Edward Mahaffy of ClientFirst Wealth, Legacy & Estate Planning avoids taking up time in quarterly meetings with his own ideas and instead listens to what clients have to say.
Mahaffy said it's especially important to give prospective clients the floor so they can explain exactly what they
"They walk in for a quarterly meeting, and you've got the agenda that's just, you know, we're going
Most advisors no doubt consider their ability to listen as being among their standout qualities. But recent research suggests many aren't as good at keeping their ears open, and their mouths shut, as they might think.
Jump, a company offering AI-driven tools for advisors, recently analyzed nearly 12,000 advisor-client discussions captured by its AI notetaker from October 2024 to November 2025. Advisors spoke more than clients in a full 84% of the meetings, according to Jump's 2026 Financial Advisor Insights Report.
The results, according to experts and financial planners themselves, suggest advisors would do well to:
- Be aware of how much time they take up in meetings, even if what they say is justified
- Ask open questions that invite clients to name their worries or needs, rather than trying to direct discussions to a particular topic
- Make periodic statements expressing understanding or compassion
- Ask frequent questions to check in on clients' emotional state and gauge whether a discussion is helping or hindering it
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Why advisors often talk first, ask questions later
Advisors are often reminded that a big part of their job is to gain a full understanding of clients' financial difficulties and needs by listening. Yet, to many in the profession, the temptation to instead talk and put their expertise on display is understandable.
Mahaffy, whose firm works almost exclusively with people nearing retirement, said advisors often view themselves as problem-solvers who want to get to the heart of a financial question as quickly as possible. Sometimes the answers they provide, though, simply go over clients' heads.
"Some of them want to hear all about the charts and graphs and stats," he said. "But most people just want to get back to the golf course or go play with their grandkids and hear that they're not going to run out of money or that everything's on track."
Mike McMeans, the president of Silverling Financial in Columbus, Ohio, said he makes it a point to start every client meeting by saying he has a few items to discuss. But first, "I'd really like to hear why you think we're here today and what you want to make sure happens."
When listening to the responses, he'll allow himself a question from time to time to keep the discussion flowing.
McMeans said he tries to remember that most clients are unlike advisors and spend relatively little time thinking and talking about money and savings. So the vocabulary they need may not be ready to hand.
"People need a little bit more time usually to get their thoughts out because, nine times out of 10, these aren't conversations they have at home," he said. "So I'm sitting there with two people who, by and large, really don't talk about money."
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Should advisors set themselves a time limit?
McMeans recognizes there does come a point when advisors should step in and contribute. He tries to devise a rough plan for his meetings beforehand of what topics should be covered and in what order.
"I have moments in my mind where I think, 'OK, we need to be here by then, we need to be here by then,'" McMeans said. "At some point, I think I probably say, 'You know I think I understand what you're asking,' and then I say it back to them and I basically try to get them to say 'exactly.'"
Some advisors have used AI to conduct their own analyses of client meetings. Corinna Rose, a paraplanner at Bell Investment Advisors in Benicia, California, said she uses the AI notetaker Zocks to track her meetings with clients and tries to make sure they are talking at least 30% of the time.
"If they're doing all the listening, I may be delivering information, but I'm probably missing what's most important to them," she said.
Melissa Caro, the founder of My Retirement Network in New York, said she tells the advisors she coaches that such conversation tracking can be helpful. If nothing else, it can make advisors aware that they may be inadvertently dominating discussions.
Even so, she cautioned against adopting a hard-and-fast rule allotting a set block of time to clients every meeting. There are situations when advisors should be doing most of the talking.
"The goal isn't to hit the 'right' percentage," Caro said. "It's to understand why you're talking, why you're listening and what the client needs from you at that particular moment. Metrics can point you toward a behavior worth examining, but developing the judgment behind that behavior is what ultimately makes someone a better advisor."
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Open-ended questions versus specific financial topics
Jump's study of advisor meetings went beyond discovering who does the most talking. It also looked at how clients felt after sitting down to discuss their finances. Jump devised a Client Sentiment Index that uses a scale of 1 (the worst) to 10 (the best) to gauge clients' emotions using language analysis to detect expressions of confidence, anxiety, understanding and other states.
Clients started with an average score of 6.44, although those who came in with certain worries usually scored lower. Those who expressed anxiety about their ability to pay bills, for instance, were at 5.32.
In
Rather than bring up recent financial news, Lake suggested advisors lead with an open-ended question like, "What has changed since we last spoke?"
Lake wrote that clients generally have one of two reasons for raising a topic featured prominently in the news. Either they have a genuine interest, or they see it as somehow related to something happening in their own lives. Questions about taxes, for instance, could stem from fears about their ability to retire comfortably.
"Advisors who do most of the talking have fewer opportunities to find out which client question they are actually answering," Lake wrote.
