Investment service launched by Neil Woodford, featuring fees reaching £67 monthly.
Here Comes a New Ride: W4.0 - Neil Woodford's Rebound Investment Platform!
After the tumultuous collapse of his former firm, Woodford Investment Management, Neil Woodford, once a star fund manager, is back in the game with a bang! Introducing W4.0, an innovative investment strategy service tailored for "thoughtful, independent, and long-term" investors.
Six years have passed since the shuttering of Woodford's boutique firm, forced to close following a rush of withdrawals from funds with large holdings in hard-to-trade shares. This dramatic event triggered one of the UK's biggest investment scandals, resulting in about 300,000 people losing money, a compensation scheme being set up, and thousands of investors suing Hargreaves Lansdown over claims of continued promotion of the fund despite known problems.
But fear not, Woodford is here now with a new type of platform - a research platform that offers direct access to his investment strategies. Forget the traditional investment products and managed funds; W4.0 is all about stockpicking ideas, market insights, and more - for a price, of course.
So, What's the Deal with W4.0?
Launched on 6 June, W4.0 offers four investment strategies dreamt up by Neil Woodford himself. This isn't a fund, brokerage, or financial adviser. Instead, the service provides you with opinions on which stocks to invest in, leaving the actual trading to you. To build your portfolio based on one of these strategies, you'll need to buy the stocks through your own broker or investment platform.
Charges for W4.0 range from £50 to £67 a month depending on your chosen plan. The pricier options include access to all four W4.0 strategies and group Q&A sessions with Woodford, subject to a 33% launch discount. Pay annually, and the fees drop to £40 and £54 per month for the more expensive plan.
Worth mentioning, W4.0 is not overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority, as it doesn't provide financial services and therefore doesn't conduct regulated activities. What's more, emails from W4.0 come from a Dubai PO Box address, suggesting the platform is run by a UAE-based company.
Four Strategies to Choose From
At launch, the four W4.0 strategies are:
- All Rounder: A balanced approach aiming at undervalued, dividend-paying companies with long-term growth potential, primarily in the UK.
- Income Booster: A high-income equity strategy set on delivering a 6% dividend income from resilient businesses in developed markets.
- Unstoppable Trends: A thematic strategy focusing on Neil's best ideas for growth across long-term global shifts.
- Neil's Top 40: top picks from across the other strategies, highlighted on W4.0.
With a W4.0 subscription, you'll get access to the complete list of companies in each strategy, the ability to monitor performance over time, and regular commentary explaining the logic behind changes. More strategies may join the lineup in the future.
According to the website, "W4.0 offers full transparency into long-term, research-led strategies, showing you exactly what's in the strategy, why it's there, and how it performs." In other words, W4.0 provides detailed explanations for each strategy, enabling you to make informed decisions about your investments. Additionally, the platform provides access to educational content, market updates, and market, sector, and company commentary, all designed to help you think more clearly about the financial landscape.
In a gist, W4.0 is a subscription-based research platform offering Neil Woodford's investment strategies for a monthly fee, catering to investors who value independent, long-term analysis and are comfortable managing their own portfolios.
The new ride, W4.0, is a subscription-based research platform created by Neil Woodford, offering investment strategies in finance for independent and long-term investors, focusing on stockpicking ideas, market insights, and more. Unlike traditional investment products or managed funds, W4.0 provides opinions on which stocks to invest in, allowing users to execute trades through their own brokers or investment platforms.
