<---former financial advisor
NOTE: Comments below are not necessarily applicable to guys who solely manage a portfolio for 1% a year. That's a different skillset, even though there is a lot of overlap.
There are people who are ignorant and don't have the time to learn (or maybe their brain just doesn't grasp it well, despite their talents in other fields). Those people could benefit from a fee-only financial advisor who makes no $$ from commissions or fees on the sales of products. That way, they can be assured the advice is not tainted by "I really want to sell you something tasty so I can pay my mortgage." The advisor then can pass them off to someone else who the client can buy their products from.
I think the financial services industry may seriously change over the next decade, based on the Fiduciary Rule and on the greying of the financial services workforce. IIRC, the average age of a financial services professional is in the early 50s. Something like 83% of new financial services professional don't survive by the 5-year mark -- as in, they quit the industry entirely and go sell cars or do something else entirely. Living score-to-score on life insurance commissions, annuity commissions, mutual fund fees can burn people the fuck OUT because of the stress of prospecting and of not making any money for the first 6-12 months. Moving to financial advising (giving advice as a business for compensation) isn't a "make $100,000 this month!" strategy, but it does make more sense, and I think is better for clients.
ETA: I agree with much in that article. I have yet to see a financial services company who really trains their sales force on the products or on sales. Most are mills whose intent is to get that new salesman's list of 100 friends and family, so that after he burns out and leaves they can pass that list to the sales managers who then farm that list for new business. They get 10 salesmen, 1-2 will survive and the other 8-9 quit in 5 months, no skin off the company's back because those guys are 100% commission anyway. It's a fucked-up model.