"The Surprising Winners in the Financial Crisis"

Young people are "The Surprising Winners in the Financial Crisis."

They'll be better able to afford housing than their parents, says blogger Andrew O'Connell.

Moreover, "With more affordable housing, young people might actually be able to win back some of the earning power that the American middle class has been steadily losing to globalization and offshoring."

There's something positive you can discuss with your clients.


_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Copyright 2008 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

If you're looking for an agent for your financial book...

You can find agents who handle books like yours by going to AgentQuery and checking the "finance" box. 

That's the easy part.

It'll take a lot longer to convince an agent that you've got a marketable book. Good luck!


_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Copyright 2008 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

Do NOT copy this wealth management firm's navigation scheme

There's a lot that I like about the way that Brinton Eaton Wealth Advisors communicates with their clients and the public. But their website navigation is terrible. They should get rid of the website frames.

In their email notices, Brinton Eaton tells me "Our latest quarterly commentary is now available on our Web site, www.brintoneaton.com, under News Room>Quarterly Overviews."

That translates into my having to click three times because of the frames. In today's quick-fix world, many people won't have the patience to follow through.

Website frames have other disadvantages, too, as Shirley Kaiser's article notes. For example, they may prevent your website from being properly indexed by search engines. That makes it harder for people to find the content over which you've labored.

I'd like to balance my criticism with some praise. I like how Brinton Eaton always relates their investment commentary to the performance on their clients' portfolios. In fact, I've used some of their commentary to help teach "How to Write Investment Commentary People Will Read" to portfolio managers and marketers.


_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Copyright 2008 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

"Is It Different This Time?" by DFA's Weston Wellington

For a reassuring take on financial markets' resilience and the future of diversified portfolios, watch "Is It Different This Time?" by Weston Wellington of Dimensional Fund Advisors.

As an editor, I was impressed by how Wellington used images of magazine and newspaper headlines to convey how wrong alarmists have been on many occasions.

Thank you, Russell Wild, for pointing out this presentation.


_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Copyright 2008 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

"Is Outsourcing Portfolio Construction the Wave of the Future?"

Glenda Kemple knows precisely why she outsources portfolio construction. "You add value because you understand your client's total financial picture," says Kemple, CPA, CFP®, of Kemple Capital in Dallas, Texas. That picture includes cash management, tax planning, retirement planning, estate planning, education planning, and risk management, in addition to investment management. "We want clients focused on all of those dynamics, not just the portfolio."

Those who outsource portfolio construction as Kemple does passionately agree. They believe it saves them time and empowers them to better serve their clients' overall financial planning needs, while tapping high-quality investment resources at a reasonable cost. They also believe that outsourcing makes them more competitive, helping them snare bigger, more sophisticated clients—and to win a bigger percentage of their assets.

Non-outsourcers are equally passionate about keeping portfolio construction in-house, arguing that they save their clients fees and provide better performance, and have a better handle on their clients' portfolios, as well as getting great personal satisfaction out of the portfolio construction process.
 
Continue reading my article in the Journal of Financial Planning (FPA membership required).

_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Copyright 2008 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

Fidelity writes good headlines for volatility

Dealing with market volatility is a full-time job.
For us. Not you.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The headline copied above works. It got me to pick up a brochure about the Fidelity Portfolio Advisory Service.

Why does it work?

First, it raises the reader's anxiety with "dealing with market volatility is a full-time job." But that isn't enough. The brochure quickly offers a solution: Fidelity will handle volatility for you.

Consider trying to apply this model to your written communications.

_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Copyright 2008 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

Should stock analysts use Twitter?

If you're an analyst, should you consider using Twitter for research?

Check out "Should Analysts Use Twitter?" by Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, for three key questions that'll help you decide. Basically, it depends on what industry you cover and whether the people in your industry are Twittering. To see if people are Twittering on your topic, search key words at http://search.twitter.com/.

You may also enjoy Owyang's post on "How crowdsourcing helps some--but not all research activities."


_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Copyright 2008 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

Writing sample: Three key lessons from "Schwab and TD Ameritrade Financial Stability"

Sometimes a little tweaking can make your email message more compelling to your readers. That's especially true when you make your message reader-centric.

Below you'll find a "before" example of a message I received recently and the "after" version with my edits to make it more client-focused.


BEFORE:

Schwab and TD Ameritrade Financial Stability

We received a number of phone calls the past few days about the financial stability of Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade who we use to custody client accounts.  I am pleased to report that they are both in fine shape, as they are not investment banks.   Investment banks create products and sell them to institutions such as insurance companies, pension plans and banks.  In addition, your accounts are separately held and each account has both SIPC and supplemental insurance far in excess of your accounts' value. For more information about SIPC and supplemental insurance please click on the following link:

AFTER MY EDITING:

Schwab and TD Ameritrade are Financially Stable
 
Has the recent financial turmoil made you worry about the  financial stability of the firms that provide custody for your accounts with us?

Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade are both in fine shape. They are not investment banks and they have strong balance sheets.

In addition, your accounts are separately held and each account has both Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) and supplemental insurance far in excess of the account's value. For more information on SIPC and supplemental insurance click on the following link:....

Comparing the before and after


What are the key lessons from the two versions?

1. Use headings to convey your message. My heading, "Schwab and TD Ameritrade are Financially Stable" conveys a lot more information than "Schwab and TD Ameritrade Financial Stability." It puts readers' minds at ease quickly and may spare them having to read the entire message
   
2. Talk about you, not us. The first version starts with "we received..." and talks about "we use to custody...." The second begins with a focus on you.
3. Don't assume that your reader understands acronyms. Spell out that SIPC is short for Securities Investor Protection Corporation.

Still, I give the authors credit for e-mailing their clients promptly. It's not easy to craft a perfect communication when time is short.

_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Copyright 2008 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

New GIPS standards will change the rules for marketers of separate accounts

Marketers of investment strategies marketed using performance composites will have to learn new recommendations and rules once GIPS 2010 goes into effect. If you're a reader of marketing materials for separate accounts, you will find new information to digest.

GIPS is short for Global Investment Performance Standards. The next draft of GIPS standards will be issued for public comment in early 2009, with new standards to be issued in early 2010 and to become effective on January 1, 2011, according to a presentation on "GIPS Update: What to Expect in 2010" by Sunette Mulder, chair of the GIPS Executive Committee and Investment Manager Subcommittee, and Karyn Vincent, chair of the GIPS Interpretations Subcommittee. They spoke at the CFA Institute's GIPS Standards Annual Conference on Sept. 25.

I nodded my head when Vincent said that common practice in the U.S. is to show 10 years of investment composite performance and to drop off the eleventh year once an additional year of performance is completed. I remember salespeople gleefully anticipating when a bad year would drop off the bar graph.

However, the draft of GIPS 2010 will recommend that firms show more than 10 years of history. That was just one of many points made by Vincent and Mulder. 

Another change that will impact marketers: the composite description must be expanded to include "enough information to understand all of the key characteristics, including risks, of the composite strategy." Apparently it was felt that firms don't adequately discuss risks.

Speaking of risk, another innovation is to require disclosure of a risk measure such as standard deviation for the composite and the benchmark for the most recent three-year period. If standard deviation isn't the best risk statistic, you may show additional statistics.

If you don't like what you're hearing--or if you think some of these ideas should definitely get implemented--remember you'll have an opportunity to give feedback on the draft of GIPS 2010. You can keep up at the GIPS Standards website.


_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Copyright 2008 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

What the heck is Twitter?

It's tough to keep up with all of the social networking tools and their business uses. 

One that I've struggled to see the value of --at least for me--is Twitter. Twitter is like a series of mini blog posts or updates, as described in the slide show on "Twitter in Plain English." As the Twitter FAQ explains, a Twitter communication--known as a tweet--tells us what you're doing in 140 characters or less.

What does Twitter have to do with business? Here are "50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business."

Check out the left-hand column of the FP Pad blog for an example of a financial professional's Twitter feed.

If you really want to delve into the details of using Twitter, I've heard that the Twitter Fan Wiki is the website for you.

You won't see me Twittering any time soon. 
_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Copyright 2008 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved