Fidelity’s business spans the entire globe employing over 50,000 people worldwide and operating in over 9 different countries.
When analyzing the numbers that Fidelity’s business does, they are staggering. Fidelity services
over 51.5 million individual clients. They have over
$5.9 trillion of assets under management and over
$15 trillion assets under administration.
Fidelity Better Business Bureau (BBB)
The first place that most people start when trying to determine if a business is legitimate, is
the BBB. Fidelity has an A+ rating with the BBB. They have a 1.12/5-star rating with the BBB based
on 114 customer reviews. However, you have to take that star rating with a grain of salt because
typically, most people filing any type of review or comments with the BBB are angry or are in the
minority that had one extremely bad experience. Fidelity has 739 closed complaints with the BBB
in the last 3 years which might sound like a lot but when you consider the fact that they have
over 51.5 million clients, that is a microscopic percentage.
Fidelity Regulators and Oversight
Fidelity operates in one of the most heavily regulated industries in the world – the financial industry. Not only that, but being a broker/dealer, they are in a sub-category of the financial industry that makes them 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.
Top Rated Brokers
Fidelity FINRA & SEC Registrations
As mentioned, Fidelity is registered and regulated by both the SEC and FINRA. Fidelity’s CRD# with FINRA is 7784 and their SEC# is 8-23292, if you would like to look them up. Fidelity is FINRA licensed in all 53 U.S. states and territories. Fidelity has a total of 136 disclosures with FINRA, an extremely small number considering how long they have been in business and their size, which are all 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 they offer 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, you can be covered by FDIC insurance for up to about $1.25 million of cash through multiple banks.
If you hold your cash in money market funds, you are covered by SIPC insurance for up to $250,000 of cash. In addition to your cash protection for either FDIC or SIPC, up to $250,000 of your securities are covered by SIPC. For further safety, Fidelity also provides special insurance coverage in excess of SIPC for up to certain dollar limits of securities for each client.
Fidelity Alternative Account Protections
If Fidelity’s insurance protections don’t give you enough peace of mind, then their Customer Protection
Guarantee should help ease your nerves. Fidelity’s Customer Protection Guarantee claims that they will
cover you for losses from unauthorized activity in all your accounts as long as it’s due to no fault of
your own. All clients are automatically covered by this guarantee for all cash and securities in eligible accounts.
Fidelity Account Security
Fidelity has an impressive amount of security measures in place to protect investors’ accounts from scams and hackers. For the Fidelity mobile app, you can setup 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 their Fidelity Myvoice system which verifies your identity based on your unique voiceprint.
Fidelity allows you to set up an optional 2-factor authentication for any time that you are 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 any money electronically leaving your account when turned on.
Is Fidelity a Scam or Legitimate? The Verdict.
It would be the largest and most sophisticated scam in the history of the world for Fidelity to pull off what they are doing without being a legitimate operation. The sheer size of Fidelity’s worldwide business and the numbers of their business alone are proof enough that they are running a clean 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 they are completely legitimate.
Find a Financial Advisor
If you are looking for a professional money management service in your area, you can
find a Financial Advisor on the Wiser Advisor
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Wiser Advisor review).
Visit Wiser Advisor
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, although the program is fully automated and has no human advisor.
For a more thorough investment experience, Fidelity operates a wealth-management program that comes with an actual human advisor located at one of Fidelity’s many branch locations. 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, a checkbook, and FDIC insurance up to $5 million. The account sweeps uninvested cash to partner banks, and money market funds are available, yielding around 4%.
The debit card offers unlimited ATM fee refunds worldwide, and the account includes free online bill pay.
Fees and Minimums
Fidelity charges very little for its accounts and has minimal requirements. Brokerage and robo accounts have no minimums, while advisory and wealth-management accounts have varying requirements. The cash account has no minimum and no recurring fees.
Most trades are commission-free, although crypto trades at Fidelity cost 1% of trade value. Some secondary bonds are $1 each, and trades of foreign stocks have commissions that vary by national exchange (typically around €19).
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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8.25%
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$500,000 – $999,999
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8.55%
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$250,000 – $499,999
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10.825%
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$100,000 – $249,999
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11.075%
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$50,000 – $99,999
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11.125%
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$25,000 – $49,999
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12.075%
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$10,000 – $24,999
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12.575%
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$0 – $9,999
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12.575%
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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 with Bloomberg live streaming
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 over 9,000 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 5/20/2025.
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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