[huge-pigeons]

Originally Posted by glsatterlee

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.

[rochellepfaff]

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.

[Babubhat]

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

[rjm1cc]

tried to delete

[rjm1cc]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

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.

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

[Rainger99]

Originally Posted by rjm1cc

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.

[damille]

Originally Posted by kaseydog

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?

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.

[Acordionist]

Originally Posted by kaseydog

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?

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

[2th1doc]

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

[Pairadocs]

Originally Posted by manaboutown

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

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 !

[rsmurano]

I have helped a couple of friends/family members move away from Edward Jones (and other brokers/advisors too so it’s not related just to Edward Jones) because they weren’t making money on their investments at a time when you could be blindfolded and threw darts on a board to pick equities to invest into. They were in equities that were not making them any money for quite some time. When each of them went in to tell them they were leaving, the advisor (different advisors in different cities) told them they were just about to call them to go over their portfolios.

IMO, learn to be a boglehead. Most people can learn this methodology pretty easy and invest in 3 low cost index funds that you can buy for the long haul.

Bogleheads 3 Fund Portfolio Review and Vanguard ETFs (2023)

You can apply this to any index fund company, it’s not specifically for just vanguard funds.

[Blueblaze]

If there was anyone on the planet who knew how to play the market, they would be more than happy to manage your money for free in exchange for a cut of the profit. Ever hear of anyone making that offer?

Insurance companies seem to make that claim. And you'd think that any 100-year-old insurance company would have learned enough about investing by now to actually sell an insurance policy that would guarantee a percentage of stock market gains, while protecting you from losses. After all, unlike you, they have the longevity to weather a bear market.

But the lesson that a 100 years of investing teaches is that the best way to make money in the stock market is to scam your investors. Think about it -- even though the insurance company gets to KEEP THE MONEY when an annuity holder dies, they still never really offer a gain that matches even the inflation rate (much less the stock market), after all of their astronomical fees are applied. You'd do better in a savings account.

That's the one thing Fisher gets right. He hates annuities. But that's only because he wants your money, so he can skim 1.5% from your BALANCE (not just the gains!) with no risk to him whatsoever.

There is no passive investment you can make that beats an old-fashioned savings account, in the long run. The only investments I've ever made that beat the market were businesses and properties that I owned and actively managed.

[daniel200]

I am a fan of the Vanguard/Fidelity because of the low fees. And then only owning a single S&P500 fund (VTI) and individual bonds. Easy, simple and performs as well as the stock/bond market.

But I understand that there are many people out there who feel unable or are unwilling to do manage their own money. They want someone to do it for them. Fischer is not cheap … but they are much more likely to manage your money correctly than the other money managers. Fischer holds itself to the fiduciary standard … and that is rare.

[manaboutown]

I am old enough to remember when trading costs were fixed...and they were high! I recall moving what little I had in the market to Olde Discount after May Day in 1975 at my astute boss's urging. I never again used Merrill Lynch or any other high cost brokerage company.

Although I do not know how compensation packages work in the financial industry stock brokers, or financial advisors as they like to call themselves, seem to get paid in part by the size of their customers' accounts. I am primarily a real estate investor but when I hit 80 sold off a couple properties. For years I had a small account at Schwab where I was (thankfully) ignored until I made a sizable deposit in 2022. Then I got noticed big time, greeted, called, invited to lunch, asked what they could do for me, all that concierge service stuff. To stop this, or at least put it on hold, I finally agreed to talk to a rep. During our conversation it came out that I had financial assets spread among several brokerage houses. He immediately urged, almost demanded, that I transfer all my accounts to Schwab. I refused and told him I remember Lehman Brothers and others and believed in spreading my financial assets among several of his competitors. By the way, at that time Schwab held long term Treasuries and interest rates were going up so it had to be squeezed and sweating it out. On top of that its clients were pulling money out of their Schwab bank accounts and putting it into T Bills, money market funds and CDs.

Over the years I have held both individual stocks and mutual funds. I actually was licensed and sold mutual funds in 1965 and 1966 so I knew back then about the various high fees. This was 10 years before Vanguard started on May Day 1975.

I even traded commodities for a time but gave it up after needing to call in from a pay phone under a bull moose head on the wall in a hunting lodge in Maine during deer season. I more than broke even - lucky me - but I could not handle the stress and I was young!

At present I am still mostly in real estate but have invested about half of my after tax RE sales proceeds in short term T Bills. The rest I put into individual stocks - I can't kick the habit - and ETFs. If I felt I needed a financial advisor I would go to an hourly rate fee only outfit having some depth of talent or team and not a highly and expensively advertised outfit like Fisher, Edward Jones or Raymond James which would happily rake off 1% or more of my financial assets in their accounts every year. (If my assets made 10% in a year they would get 10% of my return. If my assets earned 5% they could get 20% of my return. If my assets earned 1% in a year they would take 100% or more of my earnings. No thank you!) I would also choose someone I got along with and trusted. I would look for someone who had satisfied clients in my age group and financial situation, quantitatively and qualitatively. An individual advising owners of $100M portfolios would have no interest in me as my account would be peanuts to them. I would seek to find someone with experience and expertise at my financial level.

[Rainger99]

Originally Posted by daniel200

But I understand that there are many people out there who feel unable or are unwilling to do manage their own money. They want someone to do it for them. Fischer is not cheap … but they are much more likely to manage your money correctly than the other money managers. Fischer holds itself to the fiduciary standard … and that is rare.

But when you put your money into a Fidelity or Vanguard, it is being managed by professionals. They just don't charge the fees that Fisher does.