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- Phone : 1-888-291-0675
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Fisher Investments has been serving investors who are interested in annuities for their retirement plan since 1979.
Fisher investments doesn’t just cater to annuities however. The company manages over $100 billion in assets in a variety of investing categories. Ken Fisher is the visionary and founder of the company and he is supported by a team of senior executives committed to continually offering value to retirees looking to ride off into the sunset. Find out if Fisher Investments is right for you.
Pros:
- Fantastic leadership
- Long-standing reputation
- Great tools and calculators
Cons:
- Company offers financial services in general
Fisher Investments is a little bit different than the other annuities providers we have reviewed here at Sophisticated Investor. The company manages over $100 billion in assets and doesn’t just specialize in annuities. For the most part our annuities reviews focus on companies that only offer annuities and nothing else. The best of those companies is DCF Annuities.
Still, as you read through this review, you’ll notice that Fisher Investments is backed by quite an executive team and has divisions of its company all over the world. This makes it different from all other competitors in the sense that the company’s branding and marketing strategy is far-reaching and it can take advantage of economies of scale to give consumers some of the best deals that the annuities sector of investing has to offer.
On the flipside of that, Fisher Investment is not only in annuities company so it’s hard to say whether you would be better off choosing them over the competition. On the one hand, Fisher investment has a great reputation in many other categories of investing, but on the other the company doesn’t exactly specialize in annuities.
Thus, we recommend reading this thorough review and comparing Fisher Investments to other more annuities-friendly companies and then make your own decision about what’s best for you.
Table of Contents
The Fisher Investments Management Team
Ken Fisher is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Fisher Investments.
Ken Fisher, Founder and Executive Chairman, Fisher Investments
Ken Fisher, Founder and Executive Chairman, Fisher Investments
He founded the company in 1979 and has now grown it to one that includes over $100 billion in investment money from investors like you. Fisher investments works with many high net worth individuals as well.
Fisher has written 11 books on the subject including four New York Times bestsellers and he ranks 195th on the 2019 Forbes 400 list of richest people in America. Fisher lives in Washington with his wife and three kids.
Fisher’s leadership team is supported among others by Chief Executive Officer Damian D. Ornani.
Damian D. Ornani, CEO, Fisher Investments
Damian D. Ornani, CEO, Fisher Investments
Ornani is CEO of Fisher Investments, a title he has held since 2016. He oversees the company’s day-to-day operations and four primary business units including private clients, institutional, 401(k) solutions, and international private clients.
Ornani started working with Fisher Investments in 1997 and has held variety of roles with the company. He has been working in an executive role since 2005.
Jill Hitchcock, Senior Executive Vice-President, Fisher Investments
Jill Hitchcock, Senior Executive Vice-President, Fisher Investments
Jill Hitchcock is Senior Executive Vice President of Fisher Investments. Her specific focuses on the company’s U.S. Private Client Group. She addresses many of the common questions clients have about investing and originally joined the company way back in 1999 as an Investment Counsellor.
Jeff Silk , Vice-President and Co-Chief Investment Officer, Fisher Investments
Jeff Silk , Vice-President and Co-Chief Investment Officer, Fisher Investments
Jeff Silk oversees all portfolio management functions across a wide range of investing strategies at Fisher Investments. He joined the company back in 1983 and was one of the firm’s first-ever employees. Silk also played a key role in developing the firm’s first portfolio management, research and trading technologies.
Carrianne Coffey, Senior Executive Vice-President, Fisher Investments International
Carrianne Coffey, Senior Executive Vice-President, Fisher Investments International
Coffey serves Fisher Investment’s Private Client Group International. Her job is to serve the needs of high net worth individuals across Europe, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Together with Fisher Investment staff, Coffey serves over 14,000 private clients.
Steve Triplett, Chief Operating Officer, Fisher Investments
Steve Triplett, Chief Operating Officer, Fisher Investments
Triplett oversees several departments at Fisher Investments. This includes Human Resources, Corporate Communications, Finance, Innovation, Information Security, Data Protection, Enterprise Risk Management, and Global Custody. Steve has been working at Fisher Investments 1993 and has been in his current role since 2012.
Types of Annuity Investments Offered by Fisher Investments
Fisher Investments promotes six different types of annuities products:
- Fixed Annuities
- Variable Annuities
- Equity Indexed Annuities
- Immediate Annuities
- Deferred Annuity
- Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract
Let’s do a quick review of what each of these types of annuities.
Fixed Annuities
A fixed annuity is the most basic kind of annuity and investor can choose to put money into. It gives the investor longevity in their retirement income for a premium. Annuity payments can start right away or they can be deferred.
Variable Annuities
A variable annuity attracts investors because of how it functions in two distinct phases. Phase 1 is the accumulation phase where the investor makes premium payments either in a lump sum or over a regular period of time. Then there is the payout phase where the investor receives their payouts over the desired length of time. A variable annuity allows for more gain on the upside and manages risk on the downside.
Equity Indexed Annuities
Equity indexed annuities give investors the opportunity to benefit from the upside of major index funds like the S&P 500. An equity indexed annuity mixes the features of a fixed and variable annuity together and still protects you from the downside.
Immediate Annuities
An immediate annuity does exactly what the name says, it pays out income as soon as you start paying premiums. Because this is the way it’s organized there are number of factors to consider as to whether or not an immediate and new is right for you:
- The income payment depends on the interest rate you get at the time of purchasing the annuity.
- Your age or the expected payment period of time.
- The frequency of your payments-whether they are monthly, quarterly or annual etc.
Deferred Income Annuity
A deferred income annuity allows you to defer income payments and thus compound the interest that you received from the annuity. That’s the upside. The downside is if you have an emergency and need the money you would be subject to penalties. You also might be at a fact of any long-term consequences associated with the potential downturn in the economy if you’re waiting years in advance to receive payments. Nobody knows what the future holds.
Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract
A QLAC is a type of deferred annuity that allows investors to lessen the effects of the minimum distribution requirement imposed by the government related to how retirement income needs to be handled and used. This is a good thing for investors. The downside is that longevity style annuities can fall victim to inflation or miss out on opportunities for growth.
Customer Reviews
Fisher Investments has an A+ rating at the Better Business Bureau. That rating actually reflects the fact that the profile itself is properly filled out and that every customer complaint on the profile has a response. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the company is doing a good job. Now of course when considering the ratings that companies accrue on reputation management sites like the Better Business Bureau and others, it’s important to note that most customers only go to those sites when they have a complaint.
That’s why we have an obligation to inform you that Fisher Investments only has a 2.5 out of five stars on the website. That’s nowhere near what some competitors have been able to do, but again, it’s important to take that rating with a grain of salt. Especially considering the company has been around since the late 1970s.
The good news is Fisher Investments does rank well on other review sites. InvestorJunkie gives the company a 4.8 out of five stars. Yelp also gives it just a 2.5 out of five stars, but just like the Better Business Bureau, that rating is based on very few reviews over a long period of time.
In spite of these reviews, the bottom line is if actions speak louder than words, Fisher Investments has clearly done its job with over $100 billion in assets being managed.
Frequently Asked Questions
In considering working with Fisher Investments for your next annuity investment, you’re probably coming up with your fair share of questions to ask. Let’s answer some of the questions you’re likely asking yourself right now.
Are Annuities a Good Investment?
Deciding whether or not annuities are right for you really has to do with your own personal preferences. Deciding what to do means answering some very personal questions. Here are some that you can ask yourself:
- When do I want to retire?
- How old are you going to be at that time?
- How long do you plan to live?
- What kind of lifestyle do you want to live when you retire and how much is that going to cost you?
- How much of your wealth do you want to leave behind your love ones?
- What percentage of your portfolio will annuities make up? Are you happy with that?
- How risk-averse are you?
- What’s your backup plan if the worst-case scenarios happen?
What are the Commission Fees Associated with an Annuity?
Fisher Investments does not earn a commission from you, the investor. Annuities dealers don’t take commissions from investors, they get them from the insurance companies that sell the annuity. If that’s the case, why don’t you know what those commissions are? The commissions are always baked into the annual return rate of the annuity product itself. Rest assured that everybody’s making their money. Fortunately for you, there is really nothing to be worried about. You can easily compare rates and quotes between different annuities reviews and find the best ones for you.
How Do the Withdrawal Penalties Associated with Annuities Work?
Usually annuities that pay out a higher annual rate will be more likely to charge a withdrawal penalty for leaving behind the annuity too early. That penalty usually decreases year-over-year. So let’s say you’re in an annuity for seven years and you earn a return rate of 7% per year. The annuity provider will most likely dock you 7% of your withdrawal as a penalty if you withdraw from your annuity in the first year. That penalty will move down to 6% the second year, 5% the third year etc. etc. so the longer you stay in your annuity, the lower the percentage of the withdrawal penalty.
There is such a thing as investing in annuities without a withdrawal penalty, but those types of annuities usually pay a lower rate to compensate for the flexibility they are giving you.
Should You Choose to Invest with Fisher Investments?
Fisher Investments is definitely a top candidate for your annuity investments. The company does a great job of educating consumers and offering different types of tools and calculators that can help you plan a clear picture of the overall vision for your own retirement.
On the plus side the company has been around for several decades and has a foothold in America as far as serving investors with many different types of investing products, not just annuities.
That said, because the company doesn’t have the same reputation online as far as customer reviews related specifically to annuities is concerned, we couldn’t rank it number one. That honor went to DCF Annuities.
Nevertheless, we encourage you to take a look at everything Fisher Investment has to offer and remember to ask yourself how annuities can fit in to your overall retirement goals.
- Phone : 1-888-291-0675
- URL :
- Global Rating
- Very Good
User Rating
- 0 No reviews yet!
Fisher Investments has been serving investors who are interested in annuities for their retirement plan since 1979.
Fisher investments doesn’t just cater to annuities however. The company manages over $100 billion in assets in a variety of investing categories. Ken Fisher is the visionary and founder of the company and he is supported by a team of senior executives committed to continually offering value to retirees looking to ride off into the sunset. Find out if Fisher Investments is right for you.
