Why empathy, self-awareness and adaptability are becoming measurable commercial advantages for RIAs
By Alex Sullivan
At the PIMFA Women’s Symposium in London, Annabel Bosman of RBC Wealth Management Europe offered a timely reminder that technical competence may establish an advisor’s credibility, but human skills determine whether clients listen, trust and ultimately act.
One of the most thought-provoking slides I saw at the PIMFA Women’s Symposium contained no market forecasts, performance figures or technology predictions.
Instead, it presented a collection of words.
Fairness. Trust. Growth. Safety. Dignity. Autonomy. Integrity. Belonging. Curiosity. Candor. Compassion. Credibility.
And then, almost casually, it asked: What else?
The slide formed part of a presentation on soft skills in wealth management by Annabel Bosman of RBC Wealth Management Europe. Yet the longer I looked at it, the less “soft” any of those words appeared.
They are, in reality, the foundations on which successful advice relationships are built.
Wealth management firms devote enormous attention to investment performance, financial planning systems, compliance, technology and operational efficiency. Understandably so. Clients expect technical competence, and regulators demand it.
But clients do not experience a wealth management firm as a collection of processes.
They experience it through people.
They remember whether their advisor listened. Whether difficult issues were handled sensitively. Whether they felt judged, rushed or genuinely understood. They notice whether the advisor can explain complexity without making them feel uninformed and whether the person sitting opposite them understands what their money is actually for.
That was the central lesson I took from Bosman’s presentation: technical capability may earn an advisor a seat at the table, but human capability determines what happens once they are there.
Understanding how we naturally show up
Bosman also introduced two Mindflick frameworks designed to help people understand their natural mindset and behavioral preferences.
The mindset framework grouped preferences around four broad tendencies: contained, optimistic, prudent and engaged. The behavioral framework used forceful, logical, expressive and empathic. Around each sat a much wider spectrum of characteristics, ranging from measured, controlled and prepared to dynamic, persuasive, reflective, patient and considerate.
The value of a model like this is not in placing people permanently into boxes. It is in giving them a language through which to understand themselves.
An advisor with a strongly logical preference may be excellent at analyzing information and constructing recommendations, but could overwhelm a client with unnecessary detail.
An expressive advisor may create energy and quickly establish rapport, but may need to ensure enthusiasm does not crowd out listening.
Someone with an empathic preference may be particularly sensitive to what a client is feeling, but could occasionally avoid the direct challenge that the client needs.
A naturally forceful leader may bring clarity and momentum to a business, while also needing to recognize when decisiveness is preventing other voices from being heard.
None of these preferences is inherently better than another. The real capability lies in knowing your natural position and being able to adapt it to the person and situation in front of you.
That is particularly important in financial advice because the client is rarely dealing solely with a financial question.
A retirement conversation may also be a conversation about identity.
An estate-planning discussion may uncover difficult family relationships.
The sale of a business may bring excitement, fear and the loss of a role that has defined someone for decades.
An inheritance can involve grief, guilt and responsibility alongside opportunity.
The numbers matter, but they are only part of what is happening in the room.
Directly relevant to US RIAs
Although the session took place in London, its relevance to the US RIA community could hardly be clearer.
Many RIAs now have access to broadly similar investment products, planning software and technology platforms. Artificial intelligence will accelerate that convergence by making analysis, research and administrative capability more readily available across firms of every size.
Technical capability will remain essential, but it may become less effective as a source of differentiation.
The ability to build trust, communicate clearly and understand a client at a deeper level will therefore become more valuable, not less.
This affects practically every part of an RIA business.
It influences whether prospects become clients, whether clients follow advice during periods of volatility and whether families introduce the advisor to the next generation.
It shapes recruitment, retention and the development of future leaders.
It also matters enormously during mergers and acquisitions. Two businesses may appear compatible financially and operationally, but a transaction can still fail when leadership styles, communication habits and organizational values are poorly aligned.
Soft skills are not an attractive cultural extra. They have direct consequences for retention, referrals, productivity, succession and enterprise value.
Values are not simply words on a wall
The values presented during the session also raise an important question for advisory businesses.
Most firms can produce a list of admirable words. Integrity, excellence, independence and client focus appear on countless corporate websites.
The harder question is what those values mean when they come into conflict.
What happens when growth challenges stability?
When candor feels inconsistent with kindness?
When an individual’s desire for autonomy conflicts with the needs of the wider team?
When commercial urgency begins to compete with patience and understanding?
Values become meaningful only when they influence behavior and decisions. Otherwise, they are branding.
The same principle applies to clients.
Advisors regularly ask clients about their goals, risk tolerance, time horizon and income requirements. But understanding someone’s values may reveal far more about how they will respond to a recommendation.
One client may value security above almost everything else. Another may place greater importance on independence, adventure or generosity. A mathematically appropriate solution can still feel completely wrong if it conflicts with the client’s deeper motivations.
Good discovery therefore involves more than gathering information. It requires curiosity.
It involves noticing the hesitation behind an answer, understanding the family dynamic that is not written on the fact-find and sometimes allowing silence to do more work than the next question.
Why this matters within Women in Finance
There was an additional significance to hearing this discussion at a women-focused industry symposium.
It struck me that many of the qualities routinely described as soft skills — listening, empathy, mentoring, inclusion and emotional awareness — are frequently praised within organizations but not always measured or rewarded with the same seriousness as production, acquisition or revenue generation.
This is not an argument that women possess those capabilities naturally, nor that men do not. That would simply replace one unhelpful assumption with another.
The point is that these skills should not be gendered at all.
Empathy is a leadership capability. Listening is a commercial capability. Self-awareness is a management capability. The ability to create belonging can determine whether talented people remain within a business long enough to progress.
If wealth management genuinely wants to create a stronger and more diverse leadership pipeline, it needs a broader understanding of what high performance looks like.
The person who brings in the largest account is easy to recognize. The person who develops colleagues, retains clients during difficult periods, improves the quality of team decisions and creates an environment in which others perform better may be equally valuable, even when their contribution is less immediately visible.
Organizations tend to get more of what they choose to measure.
The challenge for leadership
For RIA leaders, the practical challenge is to make human capability part of professional development rather than leaving it to personality or chance.
Technical training is normally structured. There are qualifications, assessments and continuing education requirements.
The development of communication, self-awareness and leadership is often far less deliberate.
Yet an advisor can improve these skills in the same way they improve any other capability: through feedback, observation, coaching, practice and reflection.
Client meetings can be reviewed not only for technical accuracy but for the balance between speaking and listening. Leaders can examine how they behave under pressure and whether their natural style changes the contribution of those around them. Teams can discuss how different preferences complement one another rather than allowing difference to become friction.
Crucially, people need to feel safe enough to receive that feedback.
Self-awareness is difficult to develop inside a culture where every weakness must be concealed.
The harder edge of advice
As wealth management becomes more technologically advanced, it will be tempting to assume that the human element is becoming less important.
I believe the opposite is true.
Technology can organize data, model scenarios and generate possible answers. It cannot fully understand why a technically correct answer feels wrong to a particular family. It cannot take responsibility for a difficult conversation or create the trust required for someone to make a life-changing decision.
The best firms will combine outstanding technology and technical expertise with a far more developed understanding of human behavior.
Perhaps it is time to stop calling these capabilities soft skills.
There is nothing soft about earning trust, leading people, navigating conflict or helping a client make a good decision at one of the most emotionally difficult moments of their life.
These are human skills.
And increasingly, they are the hard edge of great advice.
Editorial attribution: This article forms part of Modern American Advisor’s coverage of the 2026 PIMFA Women’s Symposium. It was inspired by the “Soft Skills in Wealth Management” presentation delivered by Annabel Bosman of RBC Wealth Management Europe on May 19, 2026. The Mindflick models and values material referenced are credited to the original presentation and their respective creators.
