Fisher Investments says HQ shifting from Camas to Texas after courtroom upholds Washington’s capital positive factors tax

Wealth management firm Fisher Investments says it is moving its headquarters from Camas to Texas to protest a Supreme Court decision upholding Washington’s new capital gains tax.

“In honor of the wisdom and legal knowledge of the Washington State Supreme Court and what it may do next, Fisher Investments is immediately moving its headquarters from Washington State to Texas,” Fisher said in a brief announcement Friday. The company did not respond to follow-up requests on Sunday.

Fisher is a major employer in Clark County, but the company gave no indication that it will move jobs to Texas. Ken Fisher, the billionaire who founded the company, has said in the past that the head office designation is irrelevant. Fisher already lives in Dallas, according to his social media profiles.

Neither Texas nor Washington have an income tax, but in 2021 the Olympia legislature introduced a 7% capital gains tax on sales of stocks, bonds, and other assets — with an exemption for the first $250,000 per year. The tax excludes real estate, retirement accounts and the sale of some small businesses.

Because Washington relies heavily on sales taxes for state 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 the state and others saying the wealthy would have to pay a larger share.

Some wealthy Washington and farming organizations questioned the capital gains tax, claiming it was an unconstitutional income or wealth tax. The state Supreme Court dismissed their efforts on Friday, ruling 7-2 that the capital gains tax is an allowable consumption tax.

Fisher employed approximately 1,800 people at 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, Fla.

Fisher Investments says it has nearly $200 billion under management for individual investors, institutions and retirement plans. Fisher, formerly headquartered near Silicon Valley, announced plans to open a large office in Clark County in 2008. Back then, founder Ken Fisher said they wanted to move from the expensive real estate in the Bay Area to a more business-friendly place in a state with no personal income taxes.

Corporate headquarters were once an indication of where a company had its main operations. That has been less the case in recent years with the advent of remote work and satellite offices – a trend that has accelerated in the wake of the pandemic.

Fisher did not respond Sunday to questions about whether jobs will be relocated away from Camas as a result of the Supreme Court ruling. But in 2015, Ken Fisher told The Columbian newspaper that the headquarters’ designation was “technologically outdated” and had no impact on the company’s actual operations.

“The government requires a mailing address for ‘headquarters,’ and ours has been changed to Camas,” Fisher said. “Otherwise it has no meaning at all.”

Wealth management firms pulled billions of dollars from Fisher investments in 2019 after Ken Fisher made sexist comments during a fireside chat at an investment conference in San Francisco. Attendees said he spoke about genitals and pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and likened winning a client’s trust to “trying to get in a girl’s pants”.

In previous tweets, Fisher had made sexual jokes, asking if African Americans would have been better off with three more decades of slavery. Fisher initially rebuked critics but later repented and apologized amid the exodus of client funds.

“Some of the words and phrases I used during a recent conference to emphasize certain points were clearly wrong and I shouldn’t have used them,” Fisher said. “I realize that this type of language has no place in our company or our industry. I sincerely apologize.”

– Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com |

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