A 75-year-old woman beset by health problems is suing Fisher Investments, alleging that the company founded by billionaire Ken Fisher mismanaged her trust assets and forced her to pay nearly $1 million in taxes.
The plaintiff is identified only as Jane Doe in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed Monday on allegations of financial elder abuse, constructive fraud, intentional and negligent misrepresentation and putting the defendant’s interests head of those of the plaintiff. She is seeking triple damages on the elder abuse claim and unspecified punitive damages.
The suit states Fisher Investments’ success is attributable in part to “extremely aggressive advertising and sales tactics” that include television and internet ads and “filling millions of mailboxes across the country with its flyers.”
A Fisher Investment representative could not be immediately reached for comment on the suit, which includes copies of screenshots of Ken Fisher and one of his company’s ads.
Doe established the trust to hold assets she inherited from her mother and an aunt, the suit states. She wanted to provide for her family and “help ensure a bright future for them,” according to her court papers.
The plaintiff has been plagued with health problems in her adult life, including a stroke in her 50s, the suit states. She also has had the majority of her liver removed, has had issues with her eyes that prevent her from even reading a computer screen and has been in a wheelchair since about 2014, the suit states.
Doe’s husband first responded to an ad from Fisher Investments in 2009, but found a salesman to be overly aggressive and declined the company’s services, according to the complaint, which says the couple nevertheless continued to receive solicitations by phone and mail. He also turned down another overture from Fisher after a dinner presentation in 2017, the suit says.
Months later, Doe signed up with Fisher Investments to have the compant take over the management of her trust assets without being offered an explanation of the terms of the agreement, the suit alleges.
In December 2018, Doe and her husband learned they would have to pay close to $1 million in taxes due to Fisher’s alleged miscues with Doe’s trust assets, according to the lawsuit.
In mid-May 2019, after the couple paid the taxes due, they demanded that Fisher Investments rectify their tax situation and a company representative said he would look into it, according to the suit, which says they later received a letter “flatly denying their request.”
This story originally appeared on my news LA.
