Wealth management firm Fisher Investments says it is moving its headquarters from Camas to Texas in protest of a state Supreme Court decision upholding Washington’s new capital gains tax.
“In honor of the Washington state Supreme Court’s wisdom and knowledge of the law, and in recognition of whatever it may do next, Fisher Investments is immediately moving its headquarters from Washington state to Texas,” Fisher said in a brief announcement Friday. The firm didn’t respond to follow-up inquiries Sunday.
Fisher is a major Clark County employer, but the firm gave no indication it will shift any jobs to Texas. Ken Fisher, the billionaire who started the firm, has said in the past that headquarters designations are irrelevant. Fisher already lives in Dallas, according to his social media profiles.
Neither Texas nor Washington has an income tax, but in 2021 lawmakers in Olympia established a 7% capital gains tax on the sale of stocks, bonds and other assets – with an exemption for the first $250,000 annually. The tax excludes real estate, retirement accounts and the sale of some small businesses.
Because Washington relies heavily on sales tax for government revenue, lower-income residents bear a higher share of the cost of public services than in most other states. The capital gains tax divided Washington’s wealthy, with some arguing it would drive investment out of state and others saying the rich needed to pay a greater share.
Some rich Washingtonians and farming organizations challenged the capital gains tax, contending it was an unconstitutional income or property tax. The state Supreme Court rejected their effort Friday, ruling 7-2 that the capital gains tax is a permissible excise tax.
Fisher had about 1,800 workers in Camas in 2020 out of 3,700 across the company. It also has corporate offices in the San Francisco Bay Area; Plano, Texas; and Tampa, Florida.
Fisher Investments says it manages nearly $200 billion for private investors, institutions and retirement plans. Formerly headquartered near Silicon Valley, Fisher announced plans to open a major Clark County office in 2008. At the time, founder Ken Fisher said it wanted to move away from the high-cost real estate in the Bay Area to a more business friendly locale in a state without a personal income tax.
Corporate headquarters were once indicative of where a company had is major operations. That’s been less true in recent years with the rise of remote work and satellite offices – a trend that accelerated after the pandemic.
Fisher didn’t respond to questions Sunday about whether it will shift any jobs away from Camas as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling. But in 2015, Ken Fisher told The Columbian newspaper that a headquarters designation is “technologically obsolete” with no bearing on the firm’s actual operations.
“The government requires a mailing address for ‘headquarters’ and ours was changed to Camas,” Fisher said. “Otherwise, there is no significance at all.”
Wealth management firms pulled billions of dollars out of Fisher Investments in 2019 after Ken Fisher made sexist comments during a fireside chat at an investment conference in San Francisco. Attendees said he discussed genitalia, pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and compared winning a client’s trust to “trying to get into a girl’s pants.”
In prior tweets, Fisher had made sexual jokes and asked if African Americans would have been better off with three more decades of slavery. Fisher initially rebuked critics but later reversed himself and apologized amid the exodus of clients’ money.
“Some of the words and phrases I used during a recent conference to make certain points were clearly wrong and I shouldn’t have made them,” Fisher said. “I realize this kind of language has no place in our company or industry. I sincerely apologize.”
-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com |
Our journalism needs your support. Please become a subscriber today at OregonLive.com/subscribe
Ad Choices