The incident comes at a time when the wealth management sector is under pressure to improve career opportunities for women and be more welcoming to female clients.

One of America’s most high-profile investors and commentators on markets, Ken Fisher, has been barred from attending gatherings hosted by Tiburon, for offensive remarks he is reported to have made. The comments come at a time when the traditionally male-dominated sector is under pressure to be more welcoming to women and minorities.

Reports last week said that Fisher, who is the CEO of Fisher Investments, the eponymous firm he created in 1979, had made the comments at an exclusive San Francisco investment advisor summit run by Tiburon. Tiburon Strategic Advisor’s managing partner, Charles Roame, did not identify Fisher by name but directly mentioned Fisher’s comments in a 1,500-word note to the investment sector. The comments had included references to genitals and compared building client trust to “trying to get into a girl’s pants”, reports said.

Fisher, reported by Forbes as having a net worth of $3.7 billion, has apologised for the remarks. “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. I realise this kind of language has no place in our company or industry. I sincerely apologize,” he said in a statement. 

Tiburon CEO Summits are held bi-annually in New York and San Francisco.

In a statement on Tiburon’s website, Roame said: “I do not seek to, nor could I reasonably, control the narrative in each session at each Tiburon CEO Summit. I encourage all 50-plus CEO-level speakers to speak their minds, to each address three critical industry issues of their choosing. Baby Boomers’ lack of preparation for retirement, the rapidly declining cost of investing, the increasing need for financial planning services, and the lack of women in the industry were some of the key themes this week.” 

“I was extremely disappointed by the comments that I heard in the way that I understood them. I can, in no way, condone or find acceptable what I heard in the way that I understood its intent. These comments lacked the dignity and respect that should be expected by any Tiburon CEO Summit speaker or attendee,” he continued. 

Ironies
In an ironic twist, Fisher Investments announced yesterday that it has been “honored with a 2019 BEST Award from the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and ranks 35th among organizations worldwide”. ATD is a global talent development association. “The ATD BEST Award recognizes organizations that leverage talent development as a strategic business objective to achieve enterprise-wide success,” Fisher said.

The wealth management industry, and wider financial sector, has for some time been warned that it has a problem with a male-dominated culture. With more HNW women rising to the fore, this imbalance is also a serious business issue. 

Roame’s letter to investors continued: “These were unacceptable words at Tiburon, in the wealth and investments industry, and in society generally. Furthermore, these comments further the inclusion problem in the wealth and investment management industry. And on a related note, I am disgusted to be included in phrases referring to old boys clubs. Tiburon is the opposite.”

“The wealth and investment management industry has an inclusion issue…One 2017 study reported that women account for 58 per cent of employees in financial services, but only 48 per cent of first and mid-level management roles, and 31 per cent of senior and executive level management roles. And frankly, that is propped up by women’s relatively higher success in banking. In investment management, these numbers are 51 per cent, 41 per cent, and 26 per cent. In brokerage, the numbers are 39 per cent, 34 per cent, and 19 per cent. Results in wealth and investment management are horrible. And the participation of minorities may even be a bigger issue,” he concluded. 

Fisher is an author of several books on markets and investing, and a regular commentator in print, television and conferences. For example, in 2015 he published Beat the Crowd: How You Can Out-Invest the Herd by Thinking Differently.