Fisher Wealth Management

andrit · 27 June 2009 at 10:31AM

I am 66 years old and would appreciate any advice or hear of any experiences regarding Fisher Wealth Management. How reliable are they with pensioners funds?

dunstonh · 27 June 2009 at 11:28AM

They are discretionary investment managers. That means they have access to virtually all types of investment and that sort of option is better for the larger investor. Tends to be expensive for the smaller investor though.

How reliable are they with pensioners funds?

Like any investments, the performance will largely be dictated by the underlying assets and selected risk profiles.

xyy123 · 1 July 2009 at 2:07PM

I used to work for FWM so can answer any questions you have about them.

In short, they are discretionary investment managers and while they could choose to pick different funds to put in your portfolio, it is more cost effective and you get better risk management by doing it their way, which is selecting the investments directly. This is because they have a massive research department working for all client portfolios (because most client portfolios are quite similar) and choosing different funds is an extra layer of costs. Also, in relation to what dunstonh said about risk profiles, you won't get one with FWM because by letting you dictate your own risk profile is like saying you understand all the risks associated with investing. If you knew that, you wouldn't be considering hiring an investment manager.

I could go on all day about the pros and cons of how they work (they aren't perfect) but all you need to remember is that they only work on an annual management fee so the only way they can make more money out of you is by growing your pot. They win if you win and lose if you lose. And their performance has been pretty good over the long term. If you need to know anything else, let me know.

dunstonh · 1 July 2009 at 4:00PM

Also, in relation to what dunstonh said about risk profiles, you won't get one with FWM because by letting you dictate your own risk profile is like saying you understand all the risks associated with investing. If you knew that, you wouldn't be considering hiring an investment manager.

Thats interesting. The DIMs that I have used and come across usually have portfolios based on risk profiles. Not many. Three seems to be fairly common.

Do, FWM only handle the equity content side of portfolios or do they get involved in gilts and fixed interest as well?

xyy123 · 2 July 2009 at 11:48AM

No, they handle all aspects of the portfolio, but they do not reccommend having any fixed interest component for people who don't need any income and won't for a long time. Hence, the default portfolio is 100% equity, unless its recommended to have fixed interest. They only change this when they go defensive with portfolios and will then have 100% cash and/or fixed interest or a complicated hedge using 30% equity, 30% cash, 30% gilts and 10% in puts (they do it for all portfolios). This is what they did the last time they went defensive in 2000 anyway, and then they went fully to 100% fixed interest before moving fully to 100% equity about 18 months later.

The reason they work like this is due to finance theory which holds that performance is derived mainly from being in the right asset class at the right time (see Determinants of Portfolio Performance by Brinson, Hood and Beebower). Seeing as equities over the last 100 years or so have massively outperformed all other classes, they maintain that being 100% equity should be people's default setting for a long-term portfolio and the only time that you should deviate from this is if you suspect that a prolonged bear market is iminent. Within this, they maintain exposure to all developed equity markets, as well as some non-developed, by way of risk control and attempting to beat the market by geographic, style and sector decisions. This is for the GTR at least, which is benchmarked on the MSCI World Index and thus the portfolios are broadly similar to the components of this benchmark.

EdInvestor · 2 July 2009 at 12:48PM

xyy123 wrote: »

Within this, they maintain exposure to all developed equity markets, as well as some non-developed, by way of risk control and attempting to beat the market by geographic, style and sector decisions. This is for the GTR at least, which is benchmarked on the MSCI World Index and thus the portfolios are broadly similar to the components of this benchmark.

You could fairly easily dupicate this strategy using a handful of ETF- type trackers which now cover all the markets and asset classes mentioned on a global basis. How would the costs differ? ETFs are cheap.

stephenni1971 · 2 July 2009 at 12:56PM

Call me an old cynic if you will but I find it strange that a new poster brings up a query on a company with no detail other than 'what are they like', only to have a full and fairly friendly explanation of that company from an ex employee who coincidentally also happens to be a new poster...

Free advertising perhaps?

xyy123 · 2 July 2009 at 3:54PM

EdInvestor wrote: »

You could fairly easily dupicate this strategy using a handful of ETF- type trackers which now cover all the markets and asset classes mentioned on a global basis. How would the costs differ? ETFs are cheap.

Yep you're right and if you were a smaller investor (like me) thats a good strategy. The main difference being that ETFs will obviously follow the market down in a bear market and there is no chance of outperforming the market. They do in fact use ETFs in the portfolios for exposure to non-developed markets where it would prove cost-ineffective to have say 0.01% in 5 different emerging markets companies. But then again, sometimes they don't.

And stephenni, that is pretty cynical of you, I like it. Although to be honest, if you knew the amount that FWM spent on its marketing and advertising (its intimidating how much it is), you would understand that this would be well beneath them. Besides, I simply would have said I was a satisfied client, wouldn't I?

database · 30 July 2009 at 8:38AM

I like Stephenii71's cynicism but, as it happens, I am also 66 and needing input re Fisher's

xyy123 · 3 September 2009 at 4:58PM

What about them?

Dizzy2220 · 14 October 2009 at 4:51PM

Have read with intrest the posts re Fisher Wealth as we were considering putting our meagre savings with them. I pulled back as was not able to find anything out about them other than what they themselves publish. There seems to be no independant opinions. Other than the posts here. One wonders how safe the money would be.

Fisher Wealth Management

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