Clients will be bruised by the disappearance of bank stocks.

British independent financial advisers (IFAs) will meet plenty of clients, who will have been bruised by the virtual disappearance of UK bank stocks. For instance, the roll call covers Northern Rock, Bradford & Bingley, Alliance and Leicester and Halifax while the share prices of Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Barclays have taken a right battering. In retrospect, Alliance and Leicester did well to be taken out by Spanish bank Banco Santander, which is treated virtually as a UK bank by the British government.
So what can IFAs recommend to clients to make up the income gap because the UK banks were briliant dividend players? There are articles in the financial press extolling corporate bond funds while IFA David Kauders has always recommended to clients that first they should be debt-free and then they can invest in UK and US government bonds. So in the overwhelming amount of cases clients should be advised to get started on reducing their mortgages.
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I remember years ago reading conservative advice from Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust that investors should have a financial cushion of a year's money before investing in their company. It sounds like genteel advice from a bygone era but one we are probably returning to.