Polar Capital fund manager Guy Rushton took his own life in May last year having been “uncertain about the future” and “extremely stressed” about his health, the pressures of work and the dwindling size of his fund, a coroner’s court has heard.
Rushton, 36, was found dead in a barn near his home in Wiltshire shortly after he went missing on 22 May, 2020. Two weeks before his death, he had been discharged from a psychiatric hospital and had been prescribed antidepressants following a previous suicide attempt.
His widow Alannah Rushton told Wiltshire and Swindon assistant coroner Ian Singleton that the manager of the Polar Capital UK Absolute Return fund had “experienced high stress due to a number of factors”, the Times reported.
Rushton (pictured) had been diagnosed in October 2019 with high blood pressure which his family attributed to the stress of being sole manager of the fund and not feeling like he could take time off.
The Polar Capital UK Absolute Return fund had been among the top-performers in the Investment Association Targeted Absolute Return sector, but its performance faltered during the coronavirus sell-off. It had held £472.17m at the time of its February factsheet but that had fallen to £292.2m by the time Polar decided to wind up the fund.
Rushton’s widow said he had been “uncertain about the future” and “anxious about the value of his own money invested in the fund”.
In April last year, Polar Capital confirmed it was winding up Rushton’s UK Absolute Equity fund due to his poor health.
In May Rushton had transferred a large amount of money to his wife’s account and made her his legacy contact on Facebook. He then went for a walk and never returned.
Bronwen Esdaile from the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, said that Rushton had been experiencing daily panic attacks and “appeared to be very agitated or depressed and very, very anxious”.
The inquest was adjourned by the coroner after asking for further representations from the family.
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