Fisher Investments
Fisher Investments is good only at marketing
Fisher Investments is a trap, and they market themselves to be the best investment firm. I moved all my portfolio in 2007 to this firm. I continued to work with them for few years, and after continuous problems with my account, I left their company in 2013.
I got a call from Fisher a few months back, and it was again their marketing department that was looking for a reconsideration. So, I could not resist myself and posted this review.
When the first time they lured me into getting my portfolio with them was the continuous assurance that they were not traders, which they are actually. This bait got me into a lot of trouble later on. But, this time, I am not going to fall for their sweet talks.
When I had an account with them, they underperformed with every benchmark. I believe that they work on the theory of one size fits all. This is the most stupid thing to do when you are working as an investment company.
In 2012, when I was hit by the bill of capital gains over 225K, they stayed behind the market significantly. In that same year, they dumped most of their holdings twice, which substantially affected their clients.
The worst part was when I did some research on my own only to find out that they had not cared about the 13% of my portfolio that went in a “double down bet” when the market was rising.
They did not care to inform me. They paid Barclays as well as USB to write the note. It’s more complicated than anyone can guess. In short, when I got to know about their tactic and asked them to leave, they said that the whole thing could take more than two weeks to unwind the trade.
They admitted that the fee was too high, and the things were too complicated that they were not sure if they could find the buyer.
If you wish to see Fisher Investments’ performance and what they actually get you as a return, visit Morningstar and check out PURIX, the mutual fund they offer.
Being their institutional mutual fund, they put every private client group onto this fund. This gets them the lowest possible returns with the highest risk possible. If you can guess, they have made a 6.79% return long since 1996. So, if you consider inflation, you are actually losing money. On top of that, they have 1.25% Fisher Investments fees.
They are on the verge of collapse, and I hope it comes sooner to them. All they are doing is pretending to be your safe keeper and doing everything to take it all away.
Fisher Investments reviews are all scattered on the internet to give you more insight into their scam. Fisher Investments career is already downside. If you want to be a part of their investment plans, you should get health insurance first. They can get you into that much trouble.
I would have been better off hiding my money under my pillow
James Thompson has had my accounto since August 2017. Currently up 1.3%. Very disappointed
I wrote this a few years ago and you stole it and rewrote it
I was just looking on the internet and came across this article. I wrote this a few years ago. You took what i wrote, and embellished it. I am going to find out who you are and report you. I can’t believe it You have my information, i would like you to contact me and explain why you did this
Boiler Room
I was actually interested in Fisher around 2011. I invited one of their salesmen out to give me a presentation. He gave a spill about how great my investments would do but I never could figure out exactly what they were doing so I hesitated because my Vanguard accounts were doing good and I wasn’t that savvy an investor at the time and 500k was a lot of money for me to put with one money manager.
After a month or so the phone started ringing as their closer kept calling. About the fourth or fifth time he called on a stressful day when I up to my neck in alligators and made the mistake of basically calling me stupid for being a passive investor when Fisher could do so much more. Stupid was not a word I cared for so I came unglued and told him what and where he could put his Fisher fund. Vanguard has done really good for me and you never see them advertise while Ken Fisher is on TV many times a day pushing his fund. That he has to plead so much tells me more than anything about this den of scammers, especially after reading a previous responders comments.
Fisher good at losses
Just did a complex tax filing for a Fisher customer couple, both over 65, one handicapped. Summary is that fees were $8800, dividends were $14000, tax free income under $1000, foreign taxes around $500, short term capital losses were $22000 with no LT losses or gains. All trades done with TD Ameritrade. Evidence of churning, trades included many odd lots and foreign assets, both stocks and bonds as well as mutual funds. Not at all appropriate for a retired couple. They are divesting themselves of Fisher.
Fisher Investments lost 14+ percent of my IRA in 2018
Fisher ignored their fiduciary responsibilities for an all equity IRA for a 78 year old male including high risk bank ETFs. When questioned about the portfolio, they became highly defensive and argumentative despite the facts that included equities with 30-70% losses. When faced with difficult questions and the facts they change the subject and proceed to do yet another retirement analysis, based of course on their skewed models. When I complained to Fisher they essentially ignored me and finally fired me, refusing to state reason. Very dishonest firm. I have chatted with a number of law firms that would love to get the goods on Fisher. But its is really tough because Fisher will flight all to the death – yours. I’m still looking at recovery options and am filling a complaint with the SEC. If a sufficient number of Fisher victims do the same, perhaps the SEC or other government watchdogs will take action.
hiding something
Extremely aggressive, do not give them your phone number! In the end, they were unable show me a simple track record. Or, they didn’t want to! LOL
Substandard Performance
Fisher did well in 2017 but so did just about everyone else. After promising a banner 2018 year my IRA was already down 8% before the the downturn starting in Oct 2018. As of yesterdays closing, when the DJ rose over 1000 points, IRA was down over 17% for the year. For a client past normal retirement age by 10 years, this represents a fiduciary responsibility failure (17% loss compare to 12/26 YTD gains for the S&P, DJ, and NASDAQ of 4.96, 4.98. & 5.84 respectively). Much of the losses caused by poor securities selections and letting bad investments get worse. (How about riding GE all the way down to $7 from $34; and ditto for UBS). Did I level my concerns to Fisher? You bet over the past 4-5 months and they were largely ignored under the guise that ‘Fisher Knows Best’. Well the facts do not lie.
All the major indices were down at the end of Dec 2018 – not sure what you’re saying
Searching for a investment adviser
I don’t know that these guys are really scamming anyone at all? I had an interview with them and determined in about 5 minutes that they did not produce enough returns to justify their fee schedule much less me having my dollars tied up in a poorly performing system. Simple as that. Buyer beware, I think that they are pretty typical of a lot of so called investment firms.
Only one getting richer Ken Fisher and his Sales team.
The customer service is a device of Fisher to evade truth of what is really going on in Portfolio. They are rude, make plenty of phone calls if they are in the mood. My current and 4th, chats a minute but makes an excuse to get off the phone as soon as you want to talk business. He also rarely, if ever, calls back as agreed. Agreed to call on certain day and late by over a week now, no call at all. My email box is full of messages constantly sent out although I have asked for filtering. About 80% of these emails don’t apply to me.
The worst i’s the lack of growth and performance. In addition the fees are so high they have exceeded profits.
Don’t believe the slick marketing of fake 5 star reviews that say little and give no detail. . Don’t believe them.
Have been promised detailed information that never comes or presented data other than as requested to cover their short falls. Especially out of San Francisco call center.
Most dishonest, manipulative, sharks, and rude reps I have ever worked with.
They lost over 100,000 for us in 6 weeks,, !! Total SCAM,, they win when you win because they charge 1% to manage the money! Duuu
At the height of the crash end of 1999-2002 I put what was left of our savings with Fisher Investments. They indicated they were out of the market and would protect our account. In Mid May of 2000 or 2001 now i cannot remember, he went ALL IN 8 billion back in the market in 1 day, as his ‘indicators’ told him we had reached the bottom. F—— brilliant! It had just started to go down,, the market crashed after that and we lost over another $100,000 with him in 6 weeks. When I called them and challenged them on their Pursima fund. One of his brokers assigned to me agreed with my assessment that just being in the SnP 500 would have performed better than Fisher! Numbers don’t lie. He consistently underperforms the market and is only after your cash. He is a huckster. Don’t fall for it. Paul
Recovery of money from Stox market
I was able to recover my investments from fisher investments with the help of Myprincipal chargeback.
Fisher Investments do not act as fiduciaries as they represent
Fisher Investments represents that they act as Fiduciaries on television.
However, they did not set up a margin account with UBS as agreed so that I could manage some of my own funds, and instead they set me up to use my own account as a loan to borrow from, which had none of the warnings that a margin account has. I was with them for several years and they abruptly terminated the relationship when this was brought to their attention. I guess that they wanted to avoid liability. But that is hardly consistent with abiding by a Fiduciary responsibility as Ken Fisher says on his ads.
Agreed
Fisher Investment is only great at marketing themselves
Stay clear of this company. They spend more time and effort in marketing than in performing. All they are interested in is the 1.5%. You have been warned.
I just had a meeting with them.They told me they use no mutual funds because of internal expense ratios. They only have 65 equities in an account at any one time…..was I misled? they claim average of 9% gain over past 10 years and last year over 28%? Would appreciate input
If it's too good to be true then...........
Got phase two of their promotion and was stunned to hear you say 65 stocks no mutual funds and 9% return are the same numbers thrown at me. Want to see what BBB has to say and their own mutual fund? Thanks but no thanks.
Fees are actually 2.9%
Your fee for 500,000 is 1.5%. Not the 1.25% they advertise. You need over 700k for the 1.25% fee, and the 700k needs to be all in ONE account. If you and your spouse each have 700k in two accounts? That will be 1.5%…
They then put 15%-20% of your portfolio into ETNs in addition to the stock. The ETNs have fees of .6% and internal expenses of .8%. That’s another 1.4% on top of your 1.5%.
Congrats, they are actually charging you 2.9% without you even knowing it, and clients wonder why their portfolios perform so poorly in a flat or near-flat market, and drag when the market rips.
On top of it, you are given a “personal and dedicated investment counselor” who is responsible for 180-200 clients. They aren’t advisors, and they’re Ken’s mouthpiece who stick to a script. That doesn’t sound too “personal,” does it?