Woodford directors paid £510k by failed fund manager

Neil Woodford and Craig Newman kept drawing the salaries despite having no money to manage.

According to Woodford Investment Management’s end of year accounts the two also incurred social security costs of £119,204 and other pension costs of £29,000. This left total remuneration for the pair of £658,454.

Over the financial year the firm recorded pre-tax losses of £4.5m.

The firm also sold £28,797 in artwork which had been on its books since incorporation in 2016.

The end of year accounts were the first published with the firm having no funds under management.

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Neil Woodford and Craig Newman were the founding directors of the company, following their departure from Invesco Perpetual where Mr Woodford was head of UK equities and Mr Newman was head of sales.

The Woodford Equity Income fund collapsed in 2019, shocking many in the industry who had seen Neil Woodford as asset management’s golden child.

Almost 6 in 10 of advisers surveyed by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) in October had, at some point, recommended clients invest in the Woodford Equity Income fund. 

Of these, 84% had clients who were affected by the fund’s suspension in June 2019.

The collapse of Woodford Investment Management left advisers less trusting of the investment industry, according to the research from the AIC. Over half (54%) said their trust in the industry had been weakened and among those advisers who had clients impacted by the suspension, 62% trusted the industry less than before.

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