Five-Week Writing Teleclass for Financial Advisors: "How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read"

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Blogging has become a “must” for many independent and fee-only financial advisors. It’s a great way to connect with current and potential clients. Blogging also helps drive traffic to your website and cement your reputation as a leader in your field. But many advisors struggle to crank out a steady flow of compelling blog posts. That’s why you need to enroll in “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read,” my NEW five-week teleclass for financial advisors.

You will learn how to
o  Generate and refine ideas for blog posts that will engage your readers
o  Organize your thoughts before you write, so you can write more quickly and effectively
o  Edit your writing, so it’s reader-friendly and appealing

The inaugural class will be offered exclusively to my newsletter subscribers and to clients. Participants in the initial class will receive a 50% discount in return for participating fully and providing detailed feedback.

When you participate fully in this class, you’ll end up with one polished blog post–and a process you can follow to generate many more.

How you’ll get there
o Small class–limited to 12 advisors–so you can participate, not just listen passively. Research shows that people learn best when they act on new information.
o Classes will meet on five successive Thursdays–Feb. 25, March 4, March 11, March 18 and March 25– on a teleconference call from 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Eastern Time
o Convenience because you can dial into the weekly phone calls from anywhere–and classes are recorded, in case you can’t attend “live”
o Guidance through a step-by-step process of writing blog posts, including
o  Generating blog post topics
o  Organizing your thoughts before you write
o  Positioning your blog post to appeal to readers
o  Editing your posts to boost their reader-friendliness      
o  “Hands on” practice through completing your weekly homework assignments
o  Resources for the future because you can download
o  Class recordings
o  Class handouts
o  E-booklet
o Feedback from a seasoned financial writer-editor whose clients range from the country’s largest asset managers to solo professionals to trade and retail publications

Register Now!

TESTIMONIALS
What advisors say about other workshops by Susan Weiner, CFA
o “I found this presentation very helpful because it focused on key elements to being an influential but understandable advisor.”
o  “Susan’s presentation brought to life the benefits of better writing.”
o  “Great tips for jump starting my client communications”
o  “Susan’s presentation made me want to go back to my office and juice up my emails and letters.”
 
DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS?
Contact Susan at learn@investmentwriting.com or 617-969-4509.

Register Now!

Poll about overweight, but not the stuff of New Year’s resolutions

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I grapple with “overweight” at the end of every year and every quarter. 

It’s the kind of overweight measured in percentage points, not pounds. That’s because I’m writing performance reports for institutional mutual funds that may overweight or underweight sectors relative to the funds’ benchmarks.

I haven’t found any guidelines about how to write about these statistics, so I’d like to find out which wording you prefer for talking about a fund that has above-benchmark holdings in a sector.

  1. Our overweight in
  2. Our overweight position in
  3. Our overweight to
  4. Our overweighting in
  5. Our overweighting to

Please answer the poll that will appear in the right-hand column of this blog until some time in February. I’ll report the results in my March newsletter.

If you can give a compelling reason why you favor specific wording, I’d also like to hear about that.

RIAs with DC assets are in demand by fund companies

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Registered investment advisors (RIAs), if you control significant defined contribution (DC) assets, then mutual fund companies are hungry for your business and will do whatever they can to accommodate you. That’s the message I took away from “The 2010 Distribution Landscape,” at panel at the NICSA East Coast Conference on Jan. 14. The panel, which was moderated by Matthew Bienfang of TowerGroup, included Catherine Saunders of Putnam Investments, Daniel Steele of BNY Mellon Asset Management/Dreyfus Investments, and Bill Taylor of Pioneer Investments.

DC plan assets offer mutual funds very attractive profit margins and RIAs are a significant source of growth in this arena, according to Bienfang. For example, defined contribution investment-only margins average 25% vs. about 17% for retail and 15% for SMA (separately managed account) assets. 

Bienfang stressed that fund firms need to sell to RIAs as if they were institutions rather than individual investors. Fund firms must also ask RIAs how they can help them grow and manage their businesses. Then Bienfang asked his panelists to talk about how they’re targeting RIAs with DC assets.

BNY Mellon: Game changer is coming 
Once IRS Form 5500 requires the disclosure of advisor compensation for retirement plans, “This will be a game changer,” said BNY Mellon’s Steele. Advisors won’t be able to pick up business simply “by golfing with the CEO’s brother,” he said. Instead, the business will shift to specialists. As a result, his firm is seeking wholesalers with a technical background investment management and retirement. “Ideally you want both, but those people are rare,” he said.

Steele also mentioned that his firm is using collective trusts, which are an institutional, less expensive way to offer the same investment strategies available in the form of mutual funds. Collective trusts are even less expensive than ETFs. Of course, as I recall, they also lack some of the transparency of mutual funds. For example, their net asset values aren’t published by newspapers. 

Pioneer Investments: Open architecture is key 
Bill Taylor said the spread of open architecture in DC plans is helping fund firms such as Pioneer. He is adding portfolio consultants who can interact with gatekeepers about portfolio dynamics and how the firm’s funds fit in portfolios. 

Taylor also stressed follow-up. He said that many RIAs have complained about salespeople who’ll take them to dinner, but won’t send the materials they promise. It’s a cultural challenge for salespeople that customer relationship management systems alone aren’t enough to solve. 

Putnam Investments: Give RIAs what they want 
Cathy Saunders said she has learned that it’s important to call on RIAs the way they want to be called on. Communication via webinar and phone call can be just as effective as face-to-face, if that’s what RIAs want.

Saunders has found that many RIAs want to dig deep into the firm’s thought leadership and market outlook. They have a strong appetite to bridge the knowledge gap, she said. In addition, advisors from wirehouses are looking for business management tools and they want companies to support the tools they’re accustomed to using. 

Implications for fund firms

  • Fund fees will fall because of increased competition, as Taylor noted.
  • It’s important to segment RIAs. About 15% of RIA firms control 80% of the assets and 30% of the RIA channel is in the Northeast Corridor of the U.S., from Washington, D.C. on up, said Saunders.
  • Target date funds (TDF), the most popular DC plan option, remain a barrier to entry for fund firms because 92% of TDFs are proprietary funds of recordkeepers. However, Taylor believes the open architecture will chip away at the dominance of proprietary TDFs. Steele said that in 2010 non-proprietary funds will finally surpass proprietary funds in DC plans.
  • Providing incentives to sales people is difficult because of DC plans’ omnibus accounting, as Taylor and Steele noted. However, the situation is improves once a firm becomes a “premier provider,” Taylor said. He also noted that it’s important to get retail and retirement wholesalers to cooperate. Sometimes retail wholesalers want the retirement wholesalers to help the retail wholesalers’ RIAs to sell to DC plans when the retirement wholesalers are aware of other RIAs who are much better suited to DC sales.

Implications for advisors

  • You’ll find more actively managed funds available for lower fees.
  • Fund firms will take a more consultative approach to their interactions with you. Saunders said she has learned that it’s important to understand RIAs’ business models before deploying resources.

Related posts
* If you’re marketing to RIAs

Guest Post: My Six Best Marketing Tips for Independent Advisors

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When Steve Lyons spoke with me about his tips for helping financial advisors market themselves, I knew that I’d like to share them with you. When I first met Steve, he was a copywriter for Fidelity Investments. Today he enjoys working with clients of all sizes, including individual advisors.

My Six Best Marketing Tips for  Independent Advisors
by Steve Lyons


As a professional marketer and copywriter specializing in advisor communications for print and the Web, I know firsthand the challenges independent advisors face in marketing their business to investors. Whether  you’re a veteran or just beginning your practice as an independent financial advisor, these marketing tips can help you stay on track to achieve your goals.

1.    You’re not just a business, you’re a brand. True, your business relies on you – as a financial advisor and person. But take the initiative to create and build your business as something that is bigger than you are – a brand with goals and values. Work with a reputable marketing consultant or firm to help you understand and tell the world how unique you are. And more, take your brand development and marketing as seriously as the big firms. They’re spending and working overtime to make sure that investors do not notice you.

2.    Quit talking about yourself. Successful marketing begins with telling your audience the BENEFITS of working with you – not the details of your personal or professional life. It may be interesting that you have a master’s degree in finance, but it’s much more powerful to talk about how your degree creates opportunity for your clients.  Use your one-to-one sale time to be more specific about why you as an Independent Advisor and person and why you are the advisor for them (and they’re the client for you).

3.    Remember, you’re not selling only financial advice. You’re selling a lifestyle. What sets the larger and more successful firms apart from less successful independent advisory firms? They understand that money management is only the means to an end. The real goal is to help clients achieve their goals and dreams, whether it’s living in luxury, providing charitable contributions and/or leaving a legacy for family and friends.  Use imagery in your marketing that helps them see their financial future as they want it to be–fun, exciting, adventuresome and secure.

4.    Understand what makes you different.  It’s important to know what makes you different from the advisor down the street.  Is it your investment philosophy? Your investment strategy? Do you offer a fee-discount for multi-generation wealth management?  Do you accept only select clients by referral only? Whatever it is, and the list can be extensive, know why you are different from your competition.

5.    Create a marketing plan. And implement it. If there was ever a time for independent advisors to make a difference, the time is now. There is more cash on the sidelines than any time in modern history. How do you obtain some of the stockpile? By creating a marketing plan that includes long term and short-term goals. Regardless of your budget, there are opportunities for you to get your name out there.

6.    Think out of the box. Your clients are everywhere. You have to find them and they have to find you. Sponsor community programs, leagues and events. Create a billboard. Write guest columns for local publications. Create a blog. Use social networking on the Web. Make calls. Make more calls. If this feels overwhelming, hire a reputable consultant or firm to help you think out of the box and execute marketing programs that builds and supports your brand. 

Steve Lyons’s experience includes marketing, copywriting and content development for both Fortune 500 and small businesses, with clients including numerous independent advisors and wealth managers throughout the country. He is a principal in LD Marketing Communications Consultancy and SoWa Ad Group, a collaborative offering the full branding experience, including public relations, for businesses of all sizes.

Can you make a case for "mitigate"?

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Good writing uses strong verbs. Strong verbs are usually short. Thus, I strongly dislike the word “mitigate.” In fact, I can’t think of any time that I’d use mitigate instead of a synonym.

Some of my favorite synonyms for “mitigate” in the context of an investment or wealth management article include 

  • Cut
  • Ease
  • Manage
  • Reduce

Can you think of a case where it would be essential to use “mitigate” instead of a synonym? I’d like to know.

 

Note: updated 11/18/24

Financial writers clinic: Rhythm can help you

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I got rhythm, I got music…Who could ask for anything more?                                         

Rhythm isn’t only useful for Gene Kelly tap dancing to “I Got Rhythm” in An American in Paris. It also can also energize your writing about investment or wealth management.

Writers in our industry are prone to writing long, long sentences. One way to improve your rhythm is to insert some short sentences amid the long ones. Or even to start your article with some.

Here’s an example that caught my eye.

Reduce the growth of health care costs. Bend the curve. Find the game changers. Reform the delivery system.

Yawn.

 

This is how David Leonhardt of The New York Times started his “Falling Far Short of Reform,” a column about health care reform.

The sentences in Leonhardt’s introductory paragraph run four to seven words in length. If the sentence length of his entire article averaged five words, you’d get bored. The repetitive rhythm would start to work against him. In small doses–or interspersed among longer sentences–they are easy for readers to absorb. 

I also like the humor of “Yawn.” It makes it easy for the casual reader to relate to the article.

You might apply Leonhardt’s construction to something you write. Let’s say you want to tear down some of the classic assumptions about portfolio management. You could start as follows:

Asset allocation. Diversification. Buy-and-hold.

Yawn.

Your advisor has been telling you this story forever. But now that you’ve been through the stock market meltdown of 2008-2009, it’s time to take a fresh look at how to manage your portfolio.

I tweaked Leonhardt’s technique slightly by using sentence fragments. That’s okay in moderation. Please try this technique and tell me what you think about it.

Related posts
*  Grab readers with an anecdotal lead
*  Financial writer’s clinic: Great title, lousy intro 
*  Vary your paragraph length like NYT writer Floyd Norris

Do you go crazy over misspellings?

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Then you’ll probably enjoy “Ten Words You Should Stop Misspelling” from TheOatmeal.com. I couldn’t stop laughing.

I discovered this through Twitter. This isn’t a business reason to participate in Twitter but a little laughter helps every now and then.

Poll: Which topic should you discuss in your client email’s first paragraph?

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When you email your clients, they expect you to
* Be polite
* Be clear
* Provide any necessary background information

So when you email a request for action to a client, what should you discuss in the first paragraph?
1. Social niceties, such as “It was nice to see you last week…”
2. Your request, such as “Please sign and fax the attachment…”
3. Background to your request, such as “Remember we talked about adjusting your asset allocation…”

Please answer the poll in the right-hand column of my InvestmentWriting blog. I’ll report the results–and share my bias with you–in next month’s newsletter. The NAPFA MA members who attended my email writing workshop know my leanings, but I wonder if I’ve convinced them to change their habits.

I’ll report on the poll results in my February e-newsletter.

Related posts:

I LOVE this fixed income presentation!

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“Bonds should be boring.” That’s what one head of fixed income of fixed income used to tell me. But that doesn’t mean that fixed income presentations should be boring.

Northern Trust has published the most enjoyable fixed income presentation I’ve ever seen. It’s called “Fixed Income: Almost A Bedtime Story.”

Fixed Income: Almost A Bedtime Story

What’s so great about this post?
— Simple message, plain language
— Uncluttered pages
— Sense of humor — Oh my goodness! Northern Trust wrote an amusing disclosure on slide #23. “Psst: Fixed income may also be volatile in the future.”

These are characteristics that you can strive for in your presentations, though humor is a bit tricky. I think you need lots of experience grappling with compliance to find the laughs in slide #23’s disclosure. 

I would like to shake the hands of the team that created this presentation. It’s amazingly good. If it spawns imitators, that’ll be a great development for the folks who currently snooze through deadly presentations.

Guest post by Roger Wohlner, a top advisor on Twitter

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Because some of my blog and newsletter readers still wonder why an investment or wealth manager would bother with Twitter, I jumped on the opportunity to feature “Financial Advisors and Twitter,”  a guest post by financial advisor Roger Wohlner who works in Arlington Heights, a Chicago suburb, about what he has gained from Twitter. 

The Top 10 Twitter Feeds for Career-Minded Advisers recently named guest blogger Roger Wohlner one of the top 10 people whom career-minded financial advisors should follow on Twitter.  I knew that already. I’ve been tracking Roger for awhile. I’ve even had the pleasure of speaking with him on the phone.

By the way, one Twitter advantage that Roger does not mention. His Twitter feed ranks high in a Google search for “Roger Wohlner.”




Financial Advisors and Twitter
By Roger Wohlner, CFP


Recently an article entitled The Top 10 Twitter Feeds for Career-Minded Advisers was published in the FINS section of the online Wall Street Journal. The article listed the top 10 Twitter feeds for financial advisors to follow. I was fortunate enough to be included in this list. I heartily recommend that anyone even remotely interested in personal finance follow the other nine folks listed.

Beyond the good natured ribbing that I am taking from some of my fellow advisors on Twitter about my new “celebrity” status, this article has made me stop and think about why financial advisors in general and me in particular are on Twitter.

I suppose the initial thought was that I would get on Twitter and clients would flock to me. That hasn’t happened and I think most other advisors on Twitter have had the same experience. However I think Twitter is a very worthwhile tool for several reasons:

I have met (in person and online) a number of fellow financial advisors from whose Tweets (posts for you non-Twitter users) I learn something new every day. Whether from their blogs or article links Twitter is a great source of information. Additionally I feel that I have greatly expanded my network of experts to whom I can turn with questions in areas where I may not have the direct expertise.

I do think Twitter is an excellent PR tool and I feel that my name is out there a much more than it was when I first signed onto Twitter this past April.

Twitter allows you to follow and participate in the “conversation” about any number of topics. I am particularly interested in the Fiduciary movement; 401(k) plans, investing, and financial planning. Twitter is filled with information about thousands of topics and companies, plus politics, entertainment, culture, and sports to name a few.

As a financial advisor I am always careful not to recommend specific investment vehicles or courses of action. Twitter to me is just not a medium to provide specific advice. Financial advice is best given in a one-on-one situation, each client and their situation is different.

Lastly let me share some of the folks that I follow in addition to those listed in the article above. Some are fellow financial types, some not. This is a Twitter idea inspired by Gini Dietrich ginidietrich a Twitter superstar and a bright young Chicago CEO. If you follow Gini you will move up the social media learning curve very quickly. Below is a great “Follow Friday” list:


My “Core Favorites” List

davegalanis Dave is one of the sharpest financial and business consultants I know. Dave is the one who turned me on to Twitter in the first place. We were cubicle neighbors back in the day at our first jobs out of school. Dave is a connoisseur of most foods served on a bun.
gtiadvisors Greg is into due diligence, corporate security, espionage, and also maintains a cooking recipe blog. When my daughter was traveling to Russia he indicated that he had contacts that could be of help if she found herself in a bad situation, Greg is a great guy to know.
IKE_DEVJI Ike is an attorney and advisor focusing on asset protection. Really knows his stuff.
venturepopulist Jeff is a private equity and hedge fund guy with some interesting opinions on investing.
dgvelaw Danielle is the mother of three, a really sharp estate planning attorney, plus she is a Packer fan by marriage.


Other folks I suggest following listed by Twitter name


Brightscope
CurtisASmithCFP
feeonlyplanner
TeriTornroos
williger
RussellDunkin
susanweiner
KristenLuke
TheMoneyGeek
mlimbacher
smart401k
Vantage401k
BeManaged
onlymoney
RockTheBoatMktg
FiduciaryNews
nevinesq
obliviousinvest
JonChevreau
wisebread
EvolutionWealth
GregPorto
DianeKennedyCPA
FernAlixLaRocca


If you are new to Twitter or have been on for awhile, this list plus the folks listed in the article are a great group to follow.

There are many other people and organizations that I enjoy following on Twitter as well. One tip that helped me early on was to look at the followers and those followed by the people I was following. I still do this to this day. The new Twitter list function is another way to do this as well.

Check out Twitter and join the conversation. You’ll meet some interesting people and you might learn something in the process.