Opinion

For the investor, it does not get much tougher than this. Markets have been awful. Almost any news is interpreted as bad, and it is even regurgitated to reinforce the effects it created in the first place.

Structured products have never been more popular. But their increasingly high profile has not dispelled many of the myths that continue to cloud the way some investors - and advisers - perceive them.

It might be the cynicism of my middle age but there comes a time when it is necessary to step back and examine what is going on in life, what it is all about and what you are doing as an individual.

I think I'm going to go and spend the rest of my life huddled up in a ball in a dark corner, not eating and drinking and not exposing my body to any external elements.

Apparently, David Bowie is to blame for the credit crunch, having "invented" securitisation in the context of bonds for royalties back in 1997.

It was not so long ago - less than 18 months - that lead generation had a bad reputation. The finance press was full of horror stories about unscrupulous lead providers based in far flung corners of the world taking brokers' hard earned money and providing...

Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that few advisers are working on Inheritance Tax mitigation at the present time and yet, in reality, the credit crunch has generated the best environment for such planning for many years.

Hands up who knows who is credited with inventing critical illness cover (CIC) as we know it?

When I entered the field of retirement income in the late 1970s we had a pensions industry that was the envy of the world.

It seems little has changed over the course of the last month. Certainly nothing has altered the way the developed world is heading!!