The Secretive Family Behind a $13 Trillion Financial Empire

Fidelity is one of the most powerful financial institutions in America, but the story of the family behind it has largely remained hidden. Justin Baer joins me to reveal how the Johnson dynasty built a $13 trillion empire, and how Abigail Johnson had the courage to reinvent it before the old business model became a relic.

Justin Baer is an award-winning journalist and an editor for The Wall Street Journal. In a career that includes stints at the Financial Times and Bloomberg News, he has covered almost every significant financial event over the past two decades, including the dot-com bubble, the 2008 financial crisis and the economic fallout from the pandemic. Along the way, Baer has chronicled the ups and downs of such major institutions as Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.

Get a copy of his brilliant new book “House of Fidelity: The Rise of the Johnson Dynasty and the Company That Changed American Investing” here: https://amzn.to/4z9csCe

Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio.

Pre-order my next book, All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump, out on the 17th of September in the UK and the 22nd of September in the US: ⁠https://www.scaramucci.net/allthewrongmoves

Timestamps

0:00 Justin Baer Intro
3:28 Finding the Truth as a Journalist
5:34 Inside the Secretive World of Fidelity
11:19 Abigail Johnson and the Fidelity Dynasty
17:19 The Pivot That Saved Fidelity
21:46 The Attempted Coup Inside the Johnson Family
26:43 Five Words

source