Fisher Investments reviews

I worked at Fisher Investments for just over 3 years. I was a Client Account Coordinator for the majority of that time, which meant I onboarded new accounts and had lots of exposure to both the sales department and the account management (Investment Counselors) department. Previously, I worked at a boutique wealth management firm. I've been out of Fisher for just over 3 years now, so I'd say that I've had time to recover and give a somewhat objective idea of what Fisher is like now that I have other experiences to compare it to. To be brutally honest, my time working at Fisher was the darkest time of my life to date. In fact, it bummed me out so much that I switched industries completely. Company culture is very 'culty' with a heavy focus on always defaulting to Ken Fisher's wisdom. His books are treated as gospel, and employees are praised for "bleeding Fisher green". He regularly makes off-color, insulting, frankly just straight up weird remarks in company meetings. Very old-school finance bro culture. Lots of cocaine and leased BMWs. Lots of internal HR issues. Lots of people skipping their children's dance recitals. Lots of people with massive amounts of unused PTO. They conveniently leave the fact that 50+ hour weeks are standard (and required for most roles save Investment Counselors) out of the recruiting process until an offer is extended - even then, it's in the fine print. In general, you can build some good soft skills, but like others have said the Fisher culture, processes, systems, investment approach, etc. are all very specific to Fisher and not very transferrable. Most portfolios are very heavy in equities regardless of time horizon. As an Investment Counselor, you spend most of your time defending Fisher's dictated strategy to clients and talking them off the cliff of liquidating at every negative headline. Decent place to build client retention chops, not a good place to get exposure to portfolio building, risk assessment, etc. - not much room for investment strategy discussions/portfolio management from what I saw. On the sales side, they are very very aggressive. We're talking like daily calls to prospects until they either snap or ask to be placed on the do not call list. Once they are sold, they bring in Client Account Coordinators (me) to move assets under management as fast as humanly possible to "strike while the iron is hot", but also so prospects don't get cold feet. I saw several examples of portfolios with huge unrealized gains being liquidated before proper guidance and time to consider the taxable effects were ever given to the clients. When myself and colleagues would push back on salespeople or bring this to management, those concerns were brushed aside and we were slapped on the wrist for interrupting the sales process. All in all, the place left a bad taste in my mouth. You can do worse than Fisher - pay is good and benefits are great, but you can do way, way better.

(For those of you considering FI, take a look at some of the positive reviews, and see if you notice some eyebrow-raising similarities.) -In the IC role, they start you off with what seems like a great income, but you learn that it ratchets up very, very slowly. You can be an outstanding, dedicated, hardworking IC, but if you have a couple bad quarters, your income potential WILL take a big hit...in the current year and at your annual comp review. And there are plenty of quarters where you have little control over the outcome. -It's a stressful place to work. Don't let the improved hours fool you. You will constantly be battling to keep your to-do list under 30 items. And management will regularly heap more work on you via their many "test" campaigns. And it's not the type of stuff that's easy to just "leave it at work" once you end your work day. -Their client base is growing WAY too fast. They can't keep up with hiring to accommodate this growth...and are now testing out some, uh, interesting ways to address that. Because god forbid they slow down growth as a remedy. -They will constantly tell the overworked associates, ICs, and analysts--who have little stake in the growth of the company--that the break-neck growth is "a good problem". The client roster each IC now has to service--and the rate at which they're having ICs take on clients--is unreal. -This one is really important: Once fully built out, ICs EACH manage a roster/book of business that would make most RIAs in the industry blush. And the justification for why ICs don't get paid more for this huge workload is that we "specialize" in just service...and supposedly don't have to do any selling, operations, research, etc. This is false. No, we do not do the initial sales or marketing, but our job with the client starts as they're being onboarded and continues for however many years the client stays. And when clients have complaints or market fears or any other difficult stuff happening...it's the ICs they call...not the sales people or anyone else. Furthermore, there are many OSPs that throw unsold clients at ICs and expect us to essentially close the deal...then those OSPs get paid--in a single shot--what some ICs make in a quarter. Fast forward several years in the client relationship, you've developed a close relationship and counseled them through some extremely difficult times...and because of your relationship with them, they've decided to move the rest of their assets to FI. A major decision for any person. What do you get as an IC? You get a pat on the back, and the addition MIGHT help your bonus. But that OSP who, years ago, spoke with the clients once or twice, may get paid handsomely AGAIN for doing nothing. FI has a very warped sense of the value of sales v. relationship management. -Technology and procedures to service clients are absolutely shameful. Cumbersome, terrible. -It's my opinion that the future does not look bright for the IC role. I get the sense that they've decided the benefit of the role isn't justified by the cost. -As a counterpoint to there being managers who do want to see change, there are some at the very top who seem to be fighting it tooth and nail...and it's evident in the employee turnover. Now--amazingly--despite all of this, I actually have a lot of hope for the company and believe they COULD very easily turn things around. I think there is a stale leadership element that needs to be removed first.