RE: Woodford Half Out17 Oct 2019 17:43
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-woodford-invs-suspension-link/after-woodford-fund-suspension-focus-turns-to-its-stewards-idUSKCN1TI1NW (17 June 2019)
LONDON (Reuters) - The suspension of Neil Woodford’s flagship fund has put the focus on a little known firm tasked with ensuring his investors were being looked after properly. While Woodford, one of Britain’s highest profile money managers, picked the companies in which the LF Woodford Equity Income Fund invested, the fund’s governance was overseen by a company with a much lower profile — Link Fund Solutions.
Link acts as Woodford’s Authorised Corporate Director (ACD) and is the fund’s legal owner. In the prospectus for the suspended fund, Link lists a group of six directors led by its Chief Executive, Christopher Addenbrooke.
ACDs are meant to ensure fund managers stick to their investment mandates and follow the rules. They usually attract little scrutiny, but Woodford’s fall from grace has raised questions about whether they are fit for purpose.
One key question is whether ACDs — hired by the investment manager — challenge fund managers’ decisions robustly enough.
“The ACD’s role is very much behind the scenes from most retail investors’ perspective, but is nonetheless crucial - they play a major part in ensuring that the fund complies with the FCA’s rules,” said Richard Small, a financial services partner at Addleshaw Goddard.
"Britain’s regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has said it was looking into the circumstances surrounding Woodford’s fund suspension and the listing of some of its assets on an exchange in offshore dependency Guernsey - a move Link would have needed to approve. I would expect that the FCA will take a hard look at Link’s role in this affair,” Small said.
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