Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband are multimillionaires with dozens of holdings in diversified index funds that would look familiar to many retirement savers. But part of their portfolio is hidden behind a trust whose holdings are at least partially obscured from the public.
Harris, 59 years old, vaulted into position to lead the Democratic ticket on Sunday, after President Joe Biden announced that he would no longer seek reelection. With no time for a regular primary, the nominee will be chosen over the coming weeks by Democratic Party electors. Some Democrats had supported the idea of an open convention, where several candidates could compete for the nomination, but since Biden’s announcement, most Democratic politicians and interest groups have lined up behind Harris.
“Joe Biden’s legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history,” Harris said on Monday, her first public remarks since Biden’s announcement.
Harris has spent most of her career in government, first working as an attorney for various offices in California, before becoming the state’s attorney general, a senator, and Biden’s vice president. Her husband, Douglas Emhoff, spent 30 years as an entertainment lawyer before becoming second gentleman. Like other federal workers, the vice president has disclosed her income and assets on forms filed regularly with the Office of Government Ethics.
The 2024 forms showed that Harris and Emhoff had between $2.9 million and $6.6 million in retirement accounts, other investments, and cash, according to a report filed in May. The federal form only requires officeholders to report values in a range.
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Between about $860,000 and $1.77 million of those holdings sat in cash, either in bank accounts or in cash sweep or money-market accounts the couple owned. Harris also has a defined-benefit account from her time working in various positions for the city of San Francisco that she valued at between $250,001 and $500,000. Her largest fund holdings included a Target Date 2030 fund, worth between $250,001 and $500,000, and an
fund and large-cap growth fund, each worth between $100,001 and $250,000 at the time.
Harris’s retirement money is in 457(b) plans offered by California and San Francisco that generally operate similarly to 401(k)s and are invested in funds created specifically for state and city employees.
For example, the disclosure forms show she had from $100,000 to $250,001 invested in the San Francisco Deferred Compensation Plan (SFDCP) Large Cap Growth Equity Fund and from $250,001 to $500,000 in the SFDCP Target Date 2030 Fund.
Emhoff’s retirement accounts, on the other hand, are chock-full of exchange-traded funds offered by Vanguard,
and
His largest holdings were the
ETF and the
iShares Broad USD Investment Grade Corporate Bond
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ETF, each worth between $250,001 and $500,000. He had another $402,000 to $1.1 million in iShares and Vanguard funds invested primarily in U.S. stocks.
None of Harris’s or Emhoff’s holdings were invested in sector-specific funds or stocks of individual companies. But the couple also disclosed a trust account, labeled the “KDH/DCE Family Trust,” whose assets appear to be only partially disclosed. The form says the trust owns between $50,001 and $100,000 in cash.
Generally, officials don’t have to disclose assets inside trusts if they don’t generate income, said Kedric Payne, senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit watchdog group. That would include real estate that isn’t being rented out, as well as securities that aren’t throwing off income, said Payne, calling it a “known loophole in transparency.” During the 2020 campaign, Biden had committed to pushing for laws to address that and other ethics issues, but they “never saw the light of day,” Payne said.
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A spokesperson for the Harris campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In prior statements on the trust, a spokesperson said that the trust didn’t own any securities or business interests. In the past, it has been listed on property records tied to Harris’s and Emhoff’s homes in Washington, D.C., and California.
Write to Joe Light at joe.light@barrons.com
