American Retirement Advisors vs. Fisher Investments

How does American Retirement Advisors compare to Fisher Investments in 2026?

This is a David and Goliath comparison, and we are not pretending otherwise. Fisher Investments, founded by Ken Fisher in 1979, reported $386.7 billion in regulatory assets under management across 422,516 accounts in its April 2026 SEC filing, with more than 4,300 employees at the adviser alone and a Phoenix office among its 25 largest. American Retirement Advisors is a Scottsdale boutique serving about 10,000 households since 2001. If size decided this, the page would end here.

But you are not hiring a size. You are hiring an answer to a specific question, and the two firms answer different questions. Fisher is a portfolio manager: fee-only, equity-oriented, run by a centralized Investment Policy Committee, with a $1 million target minimum. American Retirement Advisors is a retirement practice: income floors, Medicare, and inheritance, handled in one office, with no minimum. The honest comparison is not who is bigger. It is which question is yours.

At a Glance: American Retirement Advisors vs. Fisher Investments

Who is each firm best for? The honest breakdown

If you have less than $1 million saved

Fisher targets clients with at least $1 million in investable assets. Their brochure says smaller relationships may be accepted at the firm’s discretion and billed at 1.50% annually, and accounts that fall below $900,000 through withdrawals also move to 1.50%. Read that last clause again if you plan to spend your savings in retirement, because spending is the whole point of retirement. American Retirement Advisors has no minimum and no penalty rate for the crime of using your own money.

$1 million to $5 million

You clear Fisher’s bar, and their pitch is real: a disciplined, research-driven equity portfolio at 1.25% on the first million and 1.125% on the next four, with no commissions anywhere. If maximizing long-run portfolio growth is your central problem, they are built for it at a scale few firms match. But notice what is not in the offer: nobody at Fisher is licensed to touch your Medicare, their filing shows zero insurance-licensed employees, and income guarantees are not on the menu. At this asset level, IRMAA surcharges, Roth conversion timing, and survivor income design routinely move more dollars per year than a point of portfolio performance. That work needs a different kind of firm, and it is the firm we built.

$5 million and above

Fisher’s fee reaches 1.00% above $5 million, and their income-only schedules run meaningfully cheaper. At this level the hybrid answer is often the honest one: growth capital with a large manager if you like their process, and the income floor, Medicare, and inheritance architecture with a firm that does that for a living. There is no rule that your retirement must have exactly one vendor.

Head to head: The annuity question

You have probably seen the ads. Fisher does not sell annuities, and their marketing is famously energetic about it. Their Private Client brochure offers an Annuity Evaluation Program, a no-obligation review of annuity contracts you already own. As a fee-only manager they earn nothing from insurance products, so their incentive runs toward managed portfolios, just as an insurance agent’s incentive runs toward the products. Neither incentive makes a firm dishonest. Both make the disclosure the thing to watch.

Our view, stated plainly: an annuity is a tool, not a religion. For part of a retirement, a guaranteed lifetime income floor is the only product that removes longevity risk, and their own industry knows it. For other parts, market portfolios do the growing. American Retirement Advisors will show you the carrier comparison, the surrender schedule, and the commission before you sign anything, and if the right answer for you is no annuity at all, that is the answer you will get. Ask Fisher to model your guaranteed income floor without one, and ask us to justify one with numbers. Make both firms show the work.

Head to head: Medicare and healthcare planning

Fisher’s April 2026 filing reports zero employees licensed as insurance agents, which means Medicare is structurally outside their offer. Their planning resources include webinars and a library, and healthcare execution happens somewhere else entirely.

At American Retirement Advisors, licensed in-house specialists compare every plan option in your zip code annually, watch the IRMAA thresholds that raise Medicare premiums two years after a high-income year, including the years when a big portfolio distribution or Roth conversion spikes your income, and handle enrollment, at no cost to you. If your money manager and your Medicare do not talk to each other, an avoidable IRMAA surcharge is what falls through the gap.

Head to head: Client experience and advisor access

At Fisher, investment decisions are made centrally by a five-member Investment Policy Committee, and your Investment Counselor relays and explains them. That structure delivers consistency across hundreds of thousands of accounts, which is exactly what a firm that size must optimize for. It also means the person you talk to did not make the decision and the people who made it do not know your name.

American Retirement Advisors is built the opposite way. Five advisors, a 6-person planning team, about 10,000 households, and every meeting prepared with an intelligence brief covering your conversations, policies, and life changes. The person across the table built your plan, remembers your spouse’s name, and answers when you call. Institutional consistency or personal accountability: both are real value, and you only get to optimize for one.

Where Fisher Investments might be a better fit

• You want pure, large-scale portfolio management. A 47-year-old firm managing $386.7 billion with a deep research bench is a serious portfolio manager by any standard.
• You want strictly fee-only compensation. No commissions exist anywhere in their model, full stop.
• You have $1 million+ and your question is growth. Their tiered schedule and equity discipline are built for exactly that mandate.
• You want global reach. Institutional infrastructure, international funds, and offices across the country.

Where American Retirement Advisors shines

• No minimum, no 1.50% small-account rate. Fisher targets $1 million and bills below-minimum accounts at 1.50%. We take the meeting, period.
• Medicare in-house at no cost to you. Fisher has zero insurance-licensed employees. We built a department.
• Income floors with guarantees available. A fee-only manager cannot sell the instrument that guarantees lifetime income. We can, with the engineering shown.
• Inheritance as a discipline. Beneficiary audits, family meetings, independent estate attorneys in Arizona and Nevada.
• Your advisor makes your plan. Not a committee two thousand miles away.

What is Fisher Investments’ minimum investment?

Fisher’s Private Client Group targets aggregated accounts with at least $1,000,000 in investable assets, per their February 2026 brochure. Smaller relationships may be accepted at the firm’s discretion and are billed at 1.50% annually, and accounts that fall below $900,000 due to withdrawals are also billed at 1.50%. American Retirement Advisors has no account minimum.

What are Fisher Investments’ fees?

Per their February 2026 Private Client brochure: 1.25% annually on the first $1 million, 1.125% on the next $4 million, and 1.00% on amounts over $5 million for equity and blended accounts, billed quarterly, fee-only, with no commissions. Income-only accounts over $5 million use a cheaper schedule starting at 0.75%. On a $2 million portfolio, the blended fee is about $23,750 a year, every year, in up markets and down. American Retirement Advisors charges nothing for income, Medicare, and inheritance planning; insurance work is carrier-paid, and investment management is fee-based only on assets you place under management. See how we build lifetime income plans.

How much money does Fisher Investments manage?

Fisher Asset Management, LLC reported $386,669,724,038 in regulatory assets under management, all discretionary, across 422,516 accounts in its Form ADV filed April 2, 2026, with 4,369 employees at the adviser. The firm’s website cites $387 billion including affiliates. About 73% of regulatory assets belong to high-net-worth individuals.

Does Fisher Investments have offices in Arizona?

Yes. Fisher’s Phoenix office at 2425 East Camelback Road is listed among the firm’s 25 largest offices in its April 2026 filing. The firm is headquartered in Plano, Texas, with more than 2,200 registered branch locations nationwide. American Retirement Advisors serves clients from offices in Scottsdale, Mesa, and Las Vegas. Find the office nearest you.

Fisher Investments reviews: how to read them (and ours)

With a firm of Fisher’s size, reviews vary enormously by location and by what the reviewer was buying, so read a broad sample and date-sort. Look for what reviewers say about the person they deal with year over year, and how service went when markets got ugly. American Retirement Advisors holds a 4.9-star Google rating across our offices, and we are glad to introduce you to clients who have worked with the same advisor for a decade. Meet one of our advisors or hear real client conversations on our podcast.

Keep exploring before you decide

Sample the actual work. Fisher publishes extensively, and you should read them. Then read ours: start with the Roth Conversion Playbook, read our series on widowed retirement, or learn what to do when you inherit a retirement account. No forms, no calls, just the work.

The bottom line

Fisher Investments is one of the largest independent money managers in the world for a reason: disciplined, fee-only, research-driven portfolio management at enormous scale. If your question is purely how do I grow this portfolio, and you clear their million-dollar bar, they are a legitimate answer.

If your question is how do I turn what I saved into a paycheck, healthcare, and a clean handoff to my family, that is three questions Fisher is not built to answer and we answer every day, under one roof, with no minimum. That is American Retirement Advisors.