Fisher is doing the hard press to me on enrolling in their private client group.

I would prefer not to do this as I like to have more control over my investment decisions.

I was thinking about having them invest a percentage of my available funds to give it a try.

Anyone here use them? was your experience positive or negative?

Any insights would be helpful.

themissinglink said:

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Looking online at the fee structure, 1.25% of AUM for the first million seems really high. 0.6-0.8% is what I've seen from some reputable RIAs.

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1.25% is definitely about average for under $1mil.

A lot of the independents can charge anything they want between 0.50-2.00%.

LMCane said:

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They seem overpriced to me.

just pay someone to help you with the tax treatment of the different buckets of your investments.

why give someone 1% every single year of your portfolio? that adds up over 20 or 30 years.

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If their advice and guidance equals a total return of at least 1% more on average each year, seems like that would make sense to me. That 1% could come from portfolio management, tax planning and savings, asset location, helping you avoid mistakes you otherwise would have made, etc. Or it could be the time/effort given back to you by having someone else handle it.
Really if any combination of these things equals 1% then it would make sense for you financially

I've been with them since mid-covid crash. Overall I've been pleased. They completely missed the bear market of 2022, but their positioning towards the end of last year has more than made up for it and I'm now back in the green.

Unless you have some really small accounts (like a small IRA or other account that has to be kept separated), they do not use funds. Rather their goal is to use take the institutional level research that they do and apply it to build a balanced an properly diversified portfolio of individual equities. I recall before I rolled over to them, I sent them some statements from Merrill. I was shopping around as the 401(k) I'd rolled into IRA's were stagnating. Go figure, Merrils idea of diversification, I was paying fees to 28 different funds all that owned Apple. This was on top of what ML was charging.

They'll tell you, they don't pick stocks. They pick market categories, and from there they look at sectors, and from there finally select the companies they're going to buy. Ex... If we're in an emerging bull market, where to they expect gains? Growth, international, commodities? From there then they'll drill down to say energy, health care, technology, etc....

LIke another poster said. 1% isn't cheap. But my time isn't either and I don't want to devote the time necessary to manage the investments that I plan on counting on to see me into and through retirement.

I got on their list and they set up an appointment with me through a scheduler. It's next week.

The appointment was scheduled two weeks ago and I've been getting emails and phone calls to remind me. Like I'm a two year old that can't remember an appointment. It's been a big turnoff. Like s used car salesman

Thanks for the comments. I'm going to stick with myself being my own investor. Some of the comments on here reminded me of using a broker back in the 1990s before the internet and having no other options. I remember crazy fees that only enriched the broker as I watched my portfolio languish.

As mentioned before they're creating a negative by calling me and text messaging me incessantly to remind me of my appointment. I'm guessing they have a lot of people back out

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Bizarro Jerry said:

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Kenneth_2003 said:

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They'll tell you, they don't pick stocks. They pick market categories, and from there they look at sectors, and from there finally select the companies they're going to buy. Ex... If we're in an emerging bull market, where to they expect gains? Growth, international, commodities? From there then they'll drill down to say energy, health care, technology, etc....

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Congratulations, you fell for their bull***** Every single word of this is nonsense. You'll learn this with time.

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Very insightful and constructive commentary you've added to the discussion.

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Sorry, but everything you mentioned in your post adds little to no value to you or any of their other clients. Nothing they do on the investment management side or "institutional level research" is any different than any other firm. It's their primary sales tactic and you got sold.

There always comes a point in time when people realize that hiring an FA/firm to outperform the market is a fools game that can never be consistently won. Fisher knows this but doesn't care, and the people working there have been brainwashed into thinking it's true.

I tend to agree. I've done my own investing for a long time and sometimes I beat the market and sometimes I don't. Just recently I've stumbled on to a methodology that might help me beat the market. We'll see.

I told my son recently if he doesn't have time to do his own investing that he could buy a few key ETFs and stay in sync with the market and told him about stop losses in case we have a major crash.

I don't like the idea of turning those decisions over to someone else

My point was if you're paying someone 1% you better be getting a lot more than a portfolio

There are big differences in managing your own when your assets are $1MM to $2MM and you are mostly interested in trying to hit a targeted retirement number - which I agree most with a moderate level of financial knowledge and interest can do just fine.

You start getting north of that and things get more complicated. First, in the $5MM and above range you are likely into different classes of investments from real estate, investments in new / existing ventures, maybe have a small business, may be dealing with multiple cash flow sources and cash requirement needs that need to be coordinated, and all that in context of working with your tax advisor.

Also, at those levels you should be paying well under 1% and there is a lot of value from having someone focused on it allowing you to either enjoy your proceeds or stay focused on making more dough.

"having someone focused"

That's the problem. No one else is going to be more focused on my business than me.

South Platte said:

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Those of you who feel Fisher isn't worth the money, feel free to suggest an alternative company or broker within a firm that you think does a great job. I doubt my ability to beat the market or your typical Schwab, etc. broker.

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Robo advising options are most likely just as good and you will pay half the rate especially if Fisher is just allocating your equities.

If they are only looking at your market investments, then 1.25% is highway robbery.

txaggieacct85 said:

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"having someone focused"

That's the problem. No one else is going to be more focused on my business than me.

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Sure, I know some retired guys that manager their own personal wealth. But that is rare. Above a few million in net worth I know very, very few (actually I can think of only one) who manages their own portfolio.

Edited to add: I would not be able to play around on TexAgs all day if I had to be the one watching treasury markets, bond markets, and securities plus also be constantly looking at opportunities that may come up and need to be analyzed and acted on quickly. To each its own though.

fka ftc said:

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txaggieacct85 said:

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"having someone focused"

That's the problem. No one else is going to be more focused on my business than me.

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Sure, I know some retired guys that manager their own personal wealth. But that is rare. Above a few million in net worth I know very, very few (actually I can think of only one) who manages their own portfolio.

Edited to add: I would not be able to play around on TexAgs all day if I had to be the one watching treasury markets, bond markets, and securities plus also be constantly looking at opportunities that may come up and need to be analyzed and acted on quickly. To each its own though.

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And the tax implications.

Absolutely.

YouBet said:

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fka ftc said:

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txaggieacct85 said:

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"having someone focused"

That's the problem. No one else is going to be more focused on my business than me.

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Sure, I know some retired guys that manager their own personal wealth. But that is rare. Above a few million in net worth I know very, very few (actually I can think of only one) who manages their own portfolio.

Edited to add: I would not be able to play around on TexAgs all day if I had to be the one watching treasury markets, bond markets, and securities plus also be constantly looking at opportunities that may come up and need to be analyzed and acted on quickly. To each its own though.

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And the tax implications.

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If you're trading in mostly SEP IRA and IRA accounts, there's no tax implications.

I shifted most of my free cash to real estate.

txaggieacct85 said:

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YouBet said:

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fka ftc said:

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txaggieacct85 said:

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"having someone focused"

That's the problem. No one else is going to be more focused on my business than me.

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Sure, I know some retired guys that manager their own personal wealth. But that is rare. Above a few million in net worth I know very, very few (actually I can think of only one) who manages their own portfolio.

Edited to add: I would not be able to play around on TexAgs all day if I had to be the one watching treasury markets, bond markets, and securities plus also be constantly looking at opportunities that may come up and need to be analyzed and acted on quickly. To each its own though.

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And the tax implications.

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If you're trading in mostly SEP IRA and IRA accounts, there's no tax implications.

I shifted most of my free cash to real estate.

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Sounds like you have a use case that an FA is not needed then. My situation is complicated enough that it makes sense for me to have one. I just don't pay near the rates posted on here though.

txaggieacct85 said:

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YouBet said:

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fka ftc said:

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txaggieacct85 said:

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"having someone focused"

That's the problem. No one else is going to be more focused on my business than me.

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Sure, I know some retired guys that manager their own personal wealth. But that is rare. Above a few million in net worth I know very, very few (actually I can think of only one) who manages their own portfolio.

Edited to add: I would not be able to play around on TexAgs all day if I had to be the one watching treasury markets, bond markets, and securities plus also be constantly looking at opportunities that may come up and need to be analyzed and acted on quickly. To each its own though.

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And the tax implications.

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If you're trading in mostly SEP IRA and IRA accounts, there's no tax implications.

I shifted most of my free cash to real estate.

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Unless you do something wrong in/out of that IRA. Lots of moving parts/tax advantages to take a look at when money is in motion.

OP: might look at a flat planning fee and if you absolutely need someone to manage a portfolio for you, check out direct indexing. Depending on your account size, it could be well below that 1% and track an index pretty closely with some other benefits as well.

I only buy and sell stocks, bonds and t bills in the IRA and SEP IRA. Nothing taxable until I take a distribution

YouBet said:

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South Platte said:

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Those of you who feel Fisher isn't worth the money, feel free to suggest an alternative company or broker within a firm that you think does a great job. I doubt my ability to beat the market or your typical Schwab, etc. broker.

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Robo advising options are most likely just as good and you will pay half the rate especially if Fisher is just allocating your equities.

If they are only looking at your market investments, then 1.25% is highway robbery.

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I'm not with Fisher, but I'm starting to wonder if my big box financial advisor is paying attention to trends or just investing based on what the big box headquarters tells him to.

Are there any advisors that spend a ton of time studying opportunities for their clients or do all of these guys hit the golf course at 3:30?

South Platte said:

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YouBet said:

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South Platte said:

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Those of you who feel Fisher isn't worth the money, feel free to suggest an alternative company or broker within a firm that you think does a great job. I doubt my ability to beat the market or your typical Schwab, etc. broker.

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Robo advising options are most likely just as good and you will pay half the rate especially if Fisher is just allocating your equities.

If they are only looking at your market investments, then 1.25% is highway robbery.

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I'm not with Fisher, but I'm starting to wonder if my big box financial advisor is paying attention to trends or just investing based on what the big box headquarters tells him to.

Are there any advisors that spend a ton of time studying opportunities for their clients or do all of these guys hit the golf course at 3:30?

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Mine and his team are numbers hounds. I can see something on Fox Business or have a colleague ask and my guy is almost always already on top of it.

I am with Ameriprise and our family has been with the same guy for 20+ years, I have had my stuff with him for past 5-6 years. I would not be possible nor do I have the interest in doing the amount of research they do. They also get info from corporate but more often corp is the one who is setting up the calls with the institutional guys.

If you have the feeling your guy is part timing it and playing golf whilst your money is not being the most effectively deployed, you want a different guy.

fka ftc said:

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South Platte said:

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YouBet said:

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South Platte said:

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Those of you who feel Fisher isn't worth the money, feel free to suggest an alternative company or broker within a firm that you think does a great job. I doubt my ability to beat the market or your typical Schwab, etc. broker.

---

Robo advising options are most likely just as good and you will pay half the rate especially if Fisher is just allocating your equities.

If they are only looking at your market investments, then 1.25% is highway robbery.

---

I'm not with Fisher, but I'm starting to wonder if my big box financial advisor is paying attention to trends or just investing based on what the big box headquarters tells him to.

Are there any advisors that spend a ton of time studying opportunities for their clients or do all of these guys hit the golf course at 3:30?

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Mine and his team are numbers hounds. I can see something on Fox Business or have a colleague ask and my guy is almost always already on top of it.

I am with Ameriprise and our family has been with the same guy for 20+ years, I have had my stuff with him for past 5-6 years. I would not be possible nor do I have the interest in doing the amount of research they do. They also get info from corporate but more often corp is the one who is setting up the calls with the institutional guys.

If you have the feeling your guy is part timing it and playing golf whilst your money is not being the most effectively deployed, you want a different guy.

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Let me know if you can share his contact info. I'm interested in talking with him if he's still taking clients.

username no space at g m a i l.

Honestly you could do a mix of an S&P 500 ETF and and NASDAQ ETF and beat most firms