Anyone Here Have Personal Experience Using Fisher Investments?

[RetiredAt49]

For those of you who currently use (or formerly used) Fisher Investments to manage your account(s), I’d love to hear your thoughts - the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you moved away from them, why did you and are you now self managing?

Please specify whether you are a current or past client.

 

[Bamaman]

I've been getting letters from Fisher for years. There was some kind of negative press about them in the last year. They appear to have changed their approach in advertising where "we don't do good unless our customers do good."

And I've never done business with them.

 

[Ready]

I get mailings from them a few times a year. I spoke to them once and wasn’t impressed. I doubt you will find many active customers here as they generally fall into the bucket of financial advisers, which are pretty much frowned on in this forum. I’m not aware that they do anything different than any other financial adviser peddling their services out there.

 

[DrRoy]

They charge a % of assets like many other FA's. Not so unique. Plus, they do fine if you are losing $. I will never again pay fees to a FA.

 

[mrfeh]

No personal experience, but I snicker whenever I see one of their commercials.

Why would anybody want to use such an outfit?

 

[MRG]

No personal experience past a phone meeting. I'm familiar with the fund families the 1%ers push. No need for me to look further.

 

[big8pointer]

The Internet and forums like this one provide a wealth of information on managing one's own retirement $$. I would never hand over my money to one of those places and pay such high fee's when I could manage myself and do just as good.

 

[Car-Guy]

I made the mistake of requesting info from them maybe 15+ years ago.... The next ~ten years I was flooded with mail... Now I'm only getting stuff from them once or twice a year. Fortunately, they never got my email address or phone numbers. Never actually invested/bought anything from them.

 

[rayvt]

I had an account with Fisher for a few years after I retired at 58. Just in case I wasn't as good an investor as I thought I was. Closed the account 5 years later, after finding that they did no worse and no better than I did.

They did as good (read: bad) as I did in the 2008/09 crash.

You will get a cookie cutter portfolio with about 60-70 stocks. No ETFs, no index funds. No reason to pay them $10,000 a year for that.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I have no need to make Mr. Fisher any more money...he has plenty.

 

[ERD50]

For those of you who currently use (or formerly used) Fisher Investments to manage your account(s), I’d love to hear your thoughts - the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you moved away from them, why did you and are you now self managing?

Please specify whether you are a current or past client.

bubbabubba, WADR, you are bouncing off the walls here! Chill!

In the past month, you've posted about leaving your "Wealth Management Company" (WMC?), asked about individual stocks, seemed to have settled on a DIY 2-3 fund portfolio, and now you're asking about Fisher Investments (just another AUM fee FA like WMC that can't do anything for you)?

Re-read the previous responses. A simple DIY portfolio is the best, simplest, cheapest, and lowest risk plan you can have. It's win-win-win (for you, not the FA).

Stop looking for the gold pot at the end of the rainbow. It's not there!

PS: But lottery tickets instead! (j/k)

-ERD50

 

[Midpack]

I made the mistake of requesting info from them maybe 15+ years ago.... The next ~ten years I was flooded with mail... Now I'm only getting stuff from them once or twice a year. Fortunately, they never got my email address or phone numbers. Never actually invested/bought anything from them.

+100. Exact same story here. I inquired once many years ago because I read and enjoyed Ken Fisher’s Forbes column, never looked into them further, and they’ve never stopped mailing. Goes directly into the trash...

 

[RetiredAt49]

bubbabubba, WADR, you are bouncing off the walls here! Chill!



In the past month, you've posted about leaving your "Wealth Management Company" (WMC?), asked about individual stocks, seemed to have settled on a DIY 2-3 fund portfolio, and now you're asking about Fisher Investments (just another AUM fee FA like WMC that can't do anything for you)?



Re-read the previous responses. A simple DIY portfolio is the best, simplest, cheapest, and lowest risk plan you can have. It's win-win-win (for you, not the FA).



ERD50

Relax…. fisher investments is my current WMC that I’m moving away from. Was just curious to know others experience with them.

 

[ERD50]

Relax…. fisher investments is my current WMC that I’m moving away from. Was just curious to know others experience with them.

Ahhh, I see. IIRC, you put "Wealth Management" in quotes, I thought that was the name of the company.

Regardless, Fisher is just another company that will make stock picking look like complex magic, but it has no advantage for you. Don't look back, just pick a brokerage house, and have them transfer your portfolio. Then you can decide how to efficiently get it to braod based index funds.

Good luck!

-ERD50

 

[Luvtoride]

I made the mistake of requesting info from them maybe 15+ years ago.... The next ~ten years I was flooded with mail... Now I'm only getting stuff from them once or twice a year. Fortunately, they never got my email address or phone numbers. Never actually invested/bought anything from them.

I not only made that mistake, but I gave them my phone number too! Some of their printed materials are interesting (and I'm always requesting investment/ retirement info from many sources) but then they called to follow up how I found the information.

When questioned about their methods and fees vs. self directed or other FAs they get downright arrogant that nobody can do what KEN FISHER does!

They still call every once in awhile to "check in" and see if I have a 1/2 million $ I want to invest with them to "try them out".

I guess I learned my lesson about giving out my phone number in response to requesting information!

 

[Ready]

When questioned about their methods and fees vs. self directed or other FAs they get downright arrogant that nobody can do what KEN FISHER does!

I’ve heard that type of comment many times from wealth management companies over the years. My response is “show me the data”. They usually look at me funny and say “what do you mean”? So I ask them to show me the data that proves that over a period of 20+ years they have been able to actively beat the returns of the S&P 500 after accounting for their fees. That usually ends the conversation really quickly.

 

[Gumby]

But you have to admit, nobody has bigger envelopes.

 

[freedomatlast]

But you have to admit, nobody has bigger envelopes.

Lol, true enough. Just threw one in the recycle bin last night.

 

[ER2B]

But you have to admit, nobody has bigger envelopes.

Perfect. I use that kind of stuff for kindling to get my wood stove going. I'll call them today.

 

[dmpi]

I think everyone here has received their giant envelope one time or another. Pity those who actually responded.

 

[CoolRich59]

I guess I learned my lesson about giving out my phone number in response to requesting information!

Not to drift this thread, but this is why a Google Voice account is invaluable.

 

[ERD50]

But you have to admit, nobody has bigger envelopes.

I'm OK with that if at least one side is mostly white space, and not glossy. Makes good scratch paper.

-ERD50

 

[latexman]

But you have to admit, nobody has bigger envelopes.

And it's made from heavy, high quality paper too.

 

[gcgang]

I made the mistake of requesting info from them maybe 15+ years ago.... The next ~ten years I was flooded with mail... Now I'm only getting stuff from them once or twice a year. Fortunately, they never got my email address or phone numbers. Never actually invested/bought anything from them.

Ditto.

They are very persistent. An excellent marketing outfit. Investing with them? Nah.

 

[Exchme]

I just saw a TV ad for them that was great persuasion. I only saw it once, but to illustrate how sticky it was, I think I remember all the key points.

It acknowledged that you've done well with index funds but now it's time to step up to more sophisticated strategies. Then the deep-voiced narrator tell you that if you've accumulated $500,000 or more (in big gold numbers), you are eligible, then they repeat the basic points, praise the acumen of their founder (who got really rich selling stuff to schlubs like us), all while showing happy attractive people in richly appointed surroundings.

Start with Pacing by agreeing that indexing worked, then Leading by dismissing indexing without proof, results or even reasons. Then claim the high ground with the undefined word Sophistication, use some Celebrity persuasion by mentioning their founder and close with Snob Appeal with the visuals the exclusivity of the offer. Truly brilliantly done, they will fleece a whole new generation of folks with that kind of ad.

The weird part about human brains is that even if you can spot the tricks, it doesn't inoculate you from the persuasion. You have to have a bad taste in your mouth from similar experiences in order to step back and laugh.