Fidelity Investments, the mutual fund firm best known for its star stock pickers since it was started almost seven decades ago, named former bond manager Charles Morrison to run its asset management unit.
Morrison, 53, who joined Fidelity in 1987 as a bond analyst, most recently was head of Fidelity's $750 billion fixed-income division, the Boston-based company said Thursday in a statement. He will succeed Ronald P. O'Hanley, who said in January he will step down from his role at the end of this month.
Morrison has taken the top asset-management role at Fidelity as it is losing ground to rivals and as the firm continues to shift emphasis to its recordkeeping, retirement and brokerage businesses. Clients withdrew a net $1.1 billion last year from Fidelity's money-management unit, which has $1.94 trillion in assets. Vanguard Group Inc., the biggest fund firm, drew $138 billion in new client money in 2013, according to spokesman John Woerth, and BlackRock Inc., the world's largest money manager, attracted $117 billion.
"This is a gigantic financial-services company, but if the funds aren't doing well, it colors the view of the whole organization," John Bonnanzio, editor of Fidelity Monitor & Insight, an investor newsletter based in Wellesley, Massachusetts, said in a telephone interview. Bonnanzio said Morrison, whom he spoke with today, intends to make investment performance his main focus.
Morrison wasn't available for an interview, said Vincent Loporchio, a spokesman for Fidelity.
Administered Assets
The money Fidelity manages for clients rose 15% to $1.94 trillion in 2013, as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index of U.S. stocks rallied 30%. Fidelity's assets under administration, which include less profitable businesses such as recordkeeping for retirement plans, jumped 19% last year to $4.62 trillion after adding $126.9 billion in client money.
