Abstract The present study develops a unified distortional lateral torsional buckling finite element formulation for the elastic analysis of beam-columns with wide flange doubly symmetric cross-sections. The solution captures several non-conventional features including the softening effect due to web distortion, the stiffening effect induced by pre-buckling deformations, the pre-buckling nonlinear interaction between strong-axis moments and axial forces, the contribution of pre-buckling shear deformation effects, the destabilizing effects due to loads being offset from the shear centre, and the presence of transverse stiffeners on web distortion. In the present theory, it is possible to evoke/suppress any combination of features and thus isolate the individual contribution of each effect or quantify the combined contributions of multiple effects. The effects of beam span-to-depth, flange width-to-thickness, web height-to-thickness, and flange width-to-web height ratios on the critical moments are investigated. Comparisons with conventional lateral torsional buckling solutions that omit distortional and pre-buckling effects quantify the influence of distortional and/or pre-buckling deformation effects. The theory is also used to investigate the influence of P-delta effects of beam-columns subjected to transverse and axial forces on their lateral torsional buckling. The solution is adopted to quantify the beneficial effects of transverse stiffeners in controlling/suppressing web distortion in beams.