The former fund manager Neil Woodford has said he will launch a subscription-based investment service to retail investors, just six years after his fund collapsed.
Woodford will launch a “community platform” called W4.0, where investors will be able to download and enact his strategies via their own accounts.
Announcing the new service, Woodford wrote on his blog: “Because we’re not bound by the constraints of fund launches or minimum sizes, I can share more strategies, more ideas, and more updates than would ever be possible in a traditional fund structure.”
“W4.0 is like having Neil Woodford by your side,” said marketing materials.
The former manager’s flagship fund, Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF), was suspended in 2019 after it was unable to satisfy withdrawal requests from investors due to its high exposure to illiquid and unquoted shares. About 300,000 people who had been invested in the fund were left out of pocket.
Last year the Financial Conduct Authority issued a warning notice against Woodford, saying he held “a defective and unreasonably narrow understanding of his responsibilities for managing the WEIF’s liquidity risks”. The regulator also claimed he had failed to ensure the company had appropriate liquidity when making investment decisions. At the time, lawyers representing Woodford rejected the findings.
Woodford has marketed three strategies on his W4.0 service: an “all-rounder” combination of income and growth, an “unstoppable trends” theme focused on high-growth areas and an “income booster” strategy designed to deliver a yield of more than 7%. Subscribers will be able to follow the strategies, tailor the positions, download a ready-to-use trade file and use it to place trades with their broker or investment platform.
While subscription prices for access to the service were not disclosed, the first 500 “founding members” will lock in the “lowest subscription price” that the platform will offer, according to the website.
Woodford’s flagship fund was worth more than £10bn at its peak value, but it was hit by a series of bad bets including on the estate agent Purplebricks, the finance firm Burford Capital and the doorstep lender Provident Financial. Poor performance, combined with liquidity issues, led to the fund’s suspension and eventual collapse. The administrator wound down the fund and has since returned money to many investors at a steep loss.
Woodford said in a statement that W4.0 was about giving investors “more control in a way that fits how people want to invest today”.
“I see it as a natural evolution – a way to combine professional strategy with personal choice. It’s about improving what’s available to thoughtful, long-term investors who want to be more involved in their decisions,” he said.
