Christian Pariseault
Fidelity Investments is the latest firm to double down on its outsourced CIO offerings, working to utilize the existing resources and offerings it had already developed for serving defined benefit clients.
“When we marry our investment capabilities, our OCIO capabilities [and] those services from our pension and actuarial organization, we’ve got industry-leading [defined benefit] admin, we have this turnkey approach to managing a corporate pension that’s been in place for quite some time,” Christian Pariseault, Fidelity’s head of OCIO, told CIO in December 2025. “Our OCIO offering is grounded in the strength of Fidelity’s broader ecosystem and the depth of our capabilities across the institutional landscape.”
Pariseault had already worked at Fidelity for nearly 20 years when he was named to a newly created role leading the OCIO business in July 2025. He added the outsourcing team role to his role as head of institutional portfolio managers. While Fidelity has offered pension solution services for DB plans for more than 20 years, including managing plans on a discretionary basis, OCIO has been a larger priority for the firm since 2022, with endowments and foundations identified as potential growth drivers.
“There was recognition that the endowment-and-foundation OCIO space was growing at a pretty healthy [compound annual growth rate], and we have a lot of adjacencies around Fidelity where we work with nonprofits and endowments and foundations,” Pariseault says. A November 2025 report from Cerulli Associates found that OCIO inflows could total $1.3 trillion by 2029, with total outsourced assets reaching $5.6 trillion. According to CIO’s 2025 Outsourced Chief Investment Manager Survey, 50% of surveyed endowments and foundations responded that they are likely to outsource or are considering doing so.
“We’ve grown, in just the last three years, from about six [endowment and foundation] clients to over 70, and assets are up from about $6 billion to almost $11 billion,” Pariseault says, noting that the firm aims to double its assets over the next five years.
In total, Fidelity’s OCIO platform managed $14 billion for defined benefit plans and $11.4 billion for its 70 endowment and foundation clients, as of December 31, 2025. The firm serves as the fiduciary manager for more than 100 pension funds, primarily corporate plans, according to a Fidelity spokesperson.
“For our endowments and foundations clients, we differentiate through a dynamic asset allocation approach that allows us to actively position around opportunities and manage risk as conditions evolve,” Pariseault says “We pair that with diversified portfolios built on Fidelity’s proprietary research and provide up to 50 hours of complimentary philanthropic consulting each year to support governance, strategy, and mission alignment.”
For the firms defined benefit clients, Pariseault noted “our bundled model brings administration, investments, and actuarial expertise together on one integrated platform, which is especially valuable for late‑stage de‑risking and customized hibernation strategies,” Pariseault says. “We also offer a robust custom LDI platform, a deep investment engine focused on liability outperformance, and competitive fees driven by the scale of Fidelity’s combined DB capabilities.”
While Fidelity manages more than $6.4 trillion in assets across the firm, its $25.5 billion OCIO platform is dwarfed by large competitors such as Mercer ($669.9 billion OCIO AUM), Goldman Sachs Asset Management ($410 billion OCIO AUM) and BlackRock ($372.4 billion OCIO AUM), according to data from Chestnut Advisory.
Fidelity has plans to leverage its existing platforms to grow its OCIO business.
“We bring this all from our Fidelity asset management solutions division, where we manage across [the firm] target-date funds, our OCIO business and our target allocation funds, [totaling] just over $900 billion in assets,” Pariseault says. “We have a big platform and big infrastructure to bring to the market and serve this market.”
 |
OCIO Services: A Strategic Investment Partner for Mission-Driven Organizations |
 |
Rich Nuzum Speaks About What’s Next for OCIO |
 |
US OCIO Market Reached $2.5T in 2025 |