Holistic advice practices will weather market volatility

As the market is forecast to gear for recovery, practices which provide a "whole of life" service will see a better return than those that focus only on generic financial advice, BTFG said.

"Since the global financial crisis (GFC) investors have gone through an extraordinarily challenging period - it's been like a perfect storm of events and it's been unprecedented," BTFG general manager of adviser distribution Chris Freeman said.

"So the financial advisers that focus on the holistic advice value adding are the ones that are doing really well in this market because it's not just tied to an investment outcome."

With the GFC, stock market uncertainty and regulatory reform affecting the stock market over the past few years, Mr Freeman said this has been a 'wakeup call' for the industry.

Practices that broaden their offerings to estate planning, tax minimisation, life insurance and planning to retirement can provide better value to their customers and are more likely to see a better return in the market.

"The industry got used to the easy returns during the lead-up to the GFC, but since then it's been a bit of a wakeup call, I think," Mr Freeman said.

"If you hold yourself out to be an investment adviser, that's a tough, tough gig because most fund managers have periods of underperformance."

"So it's the practices that are really focused on holistic financial planning that are the ones doing well."