When I was new in the business back in the late 90s, I worked for a big wire house and stuffed research reports from the firm's analysts in envelopes and mailed them out to clients and prospects. I'd then pound the phone, review the research, and place stock trades. In March of 2000, the bottom fell out. It look 14 years for the Nasdaq 100 to break even. Even if you exclude the "dot bombs" and looked at high quality companies like Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, etc... it took roughly 10 yrs to break even. I didn't ruin anyone's lives, didn't get sued, we all lived through it, got tougher, and were thankful for the moderation of diversification - a time-tested practice that by definition, means that you won't have the best performing portfolio in frothy markets.

In 2008, clients at Lehman Brothers weren't answering their phones. Their emails bounced back. The Reserve Fund broke the buck. It took three or more trips to the ATM to find one with cash. I answered more FDIC-insurance limit questions from clients than I care to recall. Clients were taking delivery of gold bars, canned goods, and ammunition. I saw account statements during onboarding with 40% EM positions and preached diversification over and over... Remember, China joined the WTO in 2001, Jim O'Neill coined the term "BRIC" and everyone couldn't get enough EM, until they didn't. We entered a period where the US was "uninvestable", only to outperform the next 15 yrs or so.

We cannot control the uncontrollable. Nobody saw all this nonsense coming, not even the CFAs, PhDs, endowments, professional strategists, etc...

You are responsible for honoring the client and the profession. You are responsible for your attitude, your effort, but you are not responsible for the outcome.