The business press has been awash with articles concerning the fallen investment star Neil Woodford, who suspended withdrawals from his Equity Income Fund on Monday. As part of these reports, a number of issues have been raised ranging from the protection afforded by the regulator – The Financial Conduct Authority – to the role of so-called investment ‘ supermarkets ’ like Hargreaves Lansdown. In this post we will look at these issues but focus mainly on the conceptual role, or identity, of the so-called ‘retail investor’. Neil Woodford, best known for his time at Invesco Perpetual, started the Equity Income Fund five years ago and, even upon its launch, was placed in Hargreaves Lansdown’s ‘Wealth 50’ list. Hargreaves Lansdown, which ‘ issues recommendations about which managers to back to an army of retail investors ’ has since suffered the consequence for maintaining Woodford’s place on that list, even up until the fund had been suspended, as its shares dropped 4% on news of i...