Emotionally Intelligent Advisers May Make Annuities More Appealing

Financial advisers’ words and actions directly shape client behavior, according to Jump, an artificial intelligence company which released its “Financial Advisor Insights Report” on January 8. The study used AI analysis of conversational metadata from 12,000 adviser-client meetings by participating firms between November 1, 2024, and October 31, 2025.

Data from meetings were collected, encrypted and stripped of personal identifying information before being analyzed, and researchers found that nearly half of the surveyed meetings included client fear. Clients raised at least one fear in 48% of the meetings, and 13.5% included at least three fears. The most common economic fears cited by clients were rising taxes (15.8%) and market portfolio losses (11.7%), followed by individual financial stressors like bills and the loss of a job or income.

Clients raised fears in predictable patterns, according to the report. Recession fears accompanied concerns of portfolio loss, debt-related anxiety paired with worries about bills, and job-loss fears paired with income worries. Macroeconomic events spurred concerns about the stock market, as concerns about volatility rose to nearly 25% of meetings in April 2025 from roughly 9% in November 2024.

Just as Jump’s AI platform used “Client Sentiment Index” to rate clients’ feelings from 1 (negative) to 10 (positive) at the start and end of meetings, advisers’ interpersonal skills were also measured by an “emotional intelligence” index that tracked the frequency of empathetic statements, open-ended questions and emotional check-ins with clients, as well as the percentage of time that advisers spoke. Higher emotional intelligence scores meant that advisers were spending more time during meetings building relationships with clients and working together on goals and planning, while spending less time on service tasks, compliance and investments.

“Adviser-led meetings centered on empathy and financial planning resulted in higher receptivity to adviser recommendations,” said Parker Ence, Jump’s CEO and co-founder, in a statement. “Adapting to sentiment reduces friction in decisionmaking, and gives advisers the confidence to lead conversations and help clients.”

More than one-third (35.5%) of advisers had average emotional intelligence scores, and only 10.8% reached the highest tier. Those in the most emotionally intelligent tier could lift their clients’ sentiment during a meeting, on average, to 7.65 from 6.51—a greater magnitude than clients of the least emotionally intelligent advisers (to 6.90 from 6.31).

In the Mood for Annuities

Changing client sentiment also improved the likelihood that clients would accept new product recommendations from advisers. Annuities had a 50% acceptance rate with negative-minded clients, 56.6% with neutral-minded clients and 60.8% with positive-minded clients. Many other asset classes showed similar patterns: equities; bonds and fixed income; cash and cash; equivalents and real estate had higher acceptance rates as clients’ sentiment improved.

Returning to annuities, Jump found that they were brought up in 27% of tracked meetings, and when advisers recommended annuities, only 46% of clients agreed to invest. Fixed-indexed annuities were the most-discussed type at 56% of all annuity recommendations, but they only had a 48% acceptance rate. Registered index-linked annuities, discussed only 9% of the time, had the highest acceptance rate: 57%. Fixed annuities were the second-most-recommended product (13%) with the third-highest acceptance rate (47%).

Income-focused annuities had much higher failure rates: Deferred-income annuities were accepted 36% of the time, and single premium immediate annuities had a 19% acceptance rate. The report theorized that “[d]uring 2025’s market volatility, clients wanted protection from losses, not guarantees against outliving their money.”

How advisers presented annuities to clients made a sizable difference. Sharing the annuity as a recommended solution based on professional judgment increased acceptance rates by 27%. Referencing clients’ earlier statements to encourage follow-through improved acceptance rates by 20%.

Other tactics noticeably backfired: Connecting the annuity to the client’s stated objectives reduced acceptance odds by 27%, and presenting it as “inflation protection” decreased odds by 20%. Saying other clients made similar choices reduced odds by 17%, which researchers thought might make the recommendation “feel less personalized.”

The report stated: “More advisers succeeded when they suggested concrete actions (‘this is what you should do’) rather than softer, unstructured advice (‘let’s explore how this fits your goals.’) Clients wanted expertise and direction, not collaboration.”

Based on the findings, Jump is offering advisers “customizable dashboards and exclusive tools” to “monitor clients’ behavior and identify conversation patterns linked to better engagement and outcomes.” According to the report, by noting behavioral patterns that increased success rates, firms could take proactive steps to improve their performance, rather than rely solely on advisers’ individual intuition.

“[T]he question entering 2026 is no longer, ‘How do we create more hours for advisers?’” the report stated. “It is ‘How do we optimize the hours we just gave back? This is the shift from efficiency to effectiveness.”