TEBI Podcast 39: Why are Woodford investors still in limbo?

The Evidence-Based Investor

Neil Woodford is Britain's best-known fund manager. For many years his track record was very impressive. He was lauded in the media. He was even referred to by the BBC as "the man who can't stop making money.” But then things began to go wrong and, three years ago, the wheels came off in spectacular fashion, when his flagship Equity Income fund was suspended. The industry, of course, as the industry usually does, did really rather well out of it. Woodford Equity Income was Britain's biggest fund launch. The fund earned a fortune for Woodford himself and for the many brokers and platforms who helped to promote it. The outcome for investors, however, was rather different. More than 300,000 people — many of them near, or already in, retirement — lost more than £1 billion between them in one of the biggest financial scandals of modern times. Robin Powell's guests on this episode are two highly respected journalists who have each written a book on the Woodford saga — Owen Walker and David Ricketts.