Beyond Behavioural Bias: A Structured Taxonomy of Client Emotional Expression in Financial Planning

Abstract Behavioural finance has traditionally conceptualised investor behaviour through the lens of cognitive bias and decision error. While valuable, this perspective underexamines the structured and relational role of emotion within professional financial advice. This study moves beyond behavioural bias by developing a process-based taxonomy of client emotional expression grounded in longitudinal field evidence. Drawing on 1,236 recorded client interactions collected over a four-year period within a defined Australian financial planning practice, the research systematically classifies emotional expressions across four stages of the advice process: Discovery, Strategy Development, Implementation, and Review. Using a structured qualitative coding framework with inter-rater reliability safeguards and blinded assessment procedures, the study identifies recurring primary, secondary, and interactive emotional categories and maps their distribution across the advice lifecycle. Findings demonstrate that client emotions are not random or episodic; rather, they cluster predictably according to process stage and often follow identifiable transition pathways (e.g., anxiety to trust, confusion to relief). The analysis further reveals the presence of relational emotions - such as conditional trust, reassurance, and identity affirmation - that are co-constructed within adviser-client interaction and are not adequately captured in traditional behavioural finance models. By developing a structured taxonomy of emotional expression specific to financial planning, this research advances the vocabulary and classification of emotion in applied financial contexts. The resulting framework provides a replicable foundation for future empirical testing, informs emotional intelligence training for advisers, and offers a basis for process-sensitive engagement strategies that strengthen trust formation, decision quality, and long-term adherence to financial plans. In doing so, the study positions financial advice not merely as a technical decision-making exercise, but as a staged emotional regulation process integral to durable client outcomes.