Every advisor-client relationship is unique. But there's one thing they all share in common: At some point, the advisor must give written instructions to the client. That takes writing skills.
XFrom informal emails to formal memos, advisors produce reams of written content. And they may never know to what extent clients easily comprehend these messages.
Advisors may assume that they're making themselves abundantly clear. But there's no guarantee that the recipient will feel the same way.
As literary critic Elizabeth Hardwick wrote in 1963: "Making a living is nothing; the great difficulty is making a point, making a difference — with words."
Crafting your sentences so that they're easy to understand reduces the odds of confusion or misunderstanding.
"You have to start by asking yourself, 'What does the client want to know?' " said Steve Branton, a certified financial planner at San Francisco-based Wealthspire Advisors. "It helps if you know your client and how much data and detail they want."
If Branton knows a client tends to ignore long emails, for instance, he will write shorter, punchier messages. Or he might schedule a meeting to discuss an important action item.
Because most people have short attention spans, he avoids adding extraneous information to illustrate a point. He says he doesn't want clients to adopt a TLDR (too long; didn't read) attitude.
"I've learned with my writing to pause and practice empathy," he said. "When you start in this business, you just want to give data. But that can overwhelm clients. So step back and think about how they receive information" and adjust your writing accordingly.
Writing Skills: Develop Templates To Save Time
Once you get to know someone, you can tailor your writing skills to suit that client. But that's harder to do when you're working with newcomers.
When onboarding new clients, your writing skills are put to the test. It's tough to predict someone's level of reading comprehension or preferences for digesting information.
"In the onboarding process, it's important to be very direct so that there isn't any guesswork and the client doesn't have to interpret anything," said Jeremy Bohne, an advisor at Boston-based Paceline Wealth Management.
To guide new clients to open accounts or transfer assets, Bohne sends written instructions based on templates that he has refined over time. He writes drafts and gathers feedback to ensure that his writing is clear and clients will quickly implement the steps he has outlined.
"With this process in place, I can reuse templates over and over that I've tested out and made better," Bohne said. He also notes that if recipients have questions or seek clarification about his written instructions or recommendations.
Part of the challenge for some advisors is that they weren't schooled to write crisp, succinct memos. Worse yet, their education may have hindered their ability to write clearly.
Given her background as a lawyer, Nicole Gopoian Wirick learned about legal writing in law school. She's now a certified financial planner at Prosperity Wealth Strategies in Birmingham, Mich.
"Because of my training (in legal writing), I had to fight all those things and do everything completely differently as an advisor," she said. "I had to go from using more technical terms and legal words to writing more clearly."
Start With The End Result
Specifically, she strives to write shorter sentences free from financial jargon. She also likes to use bullet points rather than dense thickets of text.
"Each bullet is no more than one sentence," she said. "That works well for instructions or anything that involves multiple steps."
When writing emails, it helps to number your points or questions. Respondents may follow your lead and number their replies to correspond to each of the items on your list.
Layout also plays a role in simplifying your message. When designing letters, to-do reminders or other printed material, avoid overloading the page with text.
"Leave lots of white space so that it's easy on the eyes," Wirick said.
Like many advisors, she often writes a draft of a client correspondence and revisits it later that day — or the next morning. Bringing a fresh set of eyes to the task allows her to prune away fluff.
"I try to eliminate unnecessary words," she said. "As long as it's not time-sensitive, I will proofread it myself" or enlist a colleague to provide input and identify any confusing phrases.
As she prepares to write, Wirick reminds herself of the desired end result. This sets the context and enables her to stay on track and make every word count.
"Every communication is an opportunity to create a raving fan — to enhance client experience and solve a problem," she said. "So if you send crummy memos, that's a missed opportunity."
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2022-12-16 12:00:00Z
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