Fisher Investments personal experience
 

A few years ago we had our investments with Fisher. After a couple of frustrating years with lower than average returns I questionned why they had us invested European stocks. I am not saying there is anything wrong with that, only that it is not as easy to understand as US stocks. I continued to question my advisor and he got frustrated and actually gave me Ken Fisher's personal email address. I asked him a couple of simple questions: 1) without showing me dollar amounts / numbers, can you assure me that you are investing in the same stocks as your group is promoting and 2) can I exit individual stocks? His answer surprised me. He basically told me if I did not like what what his company was promoting to take a hike.

In essence, if your brokerage is not heaving invested in the same stocks as you with a few exceptions based upon risk tolerance, get the heck away from them.

I would like to add to this. As I read the above and agree! Many many years ago I started a subscription to Fidelity Monitor and Insight as I knew I would be terrified about investing the money I was putting in the brand new IRAs. The newsletter tracks only fidelity funds (fine with me) and has “model portfolios” that at most hold 6 funds at a time. They rate all Fidelity funds each month and have commentary as well. I have definitely done better following their general advice than I would have on my own. I don’t strictly follow their model portfolios any longer. But I just did a thorough check up and review and made some minor tweaks. I have a CPA who is also an active and astute investor and he also periodically reminds me that “as long as you can do the math and make decisions regarding risk and returns, keep doing what you are doing. The mental exercise is good for you. And you get to keep the 1%”. Fidelity has great tools online to help you set goals and keep things in the balance you want. As does Vanguard and others. As someone else posted: do the math on 1.25% of your portfolio taken per year, compounded for 10-20 years and you might be happier with a handful of funds tuned to your risk tolerance. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance is another good resource.

I still remain with my advisor in Ohio. I don’t trust anyone with money in TV.

Fisher Investments is a very well run and respected company. All the big names are - Raymond James, Fidelity, Vanguard, TDAmeritrade, Edward Jones, etc. However, you are not dealing with the company - your account is managed by a single individual. That's the person you have to have confidence in. As for fees and sales charges, most are regulated but it does pay to compare.

I never do business with someone who initiates contact.

Fiduciary responsibility
 

Make sure any investment company lives by fiduciary responsibility. They shouldn't be charging you for trades they make. I personally have need using Edelman Financial Engines. Talk to a representative and look at how they make money. If it's a fee based on trades, run. If they lower the fees as your portfolio increases it might be good for you. Make sure anything you does transferable to your heirs. And most importantly, my advise is what you paid for it.

They sent someone to see us....no buy!

Fisher does not do cold calling so be careful. Here is their central number: 800-550-1071 or go to their website Fisher Investments | Wealth Management and use the contact method there.

I have been a Fisher investor for many years. They are a fiduciary and do not sell anything. They get an annual fee of 1.5% from each account (i.e. IRA, Roth, brokerage, etc.) you have with them broken up into quarters.

I am incredibly happy with them, but you need to make your own investigation before going with them or any other company. I was with Vanguard which did not perform as well as Fisher has for me.

I checked out many of the other investment companies (i.e. Fidelity, Schwab, etc.) before deciding to go with Fisher.

You need need an total of all your different accounts of $500,000 to invest with them.

Ballpark, how much better does Fisher do than Vanguard?

1.5% of $1M is $15k in fees! 1% of $5m is $50k! This is for 1 year. So they will take $500,000 for 10 years!
Who has the yachts? It’s not the investor.
Here is my dealings with them. They claim their commissions are based upon how well you do. So if I start dealing with fisher with $5m, why should they charge me a fee for this initial $5m? They didn’t make this money for me, I made it. Why don’t they charge a fee on the money they make for you instead of the money I bring them? You make me $50k, charge me 1-1.5% on that $50k.
Let’s talk about what happens if they lose you money which is very possible. Do they forego their fee charge if they lose you 25%? NO!
These call me all the time. My questions to them are:
Can you guarantee me that you will do better at making me money that what I make doing it myself?
Can you guarantee me that you will make me money to at least cover the fee cost charged to me each year?
Of course they answer no to these questions.
I will never ever have somebody manage my money. Most if not all managers cannot match the growth of your money that a simple index fund can provide you. Managed funds will always state their best year or 2 but when you look at say over 10 years or longer, index funds will always be better. And the costs of index funds are drastically lower than managed funds, with or without a financial advisor fee on top of that.
Right now, you can make 5% in a money market with very low fees and very low low risk. Or if you want to make more money, you could have got into funds like Vgt or xlk earlier this year and made close to 20% with very low fees.

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Fischer Investments
 

First, you should be calling them to solicit help with your investments. Scams call you. Go to their offical website and request information. That will set up your contacts with Fischer Investments. They do NOT aggressively pursue you. That is hint #1 that something is off with your caller. Secondly, they do work with you to structure your investments to your personal preferences. They get results so their customers are happy. Fidelity, sells commissioned products so understand the difference. Their incentive is based on the product they sell you. Fischer does not sell commissioned products.

Brilliant post!!

"Financial Advisors Rarely Beat the Market

Large-cap fund managers – people who could be considered the most elite of the elite when it comes to financial advisors – are outpaced by the S&P 500 a staggering 92.2% of the time.Oct 15, 2018"

From: Why You Don't Need A Financial Advisor | Seeking Alpha.

In the various financial books I have read the authors report anywhere from 85% to 97% of financial advisors do not beat the market.

That speaks volumes for sticking to low cost index funds.

As another person said on this post, Fischer does not make cold calls. I have been with them for 12 years. We are up 26% YTD. Put that into your calculations.