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Fidelity Investments' discretionary assets reached $3.5 trillion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, up 17% from last year. Its assets under administration jumped 13% to $8.8 trillion.
Meanwhile, the asset manager says it's filed documents with regulators to close three funds to new investors as part of its plans to merge the $4 billion Fidelity Independence Fund with the nearly $20 billion Fidelity Magellan Fund, the Fidelity Export and Multinational Fund with its Fidelity Fund (focused on large-cap growth holdings), and the Fidelity Emerging Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) Fund with its Fidelity Emerging Markets Fund, as first reported by CityWire.
The fund giant expects to make further regulatory filings for the proposed mergers in December.
If all proceeds as usual, the mergers could take effect as early as the second quarter following approval by the shareholders of the smaller funds to be merged. In all cases, their successors have better performance and lower fees.
Trading by Fidelity investors more than doubled from the year-ago quarter, growing 97% to hit 2.2 million daily average trades (or DATs) in Q3, it said Monday. Meanwhile, new RIA client accounts rose 164% from a year ago, and managed account assets surpassed $500 billion, according to the firm.
In comparison, rival broker Charles Schwab had assets — including those recently acquired from TD Ameritrade — of nearly $5.9 trillion as of Oct. 31 after ending Q3 with $4.4 trillion in assets, up 17% from a year ago (before it added assets through the acquisition).
