But for those advisers who take a slightly calmer view of what has happened this week, let us go over some of its events. Here is the week in news:
1) Down, down, deeper and down
Global markets have had a bit of stinker this week, prompted, slightly counter-intuitively, by the good news of Americans earning more than predicted.
The FTSE 100 is currently down 5.2 per cent over the week while the S&P 500 is down 8.8 per cent.
As the markets have experienced the second-longest bull run on record these sharp falls have left advisers and their clients wondering whether this is a temporary correction or the start of a new phase for global equity markets.
One group of people who could find themselves on the wrong side of this volatility are non-advised pensioners, who could see their later life savings eroded if markets continue to fall while they are drawing down funds for retirement.
This could be the first time post-pension freedoms that retirees – including those who might previously have taken an annuity – experience a sustained period of market falls.
2) Top of the flops
Speaking of losing all your money on the stock exchange, Tilney has flagged up some of the market's worst performing funds.
Aberdeen Standard Investments was the only asset manager to have four funds on the annual Spot the Dog list of underperforming investment vehicles.
The four funds, collectively holding £1.75bn, were the Aberdeen UK Equity Income fund, the Aberdeen UK Equity fund, the Aberdeen European Smaller Companies fund and the Aberdeen Asia Pacific Equity fund.
3) Complaints go full circle
As if like clockwork, a collapsed wealth management firm could now pass all its complaints to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, leaving the whole sector will the bill.
This week we learnt that the Financial Ombudsman Service currently has around 25 complaints waiting to be handled in relation to collapsed wealth management firm Full Circle Asset Management.
Administrators are currently working to establish how much money is available from the business, with a possible sale in the pipeline, to determine whether or not these complaints will fall to the FSCS.
The complaints received by the ombudsman mainly relate to advice people received when they were sold investments, particularly that the advice they were given wasn't consistent with their attitude to risk.
Last year Full Circle was told to pay damages to a client after it was found to have deviated from the risk profile and failed to sell poorly performing assets.
4) Everyone's favourite compensation scheme
Like buses, news about the FSCS came in pairs this week.
It appears the FSCS has paid out more than £5.7m in respect of bad pension advice given by two firms, with many more claims expected.
The investor lifeboat fund paid out on claims against Financial Page and Henderson Carter Associates, which entered administration in July 2014 and February 2010 respectively.
The payments relate to pension switching advice to invest in the Aigo fund through self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) but the companies advised on investments in at least two more funds that the FSCS is concerned about.
The FSCS is also expecting to pay out in relation to business written by a separate advice firm, Bank House Investment Management, which was declared in default in April 2017.
5) Pensions under scrutiny
The Financial Conduct Authority has raised concerns about value for money in the non-workplace pensions market and whether consumers were engaged enough to take steps to seek out better options.
Regulatory scrutiny on the value for money of old-style pension contracts and ‘default' arrangements has been cautiously backed by the companies most likely to feel the Financial Conduct Authority's wrath if it finds unfair practices, amid tacit acceptance some problems exist in the sector.
The FCA had already conducted a similar study of the workplace pensions market, which resulted in interventions on price - in particular a cap on auto-enrolment default funds - and the introduction of independent governance committees at life companies, which would monitor the ongoing value for money offered in workplace personal pension schemes.
The FCA said in its paper it was concerned pensions sold before 2001 were at risk of delivering poor value for money.
The regulator had detected complex charging structures among legacy workplace schemes and considered a similar problem could be found in the non-workplace area.
damian.fantato@ft.com
