Fisher Investments
 

I received a call from Fisher Investments stating they are doing business in The Villages. Has anyone used them? If so, what was your experience? Good? Bad?

Talked to a guy, didn’t impress me. Took no action. Might be good for you, just not me.

I cannot count the number of times I have received expensive glossy brochure mailings from them over the years. They show up on my FB page almost daily. They show up as ads on almost all the investment news internet sites I frequent. Feels like a high pressure outfit due to all its aggressive advertising but I have no first hand experience with Fisher Investments. Ken Fisher is a multibillionaire. Kenneth Fisher - Wikipedia

I would be very careful to fully understand the fees. Be sure to get an estimate of the dollar amount for a year in addition to the Percentage. If you need an advisor be sure to interview a few and do not rush into a decision.

Spoke with them at length several years ago. IMHO just another 1% fee adviser. Didn't really see any value in them, as I am an index investor. Stayed at Vanguard and pay virtually 0 in fees (.04%) overall. They do spend a ton on advertisement though.

Very pushy to the point of being annoying. The phone calls will NOT stop. Fees are very high and returns mediocre. Far better off in a low cost index ETF.

Equity and Blended Accounts
Amount of Assets Annual Management Fee
First $1 million 1.25%
Next $4 million 1.125%
Additional amounts over $5 million 1.00%

Your Assets Annual Fee Amount
$1MM $12,500
$5MM $57,500
$10MM $107,500

In addition to these fees, clients may also pay brokerage commissions, other custodian fees.

As I understand it, Fisher Investments charges between 1 percent and 1.5 percent of the assets that they manage for you. They act as your fiduciary and they do not receive product commissions or kickbacks to sell you financial products. So, they are a "fee only" investment advisor. If you really need someone to invest your money for you, that is the best type to hire. But, Vanguard or Fidelity will perform the same fiduciary investment service for a lot lower percentage. But, none of these percentage based services are for me. I have never paid anyone to invest my money.

You don’t need them. Most advisors use a robo approach to allocate funds. A few Vanguard funds can accomplish the same. Shareholder owned. Fees matter

Project ten years of fees they will charge. You will be horrified

As I understand it, they don’t take a percentage of the increase in your portfolio. Rather, they base their fees on the total value of your portfolio.

So if you have $1,000,000 at the start of the year and the market goes up 1%, you would have $1,010,000 at the end of the year but they would take 1.25% of $1,010,000 or $12,625. You would have $997,375 at the end of the year. If they are that good, they should be willing to base their commission on the increase in value.

I don't know of any investment advisor who would do that. Do you?

But did he make all those billions legitimately? The name Bernie Madoff comes to mind.

Ken Fisher himself might be a billionaire but he sure does not seem to use good sense when it comes to running his mouth.

A CNBC article from 2019 titled, “Here’s the Ken Fisher audio that inflamed executives at a financial conference, ” can be read to see the stupid things he said, as a SPEAKER! Don’t miss his bizarre comment comparing himself to a Christmas tree. Weird. Weird. Weird.

Alas, after reading that article, I am now doomed to automatically think about his truly creepy words every time his face shows up in a stack of mail. (cringe, shudder)

Back to the question at hand — I think there are better choices than Fisher.

There is a lot of info on the internet about Fisher. An article on clark.com will tell you more than you probably ever wanted to know. Just google clark.com and Fisher Investments Review and you will find a very detailed article. It even has a table of contents.

Boomer

My addition to all this good advice, take time to read Paul Merriman’s 3 FREE ebooks.
1. First-Time Investor
2. 101 Investment Decisions
3. Get Smart or Get Screwed (read this first!)

Found at paulmerriman.com

Also on his site are recommended portfolios for using Vanguard, Fidelity, T.Rowe Price or Schwab for DYI'ers. Much good info, ignore the puffery and sales pitches for his foundation.

I have used a blend of his Vanguard recommendations since 2005 and think that we have fared pretty well.

JMHO

Putting fees aside my question in today's market what percentage is a good return?
I received yesterday an email from Citi Bank pushing Platinum Savings account at 5.05% and this is FDIC insured. Now banks usually match each other and it would be a job, but you figure 4 banks at $250K FDIC insured max would cover a million. That would be protection without any fees.

I don’t know of one but I expect that they don’t do it because they aren’t that good.

The average yearly return of the S&P 500 is 10.749% over the last 50 years. This assumes dividends are reinvested.

I think the minimum Fisher investment is $500,000. If your advisor can just match the market, that would be $50,000 a year in profit. If an advisor took just 3% of the added value, he would make $1,500 a year. If they are really that good, I would expect that a financial advisor could beat the market most years.

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.

Ok, technically you are correct. But I know for a fact, after you ask for your brochure just to read a different perspective, Fisher will keep calling you multiple times a year trying to get your business even when you say no.

If you want facts, look how Fisher did back in 2007/2008, they were down huge, then add their fees on top of that.

FISHER FLOUNDERS

Just 1 more thing: Fisher advisors are supposed to be investor experts, so when you say you made 26% this year, which is ok, but let’s compare that to my Meta, Apple, and Tesla holdings this year. 26% is peanuts. Ok, ok, let’s compare my go to funds like Vgt or xlk to your 26% gains: Vgt is up 36% over 1 year and 20% over the last 10 years; xlk is up 38% for last 1 year, 20% over the last 10 years, both at .10% expense. My Swppx index fund is up 20% with a .02% expense fee, which I have held for over a decade. Same for either xlk or Vgt. I got out of apple 18 months ago and then bought back in when it came down to the $120’s late last year, it’s over $190 today. Tesla, meta, nvidia, and a few others have been gold mines this year.

For the people that hire an investor advisor/broker, did your advisor/broker recommend, at the beginning of this year, to buy meta, apple, nvidia, Tesla with every dollar you have, NO! You being in charge of your investments, you have the power to buy what you think will grow, short term or long term.

They called you out of the blue? Had you ever done business with them before? If not, and your phone # is on the national "do not call" registry, they broke the law by calling you. I would never do business with someone who called me that way. Too pushy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And possibly even a scam.

The more one advertises the less reason you should use them. Great advisors don’t need to. Those full page ads in the local paper make me nauseous.

Advisors should only be paid if they exceed a risk adjusted benchmark. Never found one never will

tried to delete

1500 should be 15000. I had to use a calculator.

3% of $100,000 is $3,000 so 3% of $50,000 is $1,500. That calculator is broken.

Fisher Investments
 

I spoke with Fisher Investments as my previous advisor had retired. Their closest office is in Tampa which would be a problem if I predecease my wife. So we didn't go any further with the interview.

Fisher Investments
 

No but I have had a superb experience with Edward Jones and they are also in The Villages

Fisher is absolutely superb in marketing to the masses. Not so much in performance.

Similar feelings. Looked into the Fisher firm at the time contemplating retirement. Impression was that money for the very glossy brochures you mentioned, and then talking to them, like ALL the rest of the so called "wealth seminars", they never were able to convince me they cared more about ME making money on my investments than I was ! Just stuck to my own stock and investments picks at my low cost/no cost financial institution where I had my 401K. Think I've done better than any of the "I'm not a sales person, I'm a seminar leader" people we've met. But yes, Ken Fisher certainly does know how to make money for his retirement ! LOL !