How Ken built the fortune
Ken Fisher's fortune comes from Fisher Investments, the investment management firm he started in 1979 with very little capital. In its first years the firm managed money for institutions, but its growth accelerated when Fisher turned to individual investors with significant savings, offering them discretionary portfolio management for a fee based on assets.
To reach those clients, the firm became one of the most persistent direct marketers in the financial industry. It ran large advertising campaigns, mailed free reports and guides, and used seminars and online advertising to bring in prospects, who were then contacted by a large sales force. That approach was expensive, but because clients typically stay for years and pay fees on growing balances, the firm built a large base of recurring revenue.
Fisher Investments expanded into Europe and other regions, launched services for 401(k) plans and built an institutional business serving pension funds and endowments. Fisher kept a controlling interest in the firm for decades. In 2024 he sold a minority stake to the private equity firm Advent International and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a deal that put a high value on the company and confirmed the scale of his holding.
The firm's investment approach is top down: it forms views on economies, interest rates and market sentiment, decides how much to hold in stocks, bonds and cash, and then chooses sectors and companies. Fisher has long argued that this method, combined with a contrarian reading of popular forecasts, matters more to long run returns than picking individual stocks.
Companies and holdings
Fisher is executive chairman and co-chief investment officer of Fisher Investments, which is now headquartered in Plano, Texas. The firm's main businesses are:
- Private client portfolio management for affluent individuals in the United States.
- Fisher Investments Europe and international operations, including an affiliate based in Luxembourg.
- Retirement plan services for small and midsize businesses.
- An institutional group managing assets for pension plans, endowments and other investors.
He remains the firm's largest shareholder after the minority sale.
Early life and career
Kenneth Lawrence Fisher was born in November 1950 in San Francisco, the youngest son of Philip Fisher, a well known investor whose book on growth stock investing became a classic of the field. Growing up around his father's work exposed him to the ideas of studying businesses in depth and holding good companies for long periods.
He studied at Humboldt State University in northern California, initially in forestry before switching to economics, and graduated in 1972. He briefly worked with his father, then struck out on his own as an independent analyst and money manager. In 1984 he published Super Stocks, which popularized the price to sales ratio as a valuation tool. For more than three decades, from 1984 to 2016, he wrote a regular investing column for a major American business magazine, and he has written several other books on markets, including The Only Three Questions That Count.
Philanthropy and public life
Fisher's best known personal interest outside finance is the study of coast redwood forests. He has funded research on redwoods at his alma mater, now called Cal Poly Humboldt, including an endowed chair in redwood forest ecology, and he has written about the history of logging in California.
He has faced public controversy. In 2019 comments he made at a financial industry conference were widely condemned as offensive and sexist. Several large institutional clients, including public pension funds, withdrew money from the firm, and Fisher issued an apology. The firm later said it strengthened internal policies on conduct.
Fisher has been an outspoken critic of conventional market forecasts and often argues that investor sentiment and media narratives create opportunities for disciplined investors. He continues to publish commentary and videos for the firm's clients, and he remains closely identified with its investment views.
The firm moved its headquarters from Camas, Washington, to Plano, Texas, a relocation Fisher attributed partly to tax and business climate considerations. The move reflected a broader trend of financial firms shifting operations to Texas.