Former fund pioneer who led Fidelity Investments with contrarian views dies 

Edward ‘Ned' Johnson III, who built Fidelity Investments into a global financial-services firm and helped shape the money-management industry, died on 24 March.

In a LinkedIn post on Thursday (24 March), Abigail Johnson, chair and chief executive of Fidelity Investments, said her father died at home in Florida surrounded by family.

"Last evening we lost my father, Chairman emeritus of Fidelity Investments. He was first and foremost father to me and my sister Beth and brother Edward and husband to my mother Lillie. 

"He passed away peacefully at home in Florida surrounded by his family.

"He loved his family, his coworkers, work, the stock market, art and antiquities, tennis, skiing, sailing, history, and a good debate. He could be counted on to have the contrarian view on just about anything.

"He will be missed by many."

The Johnson family also said in a statement: "We are immensely proud of his achievements and grateful for his life. He was a visionary, an innovator, and a philanthropist who had tremendous curiosity about the world around him and who lived his life to the fullest each and every day."

In a news profile by AP, it said Johnson was born in Boston at the start of the Great Depression, joining his father's firm in 1957 as a portfolio manager. He became president of Fidelity in 1972 and, after his father retired in 1976, became chairman and CEO.

While his father founded Fidelity, Johnson's four-decade tenure transformed the firm into the Wall Street and investment giant that it is today.

When Johnson took over, the way Americans saved and planned for retirement was about to change fundamentally.

Companies began to move away from pension plans. The Individual Retirement Account, better known as the IRA, was created in 1974. 

The 401(k) account, an employer-sponsored retirement plan that invested in stocks and bonds but was ultimately run by the individual employee, was created by Congress in 1978.

Fidelity benefitted from a massive broadening and interest in investing that started in the 1980s. The stock market was no longer something just for the rich; it was now a vehicle that nearly every retirement account in the US had a stake in. Under Johnson, Fidelity started selling mutual funds directly to the public. The company also started offering discount brokerage services that made stock investing significantly cheaper.

These efforts paid off. When Johnson took over Fidelity in 1977, the company had $3.9bn in assets under management.

When he retired as chairman in 2014, Fidelity had $5.7 trillion in assets under management. Fidelity's growth made Johnson and his family billionaires. The firm now holds more than $11 trillion in assets, according to its most recent annual report

The Boston-headquartered company, which is still privately held, is now run by Johnson's daughter, Abigail Johnson.

Johnson donated his wealth mostly anonymously, according to the family, but some named places he gave funds to included the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.