Research Insights for Today’s Advisors
How to withstand market uncertainty and reframe value
The Advising Through Uncertainty Study empirically demonstrates the difference you can make by focusing on the tangible value of financial planning — which helps prepare your clients to weather uncertain economic and market conditions.
The All-Weather Financial Planner
The College’s research indicates that, when the forecast looks stormy, a consistent commitment to client service may be the silver lining in the clouds. Acknowledge the anxiety some clients feel, but keep your conversations focused on their overall financial plans to put short-term performance in context.
When markets become volatile, advisors who always focus more on financial planning are significantly less likely to field client requests to make changes to their portfolios than advisors who focus more on investment management (23% financial planners vs. 43% investment managers).*
Consider the business case for financial planning — including specialized services.
The 2024 Schwab Benchmarking Study identifies that top firms embed comprehensive planning services in their asset fees. The trend toward service expansion is deeply connected to client demographics. With a record number of Americans now past retirement age, most of your ideal clients will likely have shorter time horizons and longer retirements than ever. This means investment performance alone is not the only (or right) measure of financial planning success.
In its report entitled Financial Planning: Fueling Client and Business Growth, Cerulli Associates found that private wealth managers who offer a “complete suite of financial planning and investment services including charitable giving, stock option planning, and complex trust and estate planning” attracted clients with assets under management (AUM) more than triple those of investment planners ($1.8M vs. $600K, respectively).
Adapted from source: Financial Planning: Fueling Client and Business Growth, Cerulli Associates for Osaic. October 2024. | Analyst Note: Cerulli assesses practice types through a series of survey inputs on various criteria. Although Cerulli buckets advisors into distinct archetypes to display data, many advisors believe a blend of the archetypes more accurately represents their practice. Cerulli assigns each advisory practice a core market range based on the investable assets of the majority of the practice’s client relationships. Specialized staff roles include paraplanners, investment research, marketing, or compliance.
The need for specialized services has never been greater for your ideal baby boomer clients: taxes are a major issue during distribution and within estate planning; charitable planning is an important consideration as they move through retirement and envision leaving a legacy; and the financial needs that come with long-term care are complex and often have multigenerational impact.
Put market volatility and economic uncertainty in context.
Although not exactly predictable, weather phenomena are cyclical. Even when a 100-year flood happens ahead of schedule, it eventually recedes. Understanding that it’s a cycle can be reassuring.
Based on historical market performance, someone who started investing in their early twenties and planned to retire in their late sixties or early seventies (a 50-year investment time horizon) would live through about 14 bear markets, as Hartford Funds reminds investors in their 2025 Client Conversations.
While that doesn’t paint a sunny picture, it does help to remind clients that every storm runs out of rain. And when the winds change, headwinds quickly become tailwinds; those who stay in the market will move forward faster than those who change course.
Make your job performance as easy to understand as market performance.
The markets and economy may seem out of control, so now is the time to focus on what you can control. Financial professionals with specialized knowledge and competencies can help clients keep more of their money through tax planning strategies, make the most of what they have through income withdrawal strategies, and avoid making irrevocable decisions that will have negative financial consequences.
If you reframe your financial planning services in these terms, market performance becomes just one of many measures a client will see as proof of your value proposition.
Be the calm in the storm.
The Advising Through Uncertainty Study indicates few advisors overall feel anxious about the future of their practice because of volatility. Investment managers, however, are significantly more likely to feel anxious (34%) than financial planners (22%).*
Meteorologists don’t panic when the forecast turns severe — instead, they educate and help people prepare. Their performance isn’t determined by the number of sunny days, but by how well they communicate. The same can be true for you: focus on educating and communicating, and market conditions won’t determine your perceived value any more than weather conditions determine the value of the meteorologist.
*Advising Through Uncertainty Study. The American College of Financial Services. 2025.
Differentiate yourself with advanced, specialized knowledge.
The Advising Through Uncertainty Study found that, compared to advisors with no designations, financial professionals who hold designations from The College were significantly less likely to say their clients were turning their focus to investments, significantly less likely to receive client requests to change their investments, and significantly less likely to describe their clients as anxious.
This phenomenon suggests that when financial professionals are able to define their value beyond investment performance – for example, through smart retirement income withdrawal strategies or advantageous tax-informed financial planning – their clients are willing to withstand fluctuating performance, even during significant downturns.
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