Slater and Gordon has become the latest law firm to investigate whether there is a legal case to be made against Hargreaves Lansdown over its cheerleading of Neil Woodford.
In an update to the class actions and group litigation section of its website, Slater and Gordon noted Hargreaves had continued to promote Woodford Equity Income via its Wealth 150 and Wealth 50 buy lists despite admitting it had had concerns about the level of unquoted and hard-to-sell assets since late 2017.
The webpage also provides a link to the BBC Panorama documentary that split the industry over its portrayal of Woodford’s demise.
The law firm said it is also assessing whether the price achieved when buying and selling instruments, such as ordinary shares, represents best execution.
Already, Leigh Day has said it is investigating the viability of a claim against Hargreaves over its “representations” about the fund. Leigh Day solicitor Kamran Vojdani told Portfolio Adviser last week the firm was receiving multiple inquiries each day from Hargreaves clients invested in Woodford.
A form on the Slater and Gordon website asks Hargreaves clients a series of simple questions, like whether they are invested in Woodford, how often they contribute into funds or shares and how often they switch investments.
Hargreaves admitted in correspondence with the Treasury select committee that it had been concerned about the proportion of illiquid holdings in Woodford Equity Income since November 2017 and had been in monthly communications with Woodford since early 2018 about unquoted exposure.
During this time it continued to champion the fund via the Wealth 150 and the buy list’s reincarnation as the slimmed-down Wealth 50 in January 2019.
Hargreaves said it did not wish comment when contacted by Portfolio Adviser.
