In April we were seeking a new financial advisor to improve returns. We got suckered into the sales spiel of Fisher Investments. They market to "high wealth individuals" with at least $500,000 to invest. They promise to construct a personal portfolio of stocks — like your own personal mutual fund. They benchmark everything off the MSCI World Index.
We gave these guys $833,000 in Spring of 2007. During the course of the year, I became worried about signs in the housing market. My Fisher Investment Advisor pooh-poohed my fears and said that Ken Fisher and his team of geniuses predict GDP up 3.8% in 2008 and stock markets up 7% and blah blah blah.
Like a deer on the railroad tracks, they kept us full on in equitites and our portfolio lost about 40% of its value. Ken Fisher loves the sound of his own voice and writes numerous articles in Forbes and a book a year about how he is smarter than anybody in the markets. He is not.
After the cfrash, they promised that "the bigger the drop, the bigger the bounce" when the markets return. We never saw a serious bounce.
After nearly six years with these guys, we have a portfolio ROI since inception of -3.8% and have spent $38,870 in Fisher management fees since inception.
In a final show of utter incompetence, the MSCI World Index was up 14.6% in CY 2012. However, our portfolio — which is supposed to track this index - was up only 4.3% in CY 2012... Over 10% lower return than their own tracking index!
I fired these arrogant fools on 12/19 and am rolling my funds into a series of ETFs.
Do not give any money to Fisher Investments! The only thing they are diligent about is collecting their 1.25% management fees! And Ken Fisher pushing his smug face onto books and magazines to lure more high wealth suckers.
I would have done better in a no-load index mutual fund!
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