WASHINGTON, June 7, 2005 - A top executive from the nation's retirement leader today outlined serious retirement planning and saving challenges that, if left unchecked, could result in a significant gap between what millions of working Americans expect out of retirement and what they will be able to afford.

Recognizing the remarkable strides American investors have made since the retirement savings reforms of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Ellyn A. McColgan, president of Fidelity Brokerage Company, also cautioned that there is major room for improvement in America's retirement readiness.

"The harsh reality is that many Americans are woefully unprepared for retirement," McColgan told an audience at the National Press Club. "They simply aren't saving anywhere near enough - and many are not investing their retirement savings wisely. Helping Americans plan for retirement is a challenge we need to address as a nation - while there is still time to significantly improve America's retirement readiness."

McColgan urged Americans to develop a formal plan for reaching their retirement goals, noting that longer life spans and increased health care costs could put Americans at risk to outlive their retirement savings.

Addressing retirement plan sponsors in the audience, McColgan contrasted the decline of defined benefit plans with the growth in defined contribution wealth - encouraging companies to not only provide education and guidance for their employees, but to automate the enrollment process so that workers can more fully participate in companysponsored retirement plans.

"We at Fidelity have made educating Americans on investing for retirement, and providing them with solutions for retirement savings and lifelong income, our central focus for the past several years," she said. "We see this as the defining challenge for the investment management industry. We have the opportunity to help Americans achieve the dignity and security in retirement that they've worked for all their lives. I believe that if we can demystify the retirement planning process - make it easier to understand and less daunting - we can motivate millions of people to overcome the inertia that keeps them from saving and investing in the future."

After sharing Fidelity's learnings and direct customer experience from developing nearly 200,000 retirement income plans over the past year, McColgan introduced the Fidelity Retirement IndexSM¹ -- the first national measure that uses Americans' broad financial picture to track retirement readiness. Initial findings from the Index show that the typical working American household is on track to replace an estimated 59 percent of projected preretirement income at retirement. (Note to editor: See Fidelity Retirement Index Release).

In closing, McColgan outlined ways that Congress could simplify laws, add consistency and encourage Americans to plan and save for retirement.

	1.	Make tax policy simple and consistent - make permanent the extension of the reduction in the dividend and capital gains tax rates as well as the IRA and 401(k) contribution and catch-up limits.
	2.	Streamline confusing retirement options, and encourage retirement savings - simplify retirement savings choices, lift caps on employer-plan contributions and encourage employers to offer automatic enrollment options.
	3.	Offer incentives for retirement health care savings - create a Retiree Medical Benefit Account in workplace plans and IRAs or modify health savings accounts to further encourage retirement savings.

About Fidelity

Fidelity Investments is one of the world's largest providers of financial services, with custodied assets of $2.1 trillion, including managed assets of $1.1 trillion as of April 30, 2005. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, and human resources and benefits outsourcing services to more than 19 million individuals and institutions as well as through 5,500 financial intermediary firms. 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.

###

Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, Member NYSE, SIPC,
100 Summer Street, Boston Ma 02110

Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company
82 Devonshire Street, Boston, MA 02109

The Fidelity Retirement Index is provided for educational purposes and should not be relied upon as the primary basis for investment and planning decisions and should not be considered as investment advice.

¹ The Fidelity Retirement Index^SM is based on a national online survey of over 1,900 Americans, working full-time, age 25 and older who report at least $20,0000 in annual household income, are married/partners with individuals who are also not yet retired (where applicable) and are one of the financial decision-makers in the household. The survey was conducted for Fidelity Investments by Richard Day Research, Inc., between May 13-16, 2005. The data were weighted to reflect demographic trends in the United States. The Index calculates the percent of projected pre-retirement income that each American household is likely to replace upon retirement based on Fidelity's asset-liability modeling engine.