Marlene Shalton: Why I couldn't stick my first advice job

“I was flabbergasted,” Marlene Shalton, financial planner, tells me. “She said my advice was an insult.” It was 2008, at the height of the market downturn. A client with a “sizeable” portfolio which was appearing to drop in value by the minute had been in to see Shalton for an explanation and to discuss what to do next. He had his wife with him. “There was no need to panic, I told them, because the decline was only on paper. I said it wasn’t a real loss because that only happens when you realise it by cashing in a portfolio. “His wife took umbrage. She took it as an insult. Subsequ...