Fidelity

Fidelity Management and Research Co., the huge mutual fund company that has played a pivotal role in R. H. Macy & Co.'s bankruptcy-law case, has added another powerful weapon to its arsenal -- about $80 million of the retailer's bonds.By purchasing the bonds, Fidelity has begun to acquire the tools it needs to begin dismantling the biggest obstacle to a merger between Macy and Federated Department Stores: the opposition of the creditors' committee representing Macy's bondholders.The committee has stymied Federated's bid for Macy, backing a proposal that would get Macy out of bankruptcy protection as a stand-alone company.

Fidelity Investments reports that 70 percent of the Class of 2013 leaves college with on average $35,200 in debt. That's all kinds of debt, from student loans and money owed to Mom and Dad to credit card balances. And half of 2013 graduates say they are surprised how much debt they have accumulated, despite so much publicity on the subject, the Boston-based financial company said in its study released last week. The study found that 39 percent of grads - a jump of 14 percentage points over two years ago - said they might have made different decisions had they realized they would have a debt hangover.

First Fidelity Bancorp. continued its drive into the Maryland market yesterday, announcing that it agreed to take over 24 branches of Household Bank FSB, increasing its share of deposits in the state by more than 50 percent.The move came as part of a concerted effort by the Illinois-based parent of Household to pull its savings bank business out of markets where it has a minor share.First Fidelity, based in New Jersey, said it would pay $76.1 million for the Household branches and the right to take over $1.1 billion in customer deposits.

Benjamin Lipsitz, whose commitment to the spirit and letter of the law led him to defend a would-be assassin, a Nazi sympathizer and a craven murderer during a career that spanned more than a half-century, died May 10. He was 94. "He was so fundamentally devoted to justice. He was Atticus Finch all over again," said retired Baltimore County Circuit Judge John Fader II. "To me, he was what lawyering and what representation are all about. " Lipsitz was chosen to defend Arthur Bremer, accused of shooting Democratic presidential candidate George Wallace and three others, including a Secret Service agent, at a Laurel shopping center in 1972.

Stock-market watchers have fretted all year about what would happen if Fidelity Investments started selling some of its large holdings in technology stocks. Investors should have worried as much about the consequences of Fidelity keeping them.Eight of the 10 Fidelity equity funds with the largest percentage of their assets in technology stocks lost ground in the fourth quarter, through Dec. 21, giving back as much as a third of the gains racked up in the year's first nine months.The year-to-date gain of the Fidelity Emerging Growth fund, for example, which at the end of September had 60 percent of its $1.3 billion portfolio in high-tech companies, has fallen to 35 percent from 47 percent in less than three months.

Jeffrey N. Vinik's passion for technology stocks is well known. Fidelity Investments' Magellan Fund, which he manages, so dominates these shares that warning flags have been raised about market disruptions if this gorilla of a fund has a change of heart.But Mr. Vinik also has a big, though less-publicized, appetite for securities firms, so maybe the red flags should go up here, too.Over the last year, Magellan and several other Fidelity funds have been among the biggest buyers of brokerage stocks, according to Michael Flanagan of the Lipper Analytical Services Corp.

Fidelity Investments, the nation's largest mutual fund company, deliberately provided incorrect information on the value of its funds last week, causing newspapers to report that most Fidelity funds did substantially better than they actually did.A Fidelity spokeswoman, Constance Hubbell, said yesterday that the fund management company had not been able to calculate the value of 166 funds on Friday because of a computer problem.Rather than simply admit the problem, she said, Fidelity chose to report to the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD)

Executives of First Fidelity Bancorp. stand to make up to $55 million on stock options if stockholders approve the Newark, N.J., bank's agreement to be acquired by First Union Corp., according to a proxy statement mailed to First Fidelity holders this week.The money comes from $31.5 million in deferred compensation that 15 top executives have accrued since 1990, which can be paid only if the executives buy First Fidelity stock with the money, and an estimated $23.7 million the executives will make if they buy all the shares they are eligible to buy at below-market prices and sell them to First Union at the share swap terms the companies announced June 19.The options are in addition to First Fidelity shares that bank executives already own.The $55 million works out to about 1 percent of the price First Union will pay for First Fidelity, in a deal that will create a bank with about $125 billion in loans and other assets.

With 190 different funds and assets totaling $170 billion, Boston-based Fidelity Investments is the General Motors of the mutual fund industry. The main difference is that, in recent years, Fidelity has handled its money and planning a whole lot better than GM has.Amazing expansion and endless new fund introductions are both good and bad. They're good because they breed success, bad because they sometimes make the overall structure overwhelming to average...

First Fidelity Bancorp. was in a position yesterday to buy Baltimore Bancorp because of managerial skill, falling interest rates -- and a big dollop of luck.The New Jersey-based regional banking titan had only a fraction of the real estate lending problems of peer banks such as MNC Financial Inc., parent of Maryland National Bank, and Edison, N.J.-based Midlantic Corp., in large part because of disasters that hit in 1988.The bank lost about $150 million on loans to a developer who renovated old factories and warehouses into apartments (including the Sail Cloth Factory in Baltimore)

Couples aren’t on the same page when it comes to retirement. That’s the finding by Fidelity Investments after surveying about 650 couples. One third of couples don’t agree or don’t know when they plan to retire, Fidelity says. Nearly two-thirds don’t agree on the age to retire.  And about half are at odds on whether they will work in retirement. And when it comes to handling retirement finances,  only 17 percent of couples had complete confidence in a mate’s ability to do the job. Would be interested in your comments on the Fidelity survey.

So maybe we are becoming a nation of savers? Fidelity Investments, a major provider of 401(k) plans for employers, says the average balance reached $74,900 at the end of March, a record high since December 1998 when the company started tracking this information. Fidelity says the average balance is up nearly 12 percent from a year earlier, but a 58 percent jump since 2009. Of course, the stock market recovery surely has a lot to do with that. March 2009 was a low in the market after the disastrous Fall of 2008 when stocks seemed to be on a downward spiraling rollercoaster with no brakes.

Worried about the economy? Perhaps your family should tighten its belt a bit. Stop using so much soap, for example. Don't clean the kitchen floor quite so frequently. Reduce your dog's food intake by one-fourth. All that probably won't happen. That's why investors during worrisome times often turn to the stocks of companies that produce household necessities. As A.G. Lafley, chief executive of Procter & Gamble Co., said of the recent slowing economy: "People are not reducing tooth-brushing incidence.

Don't be pressured to vote fund proxies. Over the past few weeks, several readers dropped me lines to say that they had been surprised by ugly calls from Fidelity Investments about their mutual fund accounts. They wanted to know how to respond. Fidelity wasn't really checking up on shareholders and trying to make sure everything is all right - which is how some of the investors first took the call - but rather was calling to drum up proxy votes. Specifically, Fidelity needs shareholders in many of its mutual funds to vote on a shareholder proposal that would make the firm's investments "genocide-free," avoiding companies known for extreme abuses of human rights.

Fidel Castro is stepping down? As Dorothy Parker said upon hearing of the death of President Calvin Coolidge, how can you tell? The bearded one lost most of his relevancy for us "yanquis" long ago. He once loomed large in the lives of baby boomers as we crouched under our desks in "duck-and-cover" drills, terrified of his nuclear-tipped Russian missiles. To today's youths, Mr. Castro is so last century. Even in Miami and Havana, the response to Mr. Castro's retirement is reported to be remarkably ho-hum.

WASHINGTON -- Fidel Castro, the revolutionary leader who brought communism to the Western Hemisphere, vexing U.S. policymakers for nearly a half- century, resigned yesterday as president of Cuba. "My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath," Castro, 81, wrote in a message published in the Communist Party daily Granma. But he said his failing health would not permit him to continue as Cuba's supreme leader: "It would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer."

First Fidelity Bancorp. said it cut the 1994 pay of its chief executive by 34 percent, as the new parent company of the old Bank of Baltimore decided its top managers should share the pain of a corporate downsizing that is expected to claim 1,000 jobs, including 500 in Maryland.First Fidelity Chairman Anthony P. Terracciano earned $750,000 in salary, the same annual rate he was paid at the end of 1993. But the 56-year-old banker did not get any money under the company's long-term incentive program, which paid him $572,771 in 1993.

First Fidelity Bancorp, on the heels of a decision to eliminate roughly half the work force of the Bank of Baltimore, is considering vacating the downtown headquarters of the recently acquired bank.But the New Jersey-based bank holding company's potential move from the 25-story office tower at 120 W. Baltimore St. -- until recently known as the Bank of Baltimore Building -- is contingent on finding a tenant to replace the bank, officials said.Earlier this week, First Fidelity sent out proposal requests to six area commercial real estate brokerage firms, the first step in its efforts to sublease the three top floors of the office tower.

At most holiday feasts, the second helping is more filling than the first. That should be the case in my annual buffet of fund buffoonery, the 12th Annual Lump of Coal Awards, recognizing managers, executives, firms, watchdogs and other fund-industry types for action, attitude, behavior or performance that is misguided, bumbling, offensive, disingenuous, reprehensible or just plain stupid. Last week, I highlighted 10 cases of award winners deserving nothing more than coal in their holiday stocking this year.

On October 26, 2007, FIDEL "Fred" D. MANANSALA Sr. of Severn, formerly of Glen Burnie. Beloved husband of 28 years to Marlena A. Manansala; devoted father of Mary J. Davis, Elizabeth "Lisa" D. Thompson, Fidel "Fred" D. Manansala Jr., Dominick A. Manansala and Demetrius A. Manansala; cherished grandfather of seven (with two grandchildren on the way) and loving great-grandfather of one. The family will receive visitors at the family owned Singleton Funeral & Cremation Services, 1 2nd Ave SW (at Crain Hwy)