Fisher Investments Review 2024 (2024)

• Who Should Choose Fisher Investments
• Fisher Investments Commissions and Fees
• Fisher Investments Platform and Technology
• Fisher Investments Range of Offerings
• Fisher Investments Research and Education
• Fisher Investments Customer Service and Security
• About Fisher Investments

Fisher Investments can be a good choice for those who have already built considerable wealth and now want a professional to take over running their portfolio.

When you sign up with Fisher Investments, you are matched with an investment advisor. The advisor figures out your financial goals and then designs a customized portfolio to meet those goals. The advisor also supervises the portfolio and adjusts it to keep you on track through market ups and downs, changes in your needs and deviations in your portfolio’s asset allocations from your game plan.

Fisher Investments is especially appealing if you’re a fan of the books and advice of Ken Fisher, executive chairman and co-chief investment officer of the investment advisory and money management firm. He oversees the strategies recommended by the company’s advisors. To help you decide whether to sign up, you can learn more about his take on money and investing by reading his columns and books.

Handing over your portfolio to Fisher Investments is not ideal if you want to make investment decisions on your own. They do not offer a brokerage account where you can handle your own trades. In addition, you pay a high annual management fee for the ongoing support from Fisher Investments. Finally, you need at least $500,000 to enroll, so Fisher Investments is not an option for those still building wealth.

Fisher Investments charges an assets under management (AUM) fee to run your portfolio. The fee is a percentage of the total amount you invest with Fisher Investments, and it depends on the size of your portfolio:

• The first $1 million: 1.25% per year
• Next $4 million: 1.125% per year
• Assets over $5 million: 1% per year

This AUM fee covers everything. You do not owe any additional charges. The Fisher Investments professionals do not earn a commission recommending funds or products for your portfolio.

Fisher Investments does not offer a brokerage platform where you can make your own trades. As a result, the Fisher Investments technology and website are both relatively simple. They aren’t offering capabilities for you to research, build and maintain your portfolio independently because you are paying a professional to handle this work for you.

Fisher Investments does not provide an online login for its website because it does not hold your money or investments. Instead, it outsources this work to an external custodian. Upon retaining Fisher Investments Private Client Group, you receive the login information from this third party to check your portfolio balance, asset allocation and performance. Fisher Investments then builds and manages your portfolio.

If you want a brokerage platform to research and make your own trades, you might want to take a look at some of the best online brokers instead.

For individuals, Fisher Investments offers personal wealth management. This includes:

• Portfolio management. Where a professional designs and runs your investments based on your goals.
• Financial planning. Fisher Investment professionals will help you set goals for your future and determine the steps you need to take for saving and investing to reach these goals. The advisor will also review your past progress to see if you’re on track.
• Retirement planning. Fisher Investments can plan how much you need to save to hit your retirement goals. The firm can also figure out how much income you can safely take out each year in retirement without excessively depleting your balance and without impeding your financial goals, which can include providing wealth for your spouse, loved ones and beneficiaries. Fisher Investments will also determine how best to use the tax breaks from your individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and workplace retirement plans.
• Estate planning. If you want to provide an inheritance to one or more loved ones, Fisher Investments can determine how much you can leave and ensure you have the proper documents, such as a will and trust funds.
• Annuity evaluation. Ken Fisher famously said he hates annuities. If you are considering buying one, an expert from Fisher Investments can explain the possible drawbacks of a contract to balance what you hear from a company offering the annuity. Fisher Investments does not sell annuities.

Fisher Investments stands out for its portfolio management. The advisors build customized portfolios tailored to meet your investment goals rather than using the same approach for all clients. While your personal advisor is in charge of creating your portfolio, the process is overseen by an Investment Policy Committee, which includes the firm’s leaders and Ken Fisher himself.

Fisher Investments requires you to bring in at least $500,000 to join as a client for wealth management.

Business and Institutional Services

Fisher Investments also works with businesses and institutions. It offers 401(k) services for small and medium-sized businesses. This includes setting up investments, employee support and plan administration.

In addition, Fisher Investments offers institutional support for pension funds, governments, foundations and endowments. Fisher Investments provides investment selection and advice for these organizations.

Fisher Investments’ website has a solid resource library of articles, investment guides, calculators and even books to teach people about investing. The Fisher Investments experts, including Ken Fisher, publish articles and videos with insights about the latest market trends and how they could impact your portfolio.

While Fisher Investments provides many high-quality materials to teach you about investing and the market itself, it doesn’t provide the ongoing research tools you would get from a brokerage platform.

For example, you can’t run your own personal portfolio analysis or access stock screeners to find your next investment. Also, Fisher Investments focuses on teaching people about long-term market trends so they can develop a strategy with their advisor, but the company offers little support for active day trading.

In a nutshell, Fisher Investments does not cater to do-it-yourself investors. Rather, Fisher provides a chauffeured limo service for investors who’d rather not drive themselves to their financial destinations.

You can contact Fisher Investments for customer service by phone or email, or you can schedule a meeting with your investment advisor. Fisher Investments has 10 U.S. locations where you can meet with a representative, plus additional corporate offices in the U.S. and other countries.

You can schedule an in-person meeting with your advisor if you live near a Fisher Investments branch. Otherwise, you can meet by phone or video chat.

Fisher Investments uses data management systems and security policies to protect client information. Your advisor gets to know you and will watch out for any unusual investment transactions on your account that don’t match your goals. Fisher Investments does not hold your investments but passes this work on to a third-party custodian. The exact security procedures for protecting your assets will depend on the custodian.

Fisher Investments is an investment advisory firm headquartered in Plano, Texas. Ken Fisher founded Fisher Investments in 1979. Today, Fisher Investments oversees roughly $205 billion for 140,000 clients. The firm has 5,000 employees working around the United States and the World.

Ken Fisher is a well-known investor and author. He has published several best-selling financial books, was a long-running columnist for Forbes and is regularly seen on financial news. He helps oversee Fisher Investments as part of the Investment Policy Committee, though he is no longer the firm’s CEO.

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