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.