Boston-based Fidelity Investments secured its status as the leader in the defined contribution market with $17 billion in assets under administration in the first half of 2011, the financial service firm announced Wednesday.
More than $15 billion came from new clients, Fidelity reports. The firm has received defined contribution (DC) commitments representing 315,000 participants.
The remaining $2 billion in assets came from merger and acquisition activity with existing clients. Fidelity also announced that it is seeing robust sales commitments for 2012, which have already exceeded more than $6 billion.
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"We are especially pleased with this year's first half results which were driven mainly from brand new relationships to Fidelity and less from the corporate merger and acquisition activities that helped contribute to the growth in 2010," said Jeffrey Lagarce, executive vice president, Workplace Investing, Fidelity Investments. "As pressures on employers increase and the regulatory environment grows more complex, plan sponsors are looking for a partner with the experience and expertise they can count on. As a result, we are winning a greater percentage of the opportunities."
Sales increased in the emerging, mid, large and tax-exempt markets. Tax-exempt sales, in particular, rose significantly over last year as Fidelity continued to make investments in this sector to support health care and higher education markets as they looked to consolidate providers. In addition, corporate market sales were up from the prior year as Fidelity honed in on several industries including professional services.
"With retirement being at the core of our business, Fidelity is investing in areas that matter the most to our more than 14 million participants and their plan sponsors," continued Lagarce. "We are committed to delivering the best participant and plan sponsor experience and to providing the best platform in the industry."
Though the firm shows strong sales promise for 2012, it's not as strong as the first half of 2010, one of the company's strongest defined contribution sales periods since 2005, when Fidelity reported commitments to administer $22 billion in assets covering nearly 400,000 participants, according to the Associated Press.
This year's commitments are down nearly 23 percent from the same period a year ago.
Fidelity serves 14.5 million retirement plan participants.
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