Emotional intelligence (EQ) is often an understudied yet critical component in developing successful financial strategies. An experienced wealth advisor with over thirty years of experience, Lisa Detanna is in the business of incorporating psychological insights into financial planning. Her distinct approach, which combines her academic background in psychology with substantial wealth management experience, provides a fresh view of how understanding the human factor may improve financial decision-making.

Emotional Intelligence: The Unseen Asset in Wealth Management

“Managing money involves much more than just figures and graphs; it involves people and their feelings, hopes, and fears, “ states Lisa Detanna, a wealth advisor of Global Wealth Solutions Group of Raymond James and DH Consulting Group of Raymond James. In wealth management, it is important to identify customers’ emotional states and understand how these feelings affect their financial choices.

A customer risk assessment could be used as a practical application. Although EQ is incorporated into traditional risk assessments, advisers like Lisa are able to better grasp the emotional variables that influence a client’s risk tolerance. Advisors can determine their customers’ actual comfort level with risk, for example, by having in-depth discussions and paying attention to their prior investing experiences. This knowledge results in more individualized investment plans that complement customers’ emotional comfort levels in addition to their financial objectives.

Family Wealth Dynamics and Investment Strategies

Understanding the dynamics of family wealth is another important area in which EQ can be used effectively. Lisa notes, “You have to create a dialogue where every family member feels valued and understood.” In her practice, she facilitates open family discussions about wealth transfer and inheritance planning. Her ability to foster an atmosphere in which family members are heard and understood helps to lessen frequent arguments and provides a more seamless transfer of wealth. Organizing family gatherings with an emphasis on financial literacy, promoting candid conversations about aspirations for wealth, and intervening when emotional conflicts emerge are some strategies.

Furthermore, EQ can be used to create strategies that connect with clients more deeply. For instance, Lisa may suggest investments in socially conscious funds or businesses that coincide with a client’s personal convictions based on her comprehension of the client’s values and emotional motivators. This strategy gives clients a sense of fulfillment and alignment with their personal values in addition to meeting financial goals.

Building Resilience and Empowering Clients

Discussing market volatility, Lisa advises, “Staying emotionally resilient is a must. You have to see beyond the immediate ups and downs and focus on the long-term vision.” By preparing them for the emotional rollercoaster of investing and helping them maintain a long-term perspective, she ensures that her clients make more measured and less emotionally-driven decisions during market highs and lows.

Empowering clients with emotional insights also improves financial decision-making. This includes giving clients tools to identify and control their emotions as well as educating them on how emotions might affect their financial decisions. Techniques like mindfulness practices, journaling financial decisions and emotions, and regular check-ins can help clients develop greater emotional awareness and control, leading to wiser financial choices.

Integrating EQ with Financial Expertise

As clients seek more personalized and empathetic approaches to managing their wealth, the role of EQ in wealth management will become more indispensable in the future. “Taking into account emotional intelligence brings a more human aspect to finance. It is an acknowledgment that behind every investment, there’s a person, a family, a dream,” Lisa emphasized.

Lisa Detanna, Forbes’ 2023 America’s Top Women Wealth Advisor, #35 in 2023 Barron’s Top 1,200 Financial Advisors, and #12 in the 2023 Top Women Financial Advisors, will continue to lead the way in advising family offices, multigenerational families, and high-net-worth individuals. Her constant goal is to see financial advisors improve not just in their expertise in the market but also in their ability to relate to their clients’ emotional needs and goals.

About Raymond James

Raymond James Financial, Inc. (our parent company), (NYSE: RJF) is a leading diversified financial services company providing private client group, capital markets, asset management, banking and other services to individuals, corporations and municipalities. The company has approximately 8,700 financial advisors. Total client assets are $1.22 trillion as of March 31, 2023. Public since 1983, the firm is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RJF. Additional information is here.

Barron’s “Top 1,200 Financial Advisors,” March 2023. Barron’s is a registered trademark of Dow Jones & Company, L.P. All rights reserved. The rankings are based on data provided by 5,630 individual advisors and their firms and include qualitative and quantitative criteria. Time period upon which the rating is based is from 09/30/2021 to 09/30/2022, and was released on 03/15/2023. Factors included in the rankings: assets under management, revenue produced for the firm, regulatory record, quality of practice and philanthropic work. Investment performance is not an explicit component because not all advisors have audited results and because performance figures often are influenced more by clients’ risk tolerance than by an advisor’s investment picking abilities. The ranking may not be representative of any one client’s experience, is not an endorsement, and is not indicative of advisor’s future performance. Neither Raymond James nor any of its Financial Advisors pay a fee in exchange for this award/rating. Barron’s is not affiliated with Raymond James.

Barron’s Top 100 Women Financial Advisors (2023). Barron’s is a registered trademark of Dow Jones & Company, L.P. All rights reserved. The rankings are based on data provided by individual advisors and their firms and include qualitative and quantitative criteria. There were a total of 1,028 applicants and data points that relate to quality of practice included professionals with a minimum of 7 years financial services experience, acceptable compliance records (no criminal U4 issues), client retention reports, charitable and philanthropic work, quality of practice, designations held, offering services beyond investments offered including estates and trusts, and more. Financial Advisors are quantitatively rated based on varying types of revenues produced and assets under management by the financial professional, with weightings associated for each. Investment performance is not an explicit component because not all advisors have audited results and because performance figures often are influenced more by clients’ risk tolerance than by an advisor’s investment picking abilities. This ranking is based upon the period from 03/01/2022 to 03/31/2023 and was released on 06/16/2023. The ranking may not be representative of any one client’s experience, is not an endorsement, and is not indicative of an advisor’s future performance. Neither Raymond James nor any of its Financial Advisors pay a fee in exchange for this award/rating. Barron’s is not affiliated with Raymond James.

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The Forbes ranking of America’s Top 1,000 Women Wealth Advisors, developed by SHOOK Research, is based on an algorithm of qualitative and quantitative data, rating thousands of wealth advisors with a minimum of 7 years of experience and weighing factors like revenue trends, AUM, compliance records, industry experience and best practices learned through telephone and in-person interviews. Portfolio performance is not a criteria due to varying client objectives and lack of audited data. Research Summary (as of February 2021): 32,810 nominations were received based on thresholds (9,785 women) and 1,000 won. This ranking is based upon the period from 9/30/19 to 9/30/20 and was released on 2/11/21. This ranking is not indicative of advisor’s future performance, is not an endorsement, and may not be representative of individual clients’ experience. Neither Forbes nor SHOOK receive a fee in exchange for rankings. Raymond James is not affiliated with Forbes or Shook Research, LLC. Please visit Forbes for more information.