Fisher Investments Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Fisher Investments

Pros – Fisher Investments has been gratuitous enough to employ me for over 20 years. The early days were tough; I was working my way through college and didn’t know much about the investment industry. Through programs in place they trained me on many different aspects of the financial services industry. At this point I feel quite privileged to work here. I have a clear understanding of this industry, how financial market work and would be very comfortable lecturing in front of the most astute investors out there. None of this came without extremely hard work and dedication.

I understand there are a few past employees that have complaints about working. However, I did not see any substance in their complaints. They are upset when a manager checks their work? – What company doesn’t have that? They are upset when its time to go home and they are asked to complete their work and leave? -- Doesn’t that beat pushing employees to work 75+ hour work weeks? These complaints seem to me these are over privileged kids that never had to hold a job and at least we gave them a chance.

Our customer support and service is held at such high levels that I have trouble interacting with other companies at time… whether it be the dry cleaners, the local restaurant, the dentist office, etc. I hold everyone else to our high standards and it is tough sometimes. Customers come first, every company should think this way, as we know without the customer we employees do not have a reason to get up in the morning. I have the best job in the world, I work with the folks who have pushed the limits of capitalism and have succeeded… for that I am grateful. If these complainers have time to sit around and type negative thoughts about us then maybe no other firm found a reason to hire them so their leaving our company was likely a blessing in disguise. Fisher Investments is a GREAT place to work!

Cons – Not a place for all.

Current Employee – been working at Fisher Investments

Pros – Professional and academic approach to portfolio management that is different from mainstream Wall Street. Great work environment and I really respect my colleagues. Ken Fisher is one of the great legendary investors.

Cons – Difficult to find really good food in Camas WA. Fortunately, Portland is only 20 minutes away, but still a bit too far to drive for lunch.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Fisher Investments as an intern for less than a year

Pros – I have only been with the company for slightly less than a year and I have been provided with a great internal education on fiancé and company outlooks.

Cons – None that I can see right now. Could be due to limited time with company, as well as limited outside exposure within in the same industry.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Fisher Investments full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Its a great place to 'used to work at'! You get to live in California if you work here.

Cons – Complete squelching of individual thought and creativity. Management that is hostile to the individual and drains the spirit of its employees. Virtually no upward mobility.

Advice to Senior Management – Clean house and change the culture to one that encourages individual thought, and promotes 'out of the box' thinking. Do you ever wonder why your performance has dramatically lagged every major benchmark? You are not leveraging the intellectual capital you have at your fingertips!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Fisher Investments full-time

Pros – Company matches employee 401k contributions.
Health insurance is better than average financial firm.
Company office is located immediately off the freeway.

Cons – I was a longtime employee of Fisher Investments (most recently as an Investment Counselor) prior to recently joining another financial services firm. There are some talented individuals at FI, and management has been able to retain them by using fear and intimidation. If someone is disappointed with career opportunities, company culture, compensation, etc., it'd be common to hear "try to make this money elsewhere" and "the grass is not always greener at other companies." I've worked at other financial firms before and after FI, and I can confidently say the grass is not only greener but quite lush too.

- Company morale is low. There is little confidence in management's ability to lead, manage client portfolios or proclivity to consider/address employees' concerns. The environment is the most toxic I've ever been around.

- Employee turnover, which has always been high, has dramatically increased the past few years, especially tenured employees. Turnover is typically highest immediately after employees receive their bonuses.

- Ken Fisher controls all decisions. With no shareholder accountability and management unwilling to challenge him, no changes can be made. Everyone is terribly afraid of Ken Fisher.

- Complete obsession with its public image. FI proactively attempts to remove negative online FI content while promoting internally-created positive content (FI articles, reviews, etc.) They even provided us with "training" on how to defend against negative reviews to clients and prospective employees. Plus, there are efforts to proactively encourage any satisfied clients to post positive reviews online. Employees have also been "encouraged" to post positive reviews online on Ken's books and purchase his books to boost sales. All this money and effort would be better spent on improving the company rather than covering up to outsiders.

- The most respected senior executive, presumably the next-in-command after Ken Fisher, has decided to leave the firm. Not good for stability or employees' confidence in company's future when the smartest guy in the room leaves. And this was with already below-average portfolio performance.

- What's the career path? Few options outside of Sales, Operations and Investment Counselor roles in lower/middle management. These positions are cookie-cutter with no ability to impact their departments or the firm.

- Investment Counselor position. Internal employees no longer want the position, and the company now has to consider and hire candidates who previously would not have been qualified. (May be a positive for notoriously tight company as these new hires are lower-paid)

- Portfolio management (supposedly FI's main responsibility) has consistently been poor. Defending the firms' constant underperformance to clients over the years has been exhausting.

- Management monitoring and critiquing (a.k.a. "micro-management") your work daily via a slew of reports is even more exhausting.

- Teamwork? Compensation structure pits teams & employees against each other, so your colleagues performing worse is more beneficial. One team performing "well" means another is performing "poorly" on a monthly basis.

- Fisher training is non-transferrable to other financial firms, and FI and the other firms know it. FI's industry reputation is that of a marketing/advertising boiler room rather than an investment firm.

- Graduate degrees and outside education/certification is discouraged. The lack of tuition reimbursement, and the attitude of management is that higher education adds no value to the firm.

- Workday begins at 7am sharp. Managers track your daily arrival time, so don't think of being late because it may literally cost you.

- Perks: No sabbaticals. No annual holiday/company party. No parking half the year (or having to "compete for parking") in San Mateo. No company outings. No ability to work from home. No flexibility in work schedule, even if you have young children (better hope your spouse does not work). Work space is 3ft x 2ft (seriously), kitchen space is minimal and bathroom situation is much worse. No work anniversary acknowledgments (even after major milestones).

I did learn and hone some professional skills in my time at Fisher, but realistically I would have done the same anywhere else. I don't necessarily regret working at FI, but I would never consider again and would recommend against it for anyone else. I do regret not leaving FI sooner because it is possible to believe in what you do, have an impact on others and your company all while making good money. Management reminds us that we are just "cogs in the machine," and their complete disregard for their employees is obvious. For anyone looking to work at Fisher Investments, can all these reviewers be wrong?

Advice to Senior Management – Hire outside experienced managers not entrenched in Fisher's cultish groupthink mentality. Focus on the content of your employees' negative reviews instead of worrying about removing these reviews

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Fisher Investments full-time for more than a year

Pros – Get to leave the office right at 5PM.

Cons – Middle management is over their head
Offsite parking once a month
Have to get into work by 7 am (if late by a single minute you will get disciplined)
Company is very old paced - no new ideas and people lack motivation

Advice to Senior Management – Treat your employees with respect, listen to your team and don't let middle management get away with ill treatment toward their subordinates.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Fisher Investments full-time

Pros – payout can be relatively high if you can handle the environment

Cons – you'll move laterally for 3 to 4 years without really developing a marketable skill set

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Fisher Investments full-time for more than a year

Pros – If you want to jump into sales the hard way out of college, this is it. You will have skin thicker than walls after a year here. It's a great way to connect with young professionals to network.

Cons – You are cold calling homes 200 times a day. All someone has to do is read one of Ken's articles and they are a lead. Once you get this person who has no idea who you are or where you are calling form on the phone you must immediately gain their interest then qualify them for $500K liquid.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Fisher Investments full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Working hard, doing well for clients, and increasing the firm's enterprise value will only make you succeed. This is true in any good growing company.
All of the below are true and exceptional relative to the industry: Work life balance, pay (including bonuses), 401k, insurance, location, opportunity, and employee growth (if you seek it out).
90% of the industry will ask you for your list of 100+ closest friends and family who have money. FI never does that. Same thing goes for potential clients. We never ask clients what they would feel comfortable buying, we ask them a thorough set of questions regarding their goals and objectives for their money.
The firm is always open to new ideas, all the way from what other business avenues should we pursue, down to how can we service XYZ client better.
I have seen multiple instances where FI has been supportive of higher education. The complaints on here are people who have asked for FI to pay for their higher education and have been denied.
As with all online review sites, keep in mind the people that have a negative outlook on FI are generally people that don't understand what is on the other side of the fence. People that have only worked for themselves (and presumably failed so they came to work for a large company), people that have little outside experience (straight out of school), or people that have never been in the finance industry which is horribly self servicing (brokers working on commission).
Take all pros and cons with a grain of salt, and this is coming from a previous insurance/investment broker.

Cons – Corporate Culture has been a drag on the company over the last 2-5 years. Some clients hire us thinking we are invincible and some candidates choose us because of the same. Both groups have false pretenses for choosing a money manager. The reality is that no manager will see relative out-performance of a benchmark over a long enough period of time. The majority of employees (or former) who have a dour view of Fisher think the grass is greener elsewhere.
They fall into two camps:
1) someone who has been at FI longer than 7 years and rarely been promoted while their 'peers' have moved up in their career. This person fails to realize their increasing bonus and salary because their peers have had larger increases and been given greater responsibility.
2) someone who has been at FI < 2 years and was 'sold' on a Utopian like money manager based on meritocracy. Meritocracy is true, but it embodies more than just showing up and getting promoted in <2 years.
Many of the frustrated (ex)employees that complain about pay are in the Bay Area. Move to Camas and make a better decision for your family and/or yourself. Your chocolate cake isn't fat free. Sr. Management has said on multiple occasions that the best management candidates at the firm are in WA. That is probably because they make better financial decisions.
If you are an (ex)employee that has complained about your manager, when was the last time you made an effort to reach out to another group and showcase your ability? If you are an introverted worker bee, don't be frustrated because you didn't show yourself to someone other than your manager. Ask for projects or other responsibilities, bet you'd be surprised who would listen. Most other managers only see their own employees under them so that automatically gives you more exposure.
Ken is a firm believer in real life experience, and while he doesn't look down upon higher education, he does say he won't pay employees to go get an MBA. I know plenty of people who have only taken a job at a company just so they can get an MBA and then leave the company on their dime. Ken is SMART in not paying employees for useless higher education only to leave with better 'credentials'. My wife has an MBA and wrote a thesis on how to run a kite building company. Does she have better credentials than a manager who has successfully grown their division's net income with a real budget faster than 75% of the company?

Advice to Senior Management – Keep searching for better ideas to improve corporate culture. This has been a big plus in the recent months and year+. As long as employees don't think change happens overnight, this is a big positive. Making every employee accountable for their decisions only exposes the best and worst of every employee from the top to the bottom.
Continue promoting people who embody loyalty (but not just the "I've been here long enough so that means loyalty.") People who have been at the company 5+ years have seen a tremendous amounts of ups and downs, and relatively speaking these ups and downs are much less than most investment advisers or financial institutions. Reinvigorate them with the reasons they chose FI and and FI chose them. Loyalty isn't a person who can't find a job somewhere else so they stay with the company to collect a paycheck no matter what they do.
Less fear based management in a growing company is extremely valuable, and while it has gotten better, there are still parts of middle management that live this for their own good and it trickles down. Learn to demote and/or train middle management who don't embody change and instead feel threatened. If your middle manager's family relies solely on his/her own salary, good luck getting them to change their habits of 'managing to the numbers'. They will only do what you tell them to to make their bonus count towards their cash flow. Feel lucky if you work for a manager that will take a chance because they aren't afraid to be wrong of fail.
Don't let this firm turn into a Siloed organization. Splitting the company into groups and telling everyone they are responsible for their own decisions can go too far and create information silos that are equally detrimental as a flat group think organization.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Fisher Investments full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great medical/dental plans. Also, the 401k matching is probably the best you'll find. You get to miss most of traffic coming in at 7am (or 6am) every day.

Cons – Mediocre employees are not fired since you can't recruit better ones anyway.

You benchmark against your direct (mediocre) peers instead of the disruptive entrants in your market.

Your co-workers roll their eyes at Facebook, Twitter, cloud services, iPhones, about how they are for children and your customers will never trust their business to them.

Cross-functional committees are formed to solve problems that would have been solved already if the people responsible for them were any good.

The HR department thinks their job is administration, not leadership.

All technology decisions go through a centralized IT bottleneck steering committee.

IT sends out a memo that says anyone using unauthorized cloud services will be fired.

Spending and hiring decisions are "approved" by an entity outside of your group, even if they are within existing budget.

No one can answer, "why work here?" except to talk about the dental plan.

Executives are shuffled around the company to new roles, but outsiders don't ever seem to be brought in to raise the bar.

When an exec quits, their next in line is automatically promoted to their bosses' job, even if they weren't that great and there would have been better candidates elsewhere.

Each employee has a rationale for why, "I'm glad I don't have to work at Facebook/Twitter/Goldman."

Advice to Senior Management – Bring in people with actual and relevant outside management experience.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company