When the Fund Stops

Neil Woodford was the UKs most celebrated fund manager. Savers who invested 1,000 with him in 1988 saw their money increase to 25,000 over 25 years. At the peak of his career he was managing 33 billion for hundreds of thousands of investors. When he started his own fund management company in 2014, within just a few weeks it had attracted 5bn from his loyal fan base, including some of the City of Londons biggest hitters. Life was good. Away from work he was collecting high-performance supercars and chunky designer watches; he was rarely out of the saddle of his favourite horse. The BBC called him the man who cant stop making money. And then it all came to a sudden stop. This book tells the dramatic untold story behind Woodfords stunning rise and fall, and reveals why his multi-billion-pound investment empire really collapsed in such an abrupt and catastrophic manner. In a fast-moving and compelling narrative, reporter David Ricketts takes readers inside the rooms where extraordinary sums of other peoples money were wagered, trapped and, ultimately, lost, in a scandal still sending shockwaves through the world of finance. Thanks to unique and unprecedented access to the most important players, we meet an eccentric cast of characters and go inside the institutions involved, from Woodfords own firm to those that made huge sums endorsing him as well as those who failed to raise the alarm before it was too late.