Fidelity to hire 4,000 financial planners, tech and service employees

As Fidelity expands after a year of market volatility and the swarm of new investors to the market, the multi-trillion-dollar financial services giant is hiring thousands of new employees.

On the tail of a record year at the company in 2020, Fidelity said that it plans to hire about 4,000 new reps, technologists and customer service employees in the U.S. — 1,000 of whom will be financial planners.

“More customers are reaching out to us more than ever before,” Mark Barlow, senior vice president and general manager at Fidelity Investments, wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing the company’s intentions for recruiting.

The company expects to fill about half of the positions by mid-year.

Fidelity is continuing to grow after experiencing a record year in 2020, in which it grew to more than $9.2 trillion in assets under administration. The company hired a total of 7,200 new associates.

When speaking with Financial Planning last month, RIA custody division head David Canter declined to comment on how many of these new employees operated within its custodial division.

“The bulk of the hiring has been in this client experience area, where we look after the onboarding of accounts and the servicing of advisors,” he said, referring to Fidelity’s RIA, family office, bank trust and recordkeeping custody business. “That's been to respond to volume, but [also] to anticipate the new growth of the channel.”

With its new employee openings, Fidelity plans to expand its financial advice, technology and customer service ranks across its U.S. footprint.

In its own wealth management division, it is hiring financial planners who will primarily work remotely, according to the company. Fidelity anticipates hiring individuals who live near pre-existing investor service centers in locations such as Seattle, Los Angeles, Miami and Detroit, among other cities.

The company will also hire approximately 300 tech employees, including full stack software engineers, data scientists, mobile/IOS engineers and architecture positions, according to Fidelity.

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The Boston-based private company is also recruiting client service employees, in order “to stay ahead of unprecedented customer engagement,” according to Barlow’s LinkedIn post. It anticipates adding approximately 2,500 new associates to its regional sites to support retail, workplace and intermediary clients.

The company has experienced “dramatic increases” in new customers, call and trading volumes and digital engagement, it says.

Rival retail brokerages and custodians, such as Charles Schwab, have experienced outsized growth and stock trading on their platforms in 2020, which has continued on into 2021.