By Liam Hanlon
For the past eight years, I have worked at the intersection of wealth management and technology. I began my career at EY, where I ultimately led experimentation and AI initiatives for the wealth and asset management business consulting group. That experience gave me a front row seat to the development of advanced analytics and next best action engines across some of the largest financial institutions in the world.
Those systems promised to deliver the right product to the right client at the right time. In many cases, they succeeded. Where they consistently fell short was in something more fundamental: understanding how advice should be positioned for a specific client, in a specific moment, based on what that client was actually experiencing. The analytics could tell you what to offer, but not how to say it.
In early 2025, Parker Ence, CEO of Jump, came to EY to demonstrate his technology. The immediate value was obvious. Jump automated the administrative and maintenance work that had consumed advisor days for decades, giving advisors back two to three hours per day. That alone was transformative. It explained why Jump reached 25,000 advisors in just two years, a level of adoption that took other categories of wealth technology decades to achieve.
But I took something different away from that meeting. As Jump grew, it was not just saving time. It was capturing advisor-client conversations at a scale the industry had never seen before. In that moment, I realized this was the missing input the industry had been searching for when it came to helping advisors make better decisions using predictive analytics. The models did not need to change. The data did. For years, we had been flying blind, trying to influence client behavior without ever knowing what was actually said, how it was said, or how clients responded. With access to real conversations, that blind spot disappears. Not by guessing intent, but by hearing it directly.
Conversational intelligence, or what we call at Jump AI Meeting Intelligence, captures conversational data and applies AI and machine learning to transform unstructured dialogue into structured insight. That includes topics discussed, sentiment, behavioral patterns, and decision signals. For the first time, firms can systematically learn from what clients are saying, how advisors are engaging, and how those interactions evolve through market shifts and life events.
As we move toward 2026, this capability has never been more important. For the first time, firms can learn directly from advisor-client conversations at scale, not just to understand what clients do, but how they think, feel, and decide. In this monthly column, I will use those insights to surface trends the industry has not previously been able to see and translate them into practical implications for advisors and firms.
In this first article, I will start by using findings from our Annual Insights Report, to outline several trends we believe will define advisor-client conversations in 2026.
Prediction 1: Client Sentiment Stabilizes
In 2025, client sentiment reached its lowest point during March and April, driven by political shock and policy uncertainty. Conversations during that period were dominated by fear, with less engagement around equities, planning, and major decisions. In 2026, with the shock cycle largely behind us, we expect more stable sentiment and more constructive, forward-looking conversations. Expect clients to refocus on their long-term plan and holistic financial strategy.
Prediction 2: Diversification Grows, Sentiment Determines the Winner
U.S. equities, cash, bonds, and real estate continued to dominate client conversations in 2025. What grew fastest, however, were annuities, international equities, and alternatives, signaling increased demand for diversification as U.S. markets reached all-time highs.
These assets behave differently based on client sentiment. International equities and annuities perform better when sentiment is positive, while alternatives, insurance, and real assets gain traction during periods of fear. In 2026, diversification conversations will continue to rise, but sentiment will determine which categories see the greatest adoption.
Prediction 3: RILAs Accelerate Adoption
Fixed indexed annuities accounted for the majority of annuity recommendations, but RILAs showed the highest client acceptance rates. This suggests clients value protected equity exposure more than income alone. As advisors adjust their positioning, we expect RILAs to gain share in 2026.
Prediction 4: Estate Planning Becomes Core
Estate planning conversations grew faster than any other planning topic in 2025, climbing from roughly 36 percent of conversations to nearly half by October. As the Great Wealth Transfer accelerates, estate planning is moving from a seasonal discussion to a core pillar of advice. In 2026, we expect it to surpass the 50 percent mark and become standard in ongoing client engagement.
Want to read the full report? Find it here!
Liam Hanlon is Head of Insights at Jump AI, an artificial intelligence assistant for financial advisors.
