Hargreaves Lansdown

Woodford Campaign Update 17 – ShareSoc Endorses the RGL Woodford Group Litigation

  ShareSoc believes that the potential benefits of the RGL Woodford Group Litigation against Hargreaves Lansdown outweigh the identified risks for the vast majority of claimants, and that it is in the interest of affected investors to participate. On this basis, ShareSoc has chosen to endorse the claim. The RGL Woodford Group’s legal team has commenced proceedings against Hargreaves Lansdown, alleging that HL continued to recommend the Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF) despite apparently being aware of its liquidity issues from November 2017. ...

Woodford Campaign Update 16, 15 February 2024

WOODFORD: LINK JUDGMENT AND NEXT STEPS Mr Justice Richards approved the Link Scheme of Arrangement (subject to appeal) without any conditions. This was expected, given the 93% vote in favour by Scheme Creditors, but it doesn't close the door on the Woodford scandal. In a tight and carefully worded legal judgment, the Judge explained that the “FCA Total Amount” of harm identified (£298 million) relates only to the relative loss of value incurred by those who held the fund at suspension date relative ...

WOODFORD UPDATE 12

Recent announcements relating to Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF) warrant close attention: The FCA has announced a potential £235 million settlement with Link Financial Services (LFS) The settlement, if approved by WEIF investors, will be used to pay redress The scheme, if approved, will protect LFS from further claims The FCA is effectively urging investors to approve the scheme and is stating that legal redress claims promise an unrealistic return since FSCS compensation would not cover investment losses. This statement is confusing, since redress claims ...

WOODFORD UPDATE 11 – Time to Act!

Implications of Justice Trower’s GLO ruling Register your interest in Woodford Compensation Now https://www.sharesoc.org/campaigns/woodford-campaign/ for more information Justice Trower refused the Group Litigation Order application and very sadly denied the request to require Link to inform potential claimants of their opportunity to claim. Justice Trower says it is not the court’s job to “encourage potential claimants to litigate”. So, it is up to you to make your decision. ShareSoc’s role is to highlight the issues for you to consider. In para 53 onwards he explains the ...

REX/Retail Book – Retail access to share offerings

  Shareholder Rights are central to ShareSoc’s campaigning activities. Defending pre-emptive rights and the rights of minority shareholders, and ensuring access for individuals to placings on fair terms are areas where we lobby, represent and campaign for the benefit of ShareSoc members and individual investors as a whole.   Primary Bid, in collaboration with the London Stock Exchange, has made huge strides in making IPOs and fund raises more available to retail shareholders. The Treasury is finally putting various initiatives in place following the ...

ShareSoc Woodford Campaign Webinar 19th July – Report

  We received very strongly positive feedback from the 832 registrants to this webinar. A recording of the webinar is available here. The Missing 90% The webinar highlighted the Enigma of the missing 90% of claimants. We think up to 270,000 investors have yet to claim and we plan to issue a press release highlighting this and some of the points below: Nearly 300,000 investors lost money in the Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF)and now have an opportunity to claim compensation, but so far ...

Woodford: What Happens Next? – Webinar Report

This is an official ShareSoc News Item written by ShareSoc Director Cliff Weight. 942 registered for ShareSoc’s webinar with 684 attending. Wow! Our biggest webinar ever and possibly the biggest webinar of its kind. Also, we now have 1,465 members of our Woodford Campaign. With these sorts of numbers we can pack much more of a punch with the FCA, Government and Hargreaves Lansdown. The Campaign has socially responsible aims of making the investment world a better place. It very much fits in ...

Leigh Day issue court proceedings against Link

Leigh Day issued court proceedings against Link on Monday 27 September 2021.  This is a huge step forward in getting compensation for the many thousands of unfortunates who lost money in Woodford’s WEIF funds. Leigh Day’s issuing of proceedings is a big milestone. We are concerned, however, that roughly only 5-10% of the 270,000 or so investors seem to have joined any claim so far. We urge all WEIF investors to join a claim. We believe that Leigh Day are streets ahead of ...

Woodford Webinar questions answered

ShareSoc News Item by Cliff Weight, Director At the 9 March 2021 Woodford webinar, there were over 100 questions from the 947 people registered. Many were answered on the night. Leigh Day have now produced answers to the unanswered questions which are conveniently grouped into 7 different themes. Mello Woodford webinar - questions and Leigh Day responses final (07-04-2021)  

Comparison of Woodford Claims

The Investors Chronicle have published on 30 March 2021 a useful table comparing the 4 ongoing Woodford Claims: (note, as at 10 June 2022, Leigh Day have >12,000 claimants and Harcus Parker c 7,500. ShareSoc do not know any more recent numbers for RGL and Slater & Gordon.) ShareSoc endorsed the Leigh Day Claim, in November 2020 on the basis of information available at that time. The table highlights that the Leigh Day claim and Harcus Parker claim are both against Link, both ...

Portfolio Adviser, 5 March 2021
Press coverage of Leigh Day Letter Before Action

A ShareSoc news item by Cliff Weight, Director. Portfolio Adviser carries a detailed report on Leigh Day sending its Letter Before Action (LBA) to Link in relation to the Woodford debacle, with quotes from ShareSoc Chair Mark Northway. “It’s fantastic news that another critical milestone has been hit in Leigh Day’s legal claim against Link. We are delighted for Woodford WEIF investors and gratified that we have endorsed this claim,” said Sharesoc chairman, Mark Northway. “Sharesoc reviewed the various potential claims and concluded that ...

Investors Chronicle, 23 Feb 2021, Platform services creak with customer surge

https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/news/2021/02/22/platform-service-creaks-with-customer-surge/ Investors Chronicle wrote up the chronic service problems of the platforms and included this quote from Cliff Weight of ShareSoc: Cliff Weight, director of individual investors campaigning group ShareSoc, said “Hargreaves Lansdown’s customers having to wait 34 minutes to talk to someone is awful and should be unacceptable. The Financial Conduct Authority and the Competition and Markets Authority looked at platforms a couple of years ago, but seemed to have allowed high cost, poor service, quasi-monopolistic behaviour to continue. They need ...