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BloombergBusinessweek February 10, 2020enFisherranksamongthemostsuccessfulmoney
managersinAmerica.Butyoucanreachoneofhis
mainofficesonlybydrivingupa steepandcurv-
ingcountryroadinNorthernCalifornia.A com-
poundofsimplewood-shingledbuildings,it sitsatopa peak
withsweepingviewsofredwoodsandHalfMoonBay.“Kings
MountainCountryStore,”readsa weatheredsignnearthe
entrance,linedwithmoss-coveredboulders.
AnavowedcheapskatewhobuysshoesatWalmart,Fisher
pickedupthispropertyyearsagoata fire-saleprice.It hadbeen
a commercialchinchillafarminthe1940s.Fisher,69,grewup
hereinSanMateoCountyandremembersthefreedomhehad
asa child,hitchhikingintheareaortakingthetraintonearby
SanFranciscoasa 10-year-old.“Itwasjusta marvelousworld
thatusedtoexist—justsofreeandsodifferent,”hesays.
Speakingofthebusinesshebuilt,hesays,“Ihadthisvision,
whichwaslikea sortofpreindustrialagefamily,likea farm.”
Hiswifeandchildrenhaveallworkedforthecompany,Fisher
Investments,andtheFishersoncelivedatthisWoodside,Calif.,
compound,wherea statueofa bullfightinga bearadornsa
backpatio.Someofhisformeremployees—referringtotheway
manyaremoldedinthefounder’simage,orFisherized—have
calledhisfirmthecultonthehill.
Latelastyeartheoutsideworldcamecrashingintothisidyll,
aftercommentsFishermadeata SanFranciscoconference
sparkedangeronTwitterandthenwerereportedbyBloomberg
Newsandothers.Fishercautionedagainstusingfinancialplan-
ning—whichinvolvesgettingpeopletotalkabouttheirmoney—
asa waytosignupnewinvestingclients,comparingthat
approachtopickingupa womanina bar.Buthewascrude
aboutit,makinga referenceto“tryingtogetintoa girl’spants,”
onehorrifiedattendeetoldBloomberg.(Arecordedexcerptof
hisremarksbroadcastlaterbyCNBCcapturesFishersayingyou
wouldn’tgouptoa womanandaskwhat’s“inyourpants.”)In
aninterviewwithBloombergatthetime,Fishersaidhiscom-
mentshadbeentakenoutofcontext.
LargeclientsincludingFidelityInvestmentsandGoldman
SachsGroupInc.,aswellassomepublicpensionfunds,pulled
nearly$4billionfromhiscompanyina month.Thenandnow
hesayshemadesimilarcommentsmanytimes,andnoonehad
complained.Still,heapologized,thoughhealsorepeatedlysaid
hisremarksweremisinterpreted.“Bysayingthoseinappropri-
atethings,I wasdemonstratinginappropriateness,”hesays,ina
two-hourinterview,hisfirstextendedremarkssincethecrisis.“I
said,‘Itwouldblowupinyourface.You’dcomeofflikea jerk.’”
In his view, some big investors bolted only because of pressure
from the press. “Literally we have people that have told us they
wouldn’t fire us if it wasn’t for you people writing about this,”
he says, his general counsel and an outside lawyer by his side.
Fisher speaks in a gravelly, stentorian voice, like an anchor-
man’s. In fact you might have seen him commenting on finan-
cial news shows, in his boxy suit and a wide gold bull-and-bear
power tie. Or maybe you’ve seen him in one of his ubiquitous
ads or learned about him from the bulk-mail pitches he sends
out on heavy embossed paper. Perhaps you’ve read one of hismany books or his column that ran for years in Forbes. With
help from the soaring bull market, his assets under manage-
ment have more than quadrupled since 2009, to more than
$121 billion at the end of December. He’s also gotten rich, with
an estimated net worth of about $4 billion.
Fisher seems like a figure from an older Wall Street, before
low-cost index funds began to replace investment gurus such as
him. He’s still able to charge lucrative fees for actively manag-
ing money. He also brings to mind the age before the rise of the
corporate HR department and the #MeToo movement. Some
former employees describe Fisher Investments’ corporate cul-
ture as a “boy’s club,” where the use of crude language had long
made some women, and men, uncomfortable. For some insti-
tutional investors hearing about Fisher’s comments in October,
walking away from the firm was a fairly simple decision. Many
of them—especially retirement funds that represent diverse
memberships—want to show they support equality for women.
But another part of Fisher’s business is serving about 70,000
individual investors. That kind of money turns out to be a
lot stickier—it doesn’t leave easily. In part that may be due to
inertia, but it’s also because of the relationship an investment
adviser can build with clients. And Fisher has a kind of genius
for communicating to small investors that he’s on their side. “He
is awesome,” says Kathryn Cardona, a retired teacher and cli-
ent in rural Oregon, who heard Fisher speak at a luncheon. “He
can talk about money and not make it boring. He cracks jokes.”
Fisher Investments says it’s brought in hundreds more clients
representing billions in new money since early October. Fisher
isn’tgoinganywhere—atleastaslongasthisbullmarketlasts.isher’s father, Philip, was legendary on Wall Street.
He was an early practitioner of what’s now known as
growth investing and wrote a bestselling 1958 guide
to stockpicking that influenced Berkshire Hathaway
Inc.’s Warren Buffett. But, whereas Philip offered his invest-
ment services to no more than a dozen clients, Ken has a pas-
sion for mass marketing. Small investors make up more than
two-thirdsofFisherInvestments’business,whichKenfounded
in 1979 outofhisbasement.
“Kenhimselfsays,‘I sendjunkmail,’” says Meir Statman,
a finance professor at Santa Clara University, who has collab-
orated with Fisher on investment research. “There are many
professionals who are bashful about marketing. We tend to
underestimate the effect of marketing in financial services, as if
it were all about alpha,” he says, “alpha” being investor jargon
forbeatingthemarket.
In1995,Fishersent5,000letterstohigh-incomeprospects—
doctors, specifically—at a cost of about $1 a piece. The positive
response he got made an impression, and direct mail has cap-
tivated Fisher ever since, so much so that he’s used it as a kind
of incantation. In the early 2000s he was known to say some-
thing that sounded like, “God, I’m someone. God, I’m some-
one. God, I’m someone,” but it’s really “GDDMSAHNWAM.
GDDMSAHNWAM. GDDMSAHNWAM.” It’s an acronym and
distillation of his dream: “globally dominant direct marketer