Advisers need to hold fast to disciplined approach

The crisis that saw stock markets overseas come crashing down also left opportunities for disciplined investors to take advantage of solid gains, according to senior investment strategist at Russell Investment Andrew Pease. A lot of investors got out of equity markets at the bottom of the cycle as they got swept up in the fear and made their investment allocations too conservative, he said.

"The big lesson to come out of it is the importance of the processes and disciplines of how to manage the markets," Pease told Good Returns. "A good financial planner should be helping their client manage that discipline" to follow market cycles rather than chasing the latest trends, he said.

Pease said investors should have been rebalancing their asset allocations through the upswing, and should be doing it through the downturn as well to make the most of market volatility.

Like most other investment strategists, Pease said equity markets in developing economies are still the most attractive option for investors. Stocks are still under-valued, and he would expect to see an annual return of about 8% if he was to set up a fund today.