BOSTON, April 19, 2004 - Fidelity Investments today announced it has expanded its health and welfare consulting business with the addition of three regional offices in Chicago, New York and San Francisco to help meet the increased demand for benefits strategy consulting services among its outsourcing clients and employers nationwide.

Fidelity Health and Welfare Consulting, launched in 2000, provides analysis and guidance to assist organizations in the design, financing, delivery and communication of their health and welfare benefit plans. Fidelity's consultants help employers assess the effectiveness of their benefit programs, manage the financial aspects of those plans, and negotiate with vendors to achieve the best value. Specializing in outsourcing product development, retiree health care plan design and consumer health strategies, Fidelity's consultants work with employers to map new approaches to delivering benefits to keep their organizations current and competitive.

"With health care costs and quality continuing to be a top priority for our clients, we see the expansion of our consulting services as a natural extension of our business for two primary reasons," said Brad Kimler, senior vice president, Fidelity Health and Welfare Consulting. "First, we see employers emphasizing more personal accountability and responsibility for employees with regard to their personal health care decisions. Second, as more employers realize that employees are not adequately planning for the cost of their health care in retirement, they are looking for creative solutions that align health strategies more closely with wealth accumulation programs."

Fidelity has hired some of the benefits industry's most experienced consultants as part of its business expansion into the following regions:

•		Midwest - The Midwest consulting office is located in Chicago, where Tobi Strevell was hired last fall to develop the office. An industry veteran with more than 20 years of benefits experience, Strevell has spent most of her career consulting with major corporations on health and welfare plan issues. Prior to joining Fidelity, she consulted for Hewitt Associates, where she helped clients design and implement health care strategies, develop initiatives to drive cost efficiencies through consumerism and clinical management, and analyze benefit plan design and administration strategies. Her former clients include Fortune 500 companies in manufacturing, transportation, print technology, biotechnology and retail industries.
•		East Coast - Christopher Mooney, who leads Fidelity's New York City consulting office, is a 28-year veteran in the benefits business. He most recently was a worldwide partner at Mercer Human Resources Consulting and leader of its Connecticut office. He has extensive experience in both the Connecticut and New York benefits marketplaces, having also served as a principal at Foster Higgins, which was acquired by Mercer. Mooney has provided advice and counsel to a wide spectrum of clients around plan design, communication, administration, cost studies and measurement, and vendor management strategies for health and welfare plans.
•		West Coast - Fidelity's West Coast consulting office is located in San Francisco, where Mark Agnew was recently hired to lead and develop the office. Joining Fidelity with more than 20 years of benefits experience, Agnew was formally a principal in the Health and Welfare practice of Towers Perrin, where he worked with clients to establish strategic benefits planning and execution, competitive health and welfare plan design and administration, and creative communications strategies. In health care, Agnew has researched, developed and implemented next generation benefit plan designs and delivery systems for a variety of large employers in the fields of high tech, transportation, health care and research.

In addition to this regional expansion, Fidelity has hired consultants in its New England-based offices as well:

•		Massachusetts - Brian Harty joined the Marlborough, Mass., consulting team earlier this year, bringing more than 15 years of experience in the benefits industry. Prior to joining Fidelity, he led the health and welfare practice for a regional benefits consulting firm. Harty has also served as a director in the Mergers and Acquisitions practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he focused on human resources and employee benefits issues as part of the due diligence and integration process. In addition, he has worked as a consultant at Towers Perrin, counseling clients on benefits strategy, design and financing, post-retirement benefits and other health and welfare benefit cost management initiatives.
•		New Hampshire - Expanding its consulting office in Merrimack, N.H., Fidelity recently added Randy Cherkis to the team, who has more than 20 years of experience in the health care industry. Cherkis has held key benefit leadership positions where he has managed health and welfare programs in a variety of corporate environments, including two global Fortune 500 firms and a banking corporation. He also has direct experience working within the managed health care and hospital industries. Cherkis has designed and built managed care networks and consulted employers in planning, designing and implementing their benefits programs to cut costs, improve benefits delivery and transition to providing the next generation of employee health benefits.

About Fidelity Workplace Services^SM

Through Fidelity Workplace Services^SM, Fidelity Investments provides benefits and human resources administration, workforce effectiveness, payroll solutions and stock plan services to over 17 million employees in the U.S. as of March 31, 2004. Additionally, through its HR Access acquisition, Fidelity provides HR and payroll applications for about 12 million employees in Europe.

About Fidelity

Fidelity Investments is one of the world's largest providers of financial services, with custodied assets over $1.9 trillion, including managed assets of $1,021.3 billion as of March 31, 2004. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, human resources and benefits outsourcing services to 18 million individuals and institutions as well as through 5,500 financial intermediaries. The firm is the largest mutual fund company in the United States, the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans, one of the largest mutual fund supermarkets and a leading online brokerage firm. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit www.fidelity.com.

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Fidelity Employer Services Company is a division of Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company, Inc., 82 Devonshire Street, Boston, MA 02109