As your investment advisor, you expect us to make thoughtful, carefully researched decisions, and to keep your best interests in mind. We use a similar approach when we make decisions about the service providers we employ to help us meet your financial objectives.
As a result we highly recommend Fidelity Investments to act as custodian for our clients.
The Strength of Fidelity Investments
Fidelity has been serving the needs of individual investors and investment professionals for nearly 60 years and, today, is one of the largest privately owned financial services companies in the world. As experts in the financial services field, they have a thorough understanding of the products and services we need in order to best serve you, and they provide these to us through one of the industry’s most efficient and technologically advanced brokerage platforms.
Protection for Your Assets
Investments that you entrust to us are placed in custody with Fidelity’s clearing firm, National Financial Services LLC (“NFS”). Securities in accounts carried by NFS are protected in accordance with the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (“SIPC”) up to $500,000 (including cash claims limited to $100,000). For details, please see www.sipc.org.
Supplemental Asset Protection
Fidelity recognizes that many investors have accounts with balances in excess of the coverage provided by the SIPC and has, through National Financial Services LLC, arranged for additional protection for cash and covered securities to supplement its SIPC coverage. This additional protection covers total account net equity in excess of the $500,000/$100,000 coverage provided by SIPC.
Neither coverage protects against a decline in the market value of securities.
Access to an Extensive Range of Products and Services
Working with Fidelity gives us access to a wide range of products and services - those offered by Fidelity as well as other firms - that can help us achieve your financial objectives.
Broad Selection of Investments
With one of the largest mutual fund supermarkets in the industry, working with Fidelity enables us to select what we think are the best investments for your portfolio, from more than 5,600 mutual funds from over 400 fund families.
Planning and Asset Accumulation Resources
Whether it’s advice on tax-deferred vehicles like IRAs or charitable giving programs, college savings plans, or specialized wealth management services, we are confident that we will be able to access the products you need, when you need them.
Trading Strength
We can also leverage Fidelity Capital Markets to buy and sell individual stocks and bonds, and to utilize a full range of specialized investment vehicles. Fidelity Capital Markets, the trading arm of Fidelity Investments, provides us with access to an experienced team of traders on all major stock exchanges, and is one of the most active traders on these exchanges. In fact, Fidelity Capital Markets accounts for as much as 5% of the trading volume on the NYSE on any given day. This high level of trading activity, combined with Fidelity’s state-of-the-art electronic trading systems, means Fidelity Capital Markets can match buyers and sellers more easily. This may translate into better pricing for us, and for you.
Simplified Recordkeeping
The investment world is complicated enough without having to keep track of transactions, capital gains and losses, and so on — especially at tax time. Through our relationship with Fidelity, you will receive a simplified, consolidated statement each month that reflects all of your investment positions, transactions, and realized gains and losses on your trades. At the end of the year, you will receive one 1099 tax form and a summary statement, which makes preparing your tax return a lot easier.
Working Together
The wide selection of products and services offered through Fidelity, combined with their advanced brokerage platform and additional asset protection, provide a solid foundation to help us work together to achieve your financial objectives.