Adviser business coach Tony Vidler said the discussion about replacement and new business needed to move away from advisers "churning" to thinking about how to interpret what was normal in an increasingly consumer-led industry.

He said insurance company data showed a normal client attrition rate of about 5% to 6% of customers every year, at the insurer level.

"Those are customers who simply no longer needed the products or service," he said.

Vidler said a typical adviser who was running an ethical business and working in clients' best interest should then expect to have some clients quit their insurance products.

"If the typical adviser is working with about 400 clients, that means there are about 24 clients who move away each year on average, no matter how good the adviser is," he said.

"Yet we are continually reading that this shift is an adviser-driven problem and that these errant advisers with shifting clients should be run out of town. Isn't it conceivable that perhaps the institutions or product manufacturers themselves also contribute to lost business?"

He said sometimes bad experiences with an insurer might prompt a client to change. On top of that, advisers were required to regularly review clients' situations to ensure they had the best products for their needs.

“The end result is that it is absolutely understandable that any professional adviser can experience a persistency loss of perhaps 14% to 15% in each and every year just because they are doing their work ethically and dealing with human beings whose lives change."

He said: "How much of this business turnover in the industry is really to be laid at the adviser population's feet? More importantly, could it be that 'churn' is not actually an issue at all?"