In 2015 the UK's Financial Conduct Authority came up with some suggestions (but not rules) to protect financial firms whose clients want to act against their advice from its own 'suitability' rules. The Financial Ombudsman Service is also doing its bit to provide firms with some cover.

The ombudsman service is a real alternative to court action, although it imposes a ceiling of £150,000 on compensation in each case. This limit does not include any interest or costs that the FOS might tell a business to pay on top. The FOS can, however, ask the institution if it would be willing to do pay more and this sometimes yields spectacular results.

The FOS is obliged to make 'fair and reasonable' decisions. It takes account of the law but is not bound by it, in something like the same way as an arbitration service. Its decisions are quick.

The subject of insistent clients has hardly plagued the service. Cases of this kind peaked in 2015-16 at 24, but there had been even fewer each year before that and in 2016-17 there were only nine. In every case, it assessed things by talking to the parties to gather evidence; by looking at laws and FCA regulations; by finding out whether the firm followed its usual rules for advice; and by looking at the relevant suitability report.

At a recent meeting, FOS operative Caroline Mitchell sought to debunk a common myth: that if the advisor in question does not put everything in the suitability report, the FOS will find against him. All he has to do, she explained, was to offer the client a balanced explanation of the risks and advantages of proceeding so that he can make a truly informed decision.

She thought that if the advisor asks the consumer to write down his impression of the risks in his own handwriting, this might not guarantee victory but "if it is there in their handwriting then when the consumer comes to me 10 years later they will be very much on the back foot - that should be OK. She added that it might (although she was at pains to say that this was really in the FCA's realm and not hers) be a good idea for the advisor to tape the customer talking about his appreciation of the risks.