Report finds advisor effectiveness hinges on sentiment, not just strategy
Financial advisors have a multitude of tools available to manage portfolios, retirement planning and tax outcomes, but while portals and analytics provide important measures of success, there is something more primal that can easily be overlooked.
A new report says that how clients feel during conversations are also an important metric along with whether advisors can influence that sentiment in real time.
AI solution provider Jump has released its inaugural 2026 Financial Advisor Insights Report which analyzes around 12,000 anonymized advisor–client meetings conducted nationwide between November 2024 and October 2025.
Using AI-driven conversational intelligence, the firm examined not just what was discussed, but how discussions affected client behavior, recommendation acceptance and follow-through.
One of the report’s key conclusions is that emotion consistently outweighs markets as a predictor of outcomes. Nearly half of all meetings (48%) included at least one explicit client fear, with many conversations containing multiple, overlapping anxieties.
The most consequential fears combined frequency with emotional impact: inability to pay bills, job or income loss, portfolio losses and rising taxes. Clients expressing these concerns entered meetings with materially lower starting sentiment, setting the tone for everything that followed.
To quantify that emotional backdrop, Jump introduced its proprietary Client Sentiment Index, a 1–10 score measuring how clients feel at the start and end of meetings. Average sentiment rose from about 6.5 at the beginning of meetings to 7.5 by the end, but that improvement varied sharply depending on advisor behavior.
According to the report, the index was the most predictive signal in the entire dataset, outperforming demographic and portfolio data in forecasting product acceptance and decision-making.
But advisor behavior mattered even more with the firm’s Advisor Emotional Intelligence Score — based on talk-time balance, open-ended questions, empathy statements and emotional check-ins — revealing wide dispersion across the profession.
Advisors in the highest tier lifted client sentiment by an average of 17.5% during meetings, nearly double the improvement generated by lower-ranked peers. High performers spent more time on goals, planning and relationship-building and less on compliance, service tasks and market commentary.
Product outcomes
Product outcomes followed the same pattern with acceptance of most investment recommendations rising when client sentiment improved, while “fear-based” assets such as insurance, alternatives, crypto and commodities were more likely to be accepted during lower-sentiment conversations. Nowhere was the communication gap clearer than in annuities which appeared in just 27% of meetings, and even when recommended, only 46% of clients agreed to invest. Presenting annuities as the advisor’s default recommendation increased acceptance odds by 27%, while goal-based framing actually reduced acceptance by a similar margin.
“We’re seeing a clear shift from AI as a tool for saving time to AI as a tool for improving performance,” said Liam Hanlon, head of insights at Jump. “Almost 25,000 advisors have adopted Jump in just over two years because of the efficiency it delivers. Now firms are focused on what comes next: translating that efficiency into better engagement, stronger decision-making and more reliable follow-through. Conversational intelligence gives them a way to measure that impact with evidence rather than intuition.”
Positive planning topics
The report also highlights planning topics that consistently improve meeting outcomes.
Tax planning appeared in roughly 76% of meetings and was associated with a 16% higher likelihood of ending conversations with positive sentiment. Estate planning, while emotionally heavy and often delayed, also produced positive sentiment when addressed — suggesting advisors may be underutilizing a trust-building opportunity by pushing those conversations too late.
Beyond client behavior, Jump’s analysis suggests advisor conversations may even foreshadow broader economic shifts. Client intent to sell homes led reported US housing inventory by about one month, with a correlation strong enough to hint at predictive value.
