I don't usually have much of a reaction when I read about lawsuits against anybody, because it could always just be a case of somebody looking for easy money.
Still, this article about lawsuits that Fisher Investments is facing caught my eye. In particular, note the following:
I wasn't too surprised to read this, because I've always heard that Ken Fisher has one model: 100% stocks. Still, to buy out an asset management firm and wholesale shift everybody into a 100% stock model definitely sounds lawsuit-worthy. Pretty easy to calculate the damages here: how much would this woman's portfolio have lost if she retained her original allocation vs. how much did she lose in the 100% equity portfolio, plus attorney's fees.A lawsuit making a similar allegation was filed by an investor this month in federal court in Houston. In that suit, the investor, Maurine Ford, claims that Fisher Investments caused “significant losses” to a living trust that the firm started to manage in June 2008.
Prior to that, her trust was managed by Lighthouse Capital Management LP of Houston, from which Fisher Investments bought the client assets last year.
“Upon the transfer of the trust’s investment account from Lighthouse to Fisher Investments, the asset allocation in the trust’s account was as follows: cash 27%, fixed income 32% and equities 41%,” the lawsuit states. “Fisher Investments recommended that [Ms. Ford] reallocate the trust’s portfolio to invest 100% in equities,” the suit states.