As far as we're aware no one in the financial advice industry has given their implicit backing to a group of fascists - *cough President Trump* - so it can probably be considered quite a quiet week.
So lets turn out our pockets and see what actually did happen in the week in news.
1) What a steel!
Let's dip our toes into the ceaseless news whirlpool that is the saga surrounding the British Steel Pension Scheme.
This week we learnt several steelworkers appear to be transferring out their defined benefit (DB) pensions from the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS), after being lured by an introducer firm called Celtic Wealth Management & Financial Planning.
FTAdviser understood from several sources that the firm has been present at several roadshows from the scheme trustees which are attended by members wanting more clarifications about their pensions, and proposing to them a flat fee of £1,500 on their DB transfers.
It comes amid concerns that BSPS members are struggling to get a financial adviser to take them as a client and advise them on a DB transfer because of concerns about a tight deadline and future liability.
Around 4,600 members were given an extension to their decision deadline this week.
Self-invested personal pension provider Momentum Pensions has put all further investments and pension transfers on hold from members and said it will not charge those who change their mind after it transpired it was one of the providers through which steelworkers' pension pots were being invested.
2) Release the equity!
As if one potential mis-selling issue with DB transfers wasn't enough, how about a second one?
More 2 Life said it had uncovered evidence showing advisers dabbling in equity release may be recommending the wrong deals to clients.
The provider has found three out of four over-65 homeowners could potentially qualify for an enhanced loan-to-value based on assessment of their medical condition, yet only 15 to 20 per cent of customers actually received an enhanced plan according to a more 2 life estimate based on Age UK Later Life in the UK, the Department of Health National Diet and Nutrition Survey and ONS population data.
One of the main reasons for this was a survey of 100 advisers at the end of 2015 by the provider found that 22 admitted they did not routinely ask health questions when discussing equity release with clients.
Stuart Wilson, marketing director at more 2 life, said a large number of new advisers are crossing over to later-life lending from the residential sector.
3) Women who won't buzz off
In case the government is fed up going head to head with Brussels bureaucrats, it can turn its attention to home and go head to head with...a group of women in their 50s.
As part of a legal campaign, thousands of women from across the country have submitted, and continue to submit, complaints against the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) regarding what they call an inadequate communication of changes to the state pension age.
And this week the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman has intervened to speed up responses to complaints from the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) movement.
Waspi claims that while the 1995 Conservative government's Pension Act included plans to increase the women’s state pension age to 65 – the same as men's – the changes were implemented unfairly, with little or no personal notice.
4) Can't see the Woodford the trees
'Star fund manager' Neil Woodford has been struggling to earn that title in recent months and another investor has decided it has had enough.
Nathan Sweeney, multi-asset manager at Architas, dumped the £25m holding in the flagship Woodford Equity Income fund which was in the company's range of multi-asset funds.
Mr Woodford's fund has returned 0.4 per cent over the past year to 29 November, compared to a return of 12 per cent for the average fund in the IA UK Equity Income sector in the same time period. This ranks the fund the absolute worst performer in the sector.
Mr Woodford has now sought to defend his thinking, saying investors piling cash into certain global stocks has created a bubble the likes of which has been seen only twice in the past 30 years.
In the UK domestically focused stocks have been shunned in favour of large companies with international earnings but low growth characteristics.
He compared those discrepancies to the extreme valuations at which the technology stocks traded at the turn of the century, and banks and real estate shares traded at before the global financial crisis in 2008.
"There are so many lights flashing red that I am losing count," he said.
5) This town is big enough for the both of us
This week discretionary fund manager Brewin Dolphin said it was expanding into advice with a two-pronged attack targeting both the mass market and higher net worth "sophisticated clients", entering into a direct rivalry with its traditional customer base of advisers.
Brewin revealed that during 2017 it began rolling out a needs-based wealth planning and investment advice service for clients with simpler needs called WealthPilot.
Initially based in the London office, this is delivered by qualified advisers over the phone, Skype or face-to-face. Brewin has said it will expand this across its network during 2018.
It also launched a new service for "sophisticated clients" with more complex needs which will be based and delivered in an "entrepreneurial, standalone environment".
But Brewin's chief executive David Nicol has said the advice market is big enough for his firm to expand its advice offering without taking business from advisers.
He said the service was initially aimed at existing Brewin clients who do not receive advice.
damian.fantato@ft.com
