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ShareSoc News

HMRC Consultation – IHT on Pensions

Post Date: January 29, 2025
ShareSoc responds to the Chancellor’s proposals on the application of IHT to residual pensions.  Following the budget last autumn, HMRC launched a technical consultation on the implementation of the Chancellor’s proposals to apply inheritance tax (IHT) to unused pensions, upon the death of the pension beneficiary. Note that the consultation explicitly states: As announced at Autumn Budget 2024, from 6 April 2027 most unused pension funds and death benefits will be included within the value of a person’s estate for Inheritance Tax purposes and ...
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Laggard Press Release – ShareSoc Warns of Serious Governance Issues in Saba Capital’s Proposals

Post Date: January 16, 2025
ShareSoc, the UK’s premier organisation for individual investors, has serious concerns about the governance risks posed by Saba’s proposals, which seek to replace independent boards with its own non-independent representatives in all 7 trusts, award itself the investment management mandates, combine the trusts into a larger vehicle and use that vehicle to acquire further trusts at a discount. ShareSoc acknowledges performance concerns raised by Saba Capital Management against some, but not all, of the seven investment trusts targeted by Saba. However, ShareSoc notes ...
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Should ShareSoc become a Charity? We need your advice/help if you have relevant charity experience.

Post Date: December 18, 2024
  Have you ever been involved in running or setting up a charity? We are reviewing ShareSoc’s status and we believe some of our members might have valuable insights. If you have relevant experience, we would love to pick your brains on the key decisions and process. Please contact info@sharesoc.org if you can help. ShareSoc is currently a not-for-profit enterprise. We are reviewing the possibility of achieving charitable status. Much of our activity including education, research and campaigns with societal benefits appear to ...
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SIGnet Launches New US Small Cap Group

Post Date: December 13, 2024
  SIGnet is excited to announce the launch of a new online group for those who are interested in investing in US small caps. Investors of all levels of experience are welcome to join. The Convener for the Group will be Matt Plummer. Matt is an experienced investor with a concentrated portfolio focussed on small caps; recently he has invested more in US small caps. Matt looks for companies growing quickly, where the market is underestimating the impact of the growth on the ...
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RGL Woodford Group Litigation Claim vs Hargreaves could reach £1 billion

Post Date: December 13, 2024
The RGL Woodford Group Litigation against Hargreaves Lansdown so far comprises some 7,000 claimants with more being added every day. RGL has informed us that the average claimant had approximately £20,000 invested and that the average claim value (including the opportunity loss) is also in the region of £20,000. 133,000 Hargreaves clients had £1billion+ invested in Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF) at the point of suspension on 19th June 2019, so the potential value of the group claim is substantially larger than ...
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Press Release 131 – ShareSoc Endorses RGL Claim

Post Date: December 4, 2024
ShareSoc, the UK’s premier individual investor association, has endorsed the RGL Woodford Group Litigation against Hargreaves Lansdown. The RGL Woodford Group Litigation alleges that Hargreaves Lansdown continued to recommend investing in the Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF) even after they apparently knew of liquidity issues in the fund from November 2017 Over 133,000 potential claimants held WEIF via the Hargreaves Lansdown platform The RGL Woodford Group now comprises over 5,000 claimants, with a combined claim of approximately £140 million The RGL ...
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SIGnet Launches New Farnham Group in Surrey

Post Date: December 4, 2024
SIGnet is excited to announce the launch of a new in-person group based in Farnham, Surrey. Investors of all levels of experience are welcome to join. The Convener of the Group will be David Stredder, who will be known to many of you as the founder of Mello, organiser of in person investment conferences and virtual Mello Mondays. David is also a director at ShareSoc and has been investing in quoted shares since the 1980s, with a focus on UK small caps. ...
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Woodford Campaign Update 17 – ShareSoc Endorses the RGL Woodford Group Litigation

Post Date: December 4, 2024
  ShareSoc believes that the potential benefits of the RGL Woodford Group Litigation against Hargreaves Lansdown outweigh the identified risks for the vast majority of claimants, and that it is in the interest of affected investors to participate. On this basis, ShareSoc has chosen to endorse the claim. The RGL Woodford Group’s legal team has commenced proceedings against Hargreaves Lansdown, alleging that HL continued to recommend the Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF) despite apparently being aware of its liquidity issues from November 2017. ...
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Hartley – the story so far

Post Date: November 22, 2024
ShareSoc director Mark Bentley has been working hard behind the scenes to support Hartley pension clients.  In July 2022, Hartley entered administration. In February 2023, as part of our ongoing work to represent individual shareholder rights, ShareSoc director Mark Bentley joined an informal client committee to help represent the interests of Hartley clients.   Despite significant obstacles, we assisted in obtaining the agreement of the FSCS in early 2024 to cover the costs of the administration process. This was a huge win.  ShareSoc also formed ...
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Digital 9 Infrastructure – Catastrophic Performance Harms Shareholders

Post Date: November 20, 2024
ShareSoc has considered the DGI9 case carefully and has approached the FCA.  ShareSoc member Paul de Gruchy has written previously about disturbing revelations at DGI9. Further research by Paul has revealed apparent failures by TriplePoint, the fund’s former Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM) to comply with the investment policies set out in the fund’s prospectus, contributing to a collapse in DGI9’s NAV and in its share price.  The case has been considered by ShareSoc’s policy committee which decided to approach the FCA with ...
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ShareSoc Evidence to Lords on FCA Enforcement

Post Date: November 20, 2024
ShareSoc has submitted an evidence statement to the House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee regarding their consultation on the Financial Conduct Authority’s enforcement guidance proposals.  We reported here that we support the FCA’s proposals to improve the transparency of their enforcement actions.   The need for change was further underlined at a meeting between ShareSoc and the FCA on 14th November, at which we expressed concerns about a specific case.   Under the current regime, the FCA will not disclose whether it is taking, or ...
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NatWest Group plc Shareholder Event 28 Nov 2024

Post Date: November 20, 2024
Shareholder Engagement – NatWest is becoming a role model for other listed companies to follow  NatWest has announced a Virtual Shareholder Event at 6:00pm on Thursday 28 November 2024 for individual investors.  The event offers an opportunity for you to join Chair, Rick Haythornthwaite, and CEO, Paul Thwaite, and ask them questions.  NatWest (formerly RBS) now delivers a series of events for individual shareholders. The AGM is typically in late April/early May, preceded by a virtual shareholder event, giving investors the opportunity to ask questions ...
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