Oil just doubled. The VIX is up 80%. Bitcoin is down 22% while gold is up 22%. But none of that is what's keeping clients up at night.

In this episode, Eric and Liam dig into Jump's client sentiment data and uncover a surprising finding: clients are bringing up AI disruption in advisor meetings more than the Middle East conflict, more than oil prices, and more than market volatility. And the kicker? Advisors are actually less effective at calming AI fears than war fears.

In this episode we cover:

• Year-to-date market performance across major indices, crypto, gold, and the VIX
• Why oil went from $58 to $91 a barrel in a matter of days
• The collapse of SaaS stocks and what it signals about AI's disruption of software
• Client sentiment data: how AI fear and geopolitical fear compare
• Why advisors leave more sentiment on the table when AI comes up
• How to reframe fear-based conversations into planning opportunities
• The Roth conversion play that works best in down markets

Client sentiment has dropped below levels seen at any point in the previous 12 months, and half of all advisor-client meetings in the first week of February started with a stated fear of market volatility. In this episode of The Financial Insights Show, Dr. Eric Ludwig and Liam Hanlon of Jump.ai dig into real-time conversational data from thousands of financial advisor-client meetings to uncover what clients are actually feeling, saying, and fearing right now.

Eric and Liam cover:

Why Bitcoin's 50% drawdown behaves more like a tech stock than digital gold, and what that means for how advisors should position it in client portfolios.

How often clients are actually talking about crypto, gold, and silver (the answer is far lower than you think) and who is bringing these topics up.

New data showing that when advisors proactively raise volatile macro topics like tariffs, AI, and market losses, client sentiment drops compared to when clients raise those same topics themselves.

The Client Sentiment Index, a proprietary 1-to-10 scale measuring how clients feel at the start and end of meetings, and why February 2026 readings have fallen into territory not seen in the prior 12 months.

Why the fear of recession is lagging the fear of market volatility right now, and what history suggests happens next when those two indicators converge.

The one strategy that the highest-performing advisors use during periods of low client sentiment: spending nearly 40% of meetings on goals and planning before making any investment recommendations.

A surprising finding on housing market conversations: when clients tell their advisors they plan to list their homes, housing inventory spikes one month later with an R-squared of 0.66, a remarkably strong single-variable predictor.

Whether you manage a solo practice or lead a team, this episode gives you data-driven strategies you can apply to your next client meeting.

The Financial Insights Show is hosted by Eric Ludwig, PhD, CFP, RICP, Associate Professor of Retirement Income at The American College of Financial Services and CEO of Stockbridge Private Wealth Management, and Liam Hanlon, Head of Insights at Jump.ai. New episodes weekly.

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