This is the Monday marking the first full week back after the Christmas break, on which solicitors across many developed nations have cited a surge in applications for divorce.
There's only so many gifts of Lynx a man can take before he breaks.
Lawyers have been sharing their wisdom in anticipation of the usual seasonal 'flurry' - or seasonal marketing ploy, if you're cynically inclined.
But while trawling 'divorce day' on Twitter, I fell into a rabbit hole and discovered that, at the age of 84, Mae West starred in a raunchy, straight-to-video musical called Sextette.
What's that got to do with divorce or the CII? Hear me out.
In this dreadful waste of acetate, the frail femme fatale played a later 20-something, man-hungry starlet who was on her sixth husband, but the couple were unable to consummate their relationship due to a catalogue of unfortunate events.
The biggest obstacle is the fact her wedding comes on the brink of World War III, with Russian aggression played up significantly.
Divorce and war are both on the cards, albeit with plenty of dancing, sequins, and utterly forgettable songs. Well, it was the 1970s.
Not to draw too much of a tortuous analogy between an old film star yearning for love and the limelight, and a chartered body seeking to keep hold of a profitable society (against a backdrop of Russian aggression) but I'll give it a go.
Torturous analogy
The Chartered Insurance Institute, which received its royal charter in 1912, is far older than Mae West was when she attempted to play the lead character, Marlo.
But it has been through just as many relationships, ever since the first insurance institute was founded in Manchester in 1873.
According to the CII's history microsite, other insurance institutes were set up throughout the late 1800s, before coming together in 1897 as The Federation of Insurance Institutes of Great Britain and Ireland.
Strong words have been written and retweeted by advisers and members of both the PFS and the CII.Over the years, it has expanded its reach, becoming the 'home' of the Personal Finance Society, after the CII's Society of Financial Advisers and the former Life Insurance Association were merged in 2005. The CII also created the Society of Mortgage Professionals in 2005.
Managing so many relationships well is not easy and relationships will go through ups and downs.
But when very public disagreement, with senior members of the PFS branding the Institute's move to appoint board members as "flooding" and "cynical", and the CII claiming it had no choice but to act over concerns regarding governance, it's hard to see a happy future for this couple.
A fall-out and a make-up scene during the summer of 2022 may have lulled members into a false sense of security that the relationship was back on track.
Merry Christmas?
But it was not so. As a Christmas present to the press, the CII announced the reason for appointing its members to the PFS board was that mediation – a course often recommended by divorce lawyers to get the couple to reconsider their decision to separate – had failed.
But the PFS members and former board members have told FTAdviser that the CII's actions were "aggressive" and "shocking".
Strong words have been written and retweeted by advisers and members of both the PFS and the CII, which cannot help but pour fuel on the fire, whether you are Team Johnny or Team Amber.
It is understood the CII neither wishes to part ways with the PFS nor believes that divorce is inevitable or even viable as an option.
So divorce may not be on the cards, yet unless continued mediation works and an agreeable resolution can be found, this relationship will continue to face severe turbulence.
And it needs to be resolved soon.
There are thousands of PFS members left wondering what the future might hold as these two parties take to the press to battle it out.
Maybe they need a film star to come in and help sort it out, with or without sequins. It worked for Mae West.
Simoney Kyriakou is editor of FTAdviser
