Goldman joins retreat from Fisher’s firm

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is joining the exodus from Ken Fisher’s firm.

The Wall Street bank said Friday in a regulatory filing that it will be dropping Fisher Asset Management as the underlying manager of Goldman Sachs Multi-Manager Global Equity Fund. Goldman Sachs has pulled $234 million from Fisher Investments, according to a person familiar with the matter, though the figure may grow. A spokesman for Goldman declined to comment.

The move brings the total reported withdrawals from Fisher to more than $2.7 billion in the two weeks since Mr. Fisher made vulgar comments at an industry conference. Thursday, the Los Angeles fire and police pension board voted to yank about $500 million after a contentious meeting with representatives of the firm.

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Mr. Fisher is suffering an intensifying backlash from his remarks on Oct. 8 in which he spoke about genitalia and then failed to immediately understand the gravity of his words. He later apologized.

In the ensuing days, pension funds in New Hampshire, Iowa, Michigan,​ Boston and Philadelphia decided to cut ties with his firm.

Fisher, which manages $114 billion, is also facing scrutiny from several other pensions.

Fisher Investments was managing about $10.9 billion on behalf of 36 state or municipal government entities, including pension plans, at the end of 2018, according to the firm’s Securities and Exchange Commission registration. That figure is down from $13.2 billion at the end of 2017.

Related Topics: Goldman Sachs & Co.