Maybe this isn't fair to single out Gerstein Fisher and Associates because this problem is probably par for the course for most financial advisors. But this is my experience. You'll get a lot of attention when you first come in and then....every appointment becomes another sales pitch to invest more and/or stay in the market. Their financial plan seems to be, for them, to do as little as possible. They advise you to stay in the market for the long haul (typical investment "wisdom"/sales-speak)- which enables them to sit on your money collecting annual fees whether you do well, or poorly, while you stay in the market for 30 years. It's a great plan. For them. There is no reason you need to come to these advisors to have a plan like theirs: you can go to Fidelity, or Vanguard- you can go to any place that is much much cheaper and do the same thing with either a pre-made plan (which is basically what they do- except they diversify it into lots of tiny accounts so they collect fees on all of them), or you can get a personal advisor at Vanguard and probably at Fidelity too if your balance is high enough. Once you're in, at GF, you might deal with your planner once a year at most. Usually you deal with low level salespeople who are not financial experts - but who don't call themselves salespeople. It took me a while to realize that's all they are. They speak to you from a talking-points script which always leads to them telling you to invest more money with them, or leave your money invested where they put it. They also treat you like you're a financial moron, with exaggerated charts of potential growth (like 6%) which, I guess is industry standard, but it SEEMS like if you're paying a financial advisor, that they'd be more realistic with you. You could certainly do worse than this company. They're not horrible. But IMHO, they are definitely not worth the money you'll spend on them. The plans they do for you are generic- the same thing you can get on any on-line worksheet for free: "conservative," "aggressive"- the same exact crap. You don't get an individual plan. Not really. You get put in a bucket- the same way you would at Vanguard or Fidelity or anywhere else: conservative, risky, whatever. Except those places will do it for free if you invest enough money, or you can just invest in index funds, or you can figure out a general plan with free software and/or for much lower fees on your $ instead of them taking 1% of your money every year for 30 years or however long they recommend you keep it there--- forever- plus all of the other fees built into their system that they do by overcomplicating your plan and investing you in a bunch of crap that isn't really diversifying any more than an index fund would do- it just adds fees. Another route is to pay someone a flat fee to do a long term financial plan. Then see them again on a regular basis. As I say, GF are probably not the worst- the whole industry of financial advisors seem to be like this. I'm sure they're all nice people who are just doing their job. And maybe if your finances are really complicated, you'll have a different experience with them because they offer wills and trusts etc... They do get back to you promptly and they are friendly and polite. I'm sure many people are satisfied with them. You could do way worse than them. But because of the condescending, pro-sales attitude that the people you meet with have, their misleading charts (always assuming 6% or 8% growth)- yes I know- those are the charts everyone uses but come on! And their resistance to do anything other than keep your money in the same place, regardless of market conditions because it serves them better- all of these add up to a strong recommendation to use Vanguard or some other low cost company that you can basically trust, that will cost you a lot less, and that will not strong-arm you to stay in, stay in, stay in the market. (Though with Vanguard, you have to talk to advisors on the phone there, not in person. Fidelity lets you talk to people in person, though it feels like the OTB of investing.) None of these options are perfect and it is nice to have an advisor who you like and trust and can sit down and talk to. But at GF, you get salespeople in the guise of planners. The sales aspect of it, and the other aforementioned issues, make that trust feel impossible. I hope they, and other financial advisors, will consider changing their ways. In a world with so much financial information online and so many tools that equal the advice they can give you, it seems that an old school honest accountant, a conservative non-salesy financial advisor who doesn't treat clients like they're boneheads or sell them things that are really wrong for them, an advisor who educates people without trying to confuse them, or make them feel helpless, is what many people need and want. read more

I was a long time client of Gerstein Fischer and the service I received was terrible. I recently went through a divorce and needed some of the names changed on my accounts since they were awarded to me. I called on the phone and spoke to someone who was very helpful at first but when I tried to follow up with him he did not return my emails or my phone calls. This person did apologize for his behavior but it happened continually. His manager then got involved and also was responsive at first. Then the same pattern of lack of responsiveness occurred. I decided before my experience with Gerstein Fischer to move my money elsewhere but if I did not, I would have definitely done so after my experience with them. read more

Gerstein Fisher has the highest integrity, superb financial advice and quality customer service. Simply put, "they are the best there is in the personal financial field." Gerstein Fisher really "gets it" when it comes to guiding clients to sound financial decisions. My husband and I did not have a clue when it came to personal finances. Gerstein Fisher helped us to understand the intricacies of personal finance. They taught us the discipline necessary to save, plan for the future and enjoy the present. We are in a very sound financial place since we started working with Gerstein Fisher 20 years ago. They are there for their clients in the good times and bad. Gerstein Fisher is there for the long haul. read more

"So who's your financial person," my friend asked me in 1999. "We don't have one," I replied. "Meet mine," he in turn replied. Skeptically, as I am wont to be with that profession, I did. Could not comprehend at the time how momentous that would be on our things to come. I have found few people in life that I trust as much as I do Gregg Fisher. And he's a financial guy, for the love of mike! whom - from years in the news business - I have learned to be wary of. Seventeen years as our advisor, through the good years and the Great Recession not so good in fact awful - he's been there for us. When my wife and I were making okay good money, Gregg and his team guided us through the what we had to do and what she shouldn't. And it's not like that I did not challenge them along the way. And with this collaboration, when the bottom fell out, we landed less hard than the national average, more cushioned than most. The GerFish Troupe seemed fair, open to listening - trés important - and not taken to wordplay but honest discussion. From my life experience, I know it all filters down from the top. So from Gregg on down, they tried to truly discover what we wanted and to give us as well what we needed. And again they helped shepherd us through the truly dreadful times of that said Recession. Gregg & Company are accessible, patient, responsive......and human. And they know stuff.....they know their stuff. And they go that extra mile. read more

"So who's your financial person," my friend asked me in 1999. "We don't have one," I said. "Meet mine," he in turn replied. Skeptically, as I am wont to be with that profession, I did. Could not comprehend at the time how momentous that would be on our things to come. I have found few people in life that I trust as much as I do Gregg Fisher. And he's a financial guy, for the love of mike! whom - from years in the news business - I have learned to be wary of. Seventeen years as our advisor, through the good years and the Great Recession - not so good in fact awful - he's been there for us. When my wife and I were making okay good money, Gregg and his team guided us through the what-we-had-to-do and what-was-to-be-avoided. (Danger, Will Robinson!....Danger!) And it's not like that I did not challenge them along the way. But with this collaboration, when the bottom fell out, we landed less hard than the national average, more cushioned than most. The GerFish Troupe seemed fair, open to listening - trés important - and not given to wordplay but to honest discussion. From my life experience, I know it all filters down from the top. So from Gregg on down, they tried to truly discover what we wanted and to give us as well what we needed. And again they helped shepherd us through the truly dreadful times of that said Recession. Gregg & Company are accessible, patient, responsive......and human. And they know their stuff.....they know stuff. And they go that extra mile. read more

I had a very bad experience here. The firm pushes their own mutual funds which basically track etfs. The funds cost more to trade and have higher expense ratios. When I first started at the firm they didn't have any of their own funds. One good thing that I can say is that if you threaten to leave and ask them to lower your fees, you can get them down to 50bps (0.5%) annually. I went from their "standard" 1% down to half that before I finally called it quits. read more

Interning here this summer proved to be an awesome experience. It was really nice to learn from such intelligent, friendly and engaging people in the financial industry. The work provided was challenging but definitely helped me to learn a lot that I can use moving forward. It was great to be pushed out of my comfort zone while also having the opportunity to work with other interns on different projects. Overall, I found Gerstein Fisher's internship program to be hands-on, well-organized and very beneficial. read more