CONTACT: Corporate Communications
(617) 563-5800

Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company Inc.

Backgrounder

Established in 1979, Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company, Inc. (FIIS) is a leading provider of investment products and services to financial institutions, including banks, insurance companies and broker/dealers. FIIS offers Fidelity Advisor Funds, Variable Insurance Product Funds (VIP), systematic investment plans, institutional money market funds, Advisor Retirement Connection 401(k) and IRA products, and the Advisor College Investing 529 Plan.

With nearly $169 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2002, FIIS is one of the largest providers of non-proprietary investment products in the intermediary marketplace.

FIIS serves the broad institutional market in two distinct ways. First, the company supplies investment products to financial intermediaries, who in turn sell these products to a wide range of investors. Second, FIIS offers investment options and cash management services directly to corporations, and through capital markets divisions of banks.

Recognizing the rapid and dramatic change taking place in the financial services industry, FIIS has implemented a distribution structure that is able to efficiently and effectively address the unique and changing business needs of its clients. The company works as a business partner with its intermediary clients, providing them with service and support at both the sales and home office levels.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

FIIS offers clients a distinctive array of investment products and programs, together with an exceptional level of service. Those offerings are backed by the resources of the entire Fidelity organization, its highly regarded investment management performance, and its broad name recognition, all of which help FIIS provide its clients with the products and services they need to grow their businesses.

FIIS has developed a broad range of products, tools and resources designed specifically for financial advisors. Among these offerings are:
  • Fidelity Advisor Funds® —Fidelity Advisor Funds is a family of 55 load mutual funds that are offered to investors exclusively through financial advisors. These funds present a complete offering of mutual funds with investment objectives to meet investor needs, ranging from growth to income to international and sector investing.

  • Variable Insurance Products Fund (VIP) — FIIS' Variable Insurance Product (VIP) Funds is a family of 18 portfolios that are offered exclusively to insurance companies as underlying investment options for inclusion within their variable annuity or variable life products.

  • Fidelity Institutional Money Market Funds —Fidelity Institutional Money Market (FIMM) Funds are available to FIIS' institutional and corporate clients. FIIS offers 6 FIMM Funds to meet a wide range of short-term cash management objectives.

  • Fidelity DestinySM Plans —The DestinySM Plans, offered exclusively through financial advisors, are long-term systematic investment plans that allow investors to accumulate wealth by making regular monthly investments, for as little as $50, for minimum periods of 10 or 15 years. The Destiny Plans invest in one of two mutual funds, Fidelity Destiny Portfolios: Destiny I and Destiny II.

  • Offshore Products —FIIS offers 14 offshore, Bermuda-based funds designed specifically for Latin America. Offered exclusively through intermediaries, such as banks and broker/dealers with operations in Latin America, these funds are available only to investors who are neither U.S. citizens nor U.S. residents.

  • Advisor Retirement Connection —Through the Advisor Retirement Connection, FIIS offers product and sales information on a variety of individual and group retirement programs, including 401(k), Rollover IRA, 403(b), SEP IRA, and SIMPLE IRA.
  • AdvisorXpress® —AdvisorXpress is a password-protected Web site designed exclusively for financial advisors. It offers account access, trading, up-to-date product information, daily fund pricing, literature (download or order), online tools, fund manager commentary and a sales support system.

  • AdvisorXchangeSM —An innovative web-based program that enables financial services firms to import up-to-date content from AdvisorXpress to use on their own web sites.

  • The Right Moves® for Successful Retirement —An innovative web-based program that enables financial services firms to import up-to-date content from AdvisorXpress to use on their own web sites.

  • Advisor College Investing Plan —Sold exclusively through advisors, the Advisor College Investing Plan is a 529 college savings plan available to families nationwide. The plan is offered by the State of New Hampshire and is managed by Fidelity Investments. It offers a variety of convenient features including payroll deduction and 10 individual fund portfolios.

FIIS’ product and service offerings are supported by an extensive client service network, which includes a large regionalized team of both external field representatives and internal phone representatives. The field representatives assist financial advisors in the development of effective selling strategies, client seminars, and needs-based marketing programs. The telephone staff handles incoming calls and makes outgoing calls to advisors, providing them with timely information on investment strategies and ideas to help meet their clients’ needs.

For more complete information on Fidelity funds, including fees and expenses, please call or write for a free prospectus. Read it carefully before you invest or send money.

Fidelity Advisor Funds are available through financial advisors. Fidelity Advisor Funds, Advisor Retirement Connection, AdvisorXpress and Fidelity Investments are registered trademarks of . Fidelity Advisor Annuities, Fidelity Advisor Generations Annuity, Destiny, Dream it. Live it., Fidelity Lifestage Planning, and BusinessPulse are service marks of .

Variable insurance products are neither insured nor guaranteed by the FDIC.

An investment in a money market fund is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. Although money market funds seek to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, it is possible to lose money by investing in a money market fund.

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