New Account Helps Employers Address
Rising Healthcare Costs as Part of Broader Retirement Planning Equation

BOSTON, December 19, 2005 - As employers begin the process of reviewing their benefits plan offerings for 2007, Fidelity Investments today announced the availability of its Health Savings Account (HSA) to help employers mitigate and reduce health benefits costs, while empowering employees to better control health care expenses today and save for future health costs in retirement.

Used in conjunction with a high-deductible health insurance plan (HDHP), an HSA is a tax-advantaged account that allows eligible individuals to pay for current qualified medical expenses while also saving for future qualified medical and retiree health expenses on a federally tax-free basis. HSAs are currently the only health care savings vehicle to combine multiple features such as portability, investment options and accumulation potential.

"Escalating costs, an aging workforce and the elimination of retiree medical programs are marketplace trends requiring employers to seek alternative health benefits management options," said Kirk Arnold, executive vice president of Fidelity Human Resources Services Company, which provides benefits administration and HR services to corporations across the U.S.

"Health care costs should be factored into every individual's retirement plan. When viewed as a post-retirement health care savings account, the HSA has a powerful potential to engage working Americans, and help enable them to become more retirement ready," said Arnold.

Fidelity will provide employers with end-to-end services including: employee health plan selection support tools; an HSA based on the IRS model; HSA recordkeeping services; access to Fidelity funds as investment options for the HSA; and Web and call-center support for employers and employees. For Fidelity's outsourcing services clients, the Fidelity HSA will integrate with the suite of retirement planning tools, and specifically for Health & Welfare customers, includes integrated enrollment with the medical plan, health plan enrollment support, and the Flexible Savings Account.

In addition to the HSA, Fidelity's suite of health benefits management services also includes the comprehensive Health Management Center provided by WebMD, which provides employees and retirees with personalized health information and decision support tools designed to enhance their ability to make more informed health care decisions and reduce overall benefits costs. By contracting with WebMD, Fidelity is also working to deploy a unique set of tools later this year that will help individuals project healthcare costs both near-term and during retirement, in order to enable consumers to optimize use of their HSA funds.

The new HSA offering was deployed as a pilot for Fidelity's own 2005 Annual Enrollment and is the newest component of Fidelity's total benefit program support offering for employers and employees. As the workplace retirement savings leader, Fidelity is one of only a few corporate retirement plan service providers to offer an HSA.

"In the coming years, employers will need to continue to manage their health care benefits costs, and encourage employees to become more informed, proactive health care consumers," said Arnold. "As part of our ongoing commitment to helping clients address these issues, Fidelity will continue to leverage our retirement and health care expertise to deliver additional "health meets wealth"^SM tools, resources and products, like the HSA."

The Fidelity HSA will be available to Fidelity clients for their 2006 plan design decisions, and employee utilization beginning January 1, 2007. Eligible employees can elect their intent to establish the Fidelity HSA during the annual enrollment process starting in the fall of 2006. There will be no minimum balance requirements to open a Fidelity HSA.

As is standard with all HSAs:

•		To be eligible, an individual must be covered by a HDHP as of the first day of the month, not covered by any health plan other than a HDHP, not enrolled in Medicare and may not be claimed as a dependent on another individual's tax return.
•		Contributions to HSAs can be made by the employer, the individual, or other third parties. Such contributions are excludable from the individual's gross income for federal tax purposes (state taxation may vary from state to state).
•		The maximum annual contribution amount is the lesser of the deductible amount under the HDHP or $2,700 for self only coverage or $5,450 for family coverage (for 2006). These dollar limits will be adjusted for inflation each year.
•		Unused HSA funds remain in the individual's account from year to year. In addition, because the funds belong to the individual employee, HSA funds are fully portable and can be rolled over into another HSA. HSA funds cannot be rolled over into an IRA.

About Fidelity Employer Services Company

Fidelity Employer Services Company provides benefits and human resources administration, talent management, payroll solutions and stock plan services to approximately 20 million employees in the U.S. as of October 31, 2005.

About Fidelity Investments

Fidelity Investments is one of the world's largest providers of financial services, with custodied assets of $2.3 trillion, including managed assets of $1.1 trillion as of October 31, 2005. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, and human resources and benefits outsourcing services to more than 20 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.

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