Fidelity Observer
Tips, observations, and information relating to Fidelity Investments and other personal finance issues.

• Fidelity after Edward Johnson III
  

  A Boston Globe columnist, Steven Syre, has a column about speculation currently swirling around Boston: What will happen to Fidelity after Chairman Edward C. "Ned" Johnson III? Johnson is 76, and his daughter Abigail is a major Fidelity shareholder, but it's not clear what role she would play. Another potential ...

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• Blowing the whistle on mutual funds/hedge fund cheating
  

  Brooke Masters of the Washington Post has an article ("Tipster Set Fund Scandal Snowballing") about how a series of "drop a dime" calls to Eliot Spitzer's office resulted in an investigation of the mutual funds industry, and related hedge funds. The tipster, Noreen Harrington, a former Goldman Sachs trader, lifted ...

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• Heat wave: Energy tips, and a blackout hits
  

  The country is moving through a heatwave. 100-degree temperatures. People darting between air-conditioned cars and office buildings. Kids running through sprinklers. Air con and fans on all night. Eggs frying on sidewalks. But there are some opportunities to save money, especially when it comes to energy costs. Timing air conditioning ...

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• Burned by Cingular II: A pattern of poor service, and sales sleaze?
  

  Well, well, well. Remember Fidelity Observer's post in April, complaining about poor service from Cingular ("Customer disservice: Burned by Cingular")? It seems that this is not an isolated incident. A Federal lawsuit claims that millions of former AT&T Wireless customers (such as myself) were the victims of a deliberate effort ...

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• How to screw up your indexing strategy
  

  Mark Hulbert of the New York Times revisits the indexing debate, by pointing to the results of a long-term study by The Hulbert Financial Digest tracking the performance of newsletter recommendations and the S&P index. Fewer than one in seven was able to beat the S&P over the 26 years ...

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• Creative credit card purchases to build air miles
  

  The Washington Post has a great article by Keith L. Alexander about frequent flyer programs, and how people are using credit cards to build up miles to earn trips. Charging funeral expenses, new cars, and -- Fidelity Observer has a friend who did this -- kids' college tuition costs are ...

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• TIAA-CREF's five-step program for financial health: Fidelity Observer fails!
  

  There's an article in the June 2006 issue of TIAA-CREF Advance, "Get Your Financial House in Order." It suggests five steps members should take as part of a financial review. Unfortunately, Fidelity Observer only had one of the recommended steps fully under control. The other four steps were either partially ...

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• What the USAA ad didn't mention
  

  "pfblog reader" left a few comments and questions on an earlier post ("Bait and Switch: USAA Federal Savings Bank"). Despite the fact that USAA is raising fees as much as 400%, he or she seems to be supportive of USAA. He/she suggests there may be a very good reason for ...

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• S&P Lowers Fidelity's Debt Outlook
  

  Standard and Poors reports that Fidelity Investments Life Insurance Co. and Empire Fidelity Investments Life Insurance Co. (collectively, Fidelity Investments Life Insurance Group, or FILIG) debt outlook has been lowered (click on "Fidelity Investments Life Insurance Co. And Affiliate Outlook Revised To Neg From Stable"). This has an impact on ...

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• Bait and Switch: USAA Federal Savings Bank
  

  I made a comment in an earlier post about USAA, "A corporate partnership that's useless for consumers," that has turned out to be wrong. Here's the comment:

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• USAA responds to Fidelity Observer with a playground insult
  

  A few weeks back, Fidelity Observer criticized USAA for its expensive marketing campaign touting the supposed convenience of using the UPS Store QuickPost to mail in deposits to the USAA Federal Savings Bank. I didn't see any added convenience -- in fact, driving to a UPS Store to mail a ...

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• Good News: Fidelity's customer protection guarantee
  

  Fidelity Observer spotted this guarantee, linked on the front page of Fidelity.com. Fidelity has apparently retooled its anti-fraud policies, and will "reimburse your Fidelity account for any losses due to unauthorized activity." The page details what is and is not covered by the guarantee:

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• Spammed by Vanguard!
  

  Whenever I sign up for a website, or register for some service, or even subscribe to a magazine, I always make sure to check off the little box that ensures my email address won't get on some sort of mailing list for company or "partner" promotions. If the form doesn't ...

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• One answer to rising gas prices: Commute by bicycle
  

  Fuel is selling for around $3/gallon, with no relief in sight. A lot of people are ditching their SUVs and other gas hogs for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, or taking public transportation, if it's available. But there's another way to get to work, that is not only cheaper than driving ...

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• The Magellan distribution and taxes
  

  The Fidelity Report blogger has posted about Fidelity Magellan's massive distribution last week.

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• Bogle hypocrisy on mutual fund pay?
  

  Ross Kerber of the Boston Globe has an interesting story this morning about Vanguard founder John Bogle (of indexing fame) and his quest to force fund companies to reveal top executives' pay. One of his critics, Daniel Wiener, editor of the Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors, points out that Bogle ...

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