Teleon Communications

FINRA (the financial industry regulatory authority) is not a dirty word. I may have muttered something nasty about FINRA (or compliance departments) once before. I can't remember. But I digress.

The point is, if you write something for a lay-person (i.e. a retail audience) on a complex financial topic, it needs to be done in plain English, without jargon, and fully sourced. That's what FINRA requires, and that's ok. It's what the industry as a whole should be striving for - communicating  in a clear manner so that the reader fully understands. Oddly enough, writing in the simplest terms is sometimes the hardest. 

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Call me a homer, but I want to share this short article written for a (now defunct) commercial real estate publication. It's all about how my hometown, Pittsburgh, has embraced and taken a leadership role in green building. Check out the lede in this article, it's one of my favorites.

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Pittsburgh really does have a fascinating history, a cool skyline, and of course the Steelers. If you know anyone who grew up in Pittsburgh, he or she has probably tried to force feed you a double helping of civic pride...kinda like I'm doing now.

And check me out making an immaculate reception. Yup...this has nothing to do with financial writing.  

 

 

This piece for an emerging markets investment manager blurs the line between an educational article and marketing collateral...in a good way. This delivers all the goods of brochure, but it does it in an artful way that is not an overt, chest-thumping pitch. The narrative takes time to outline the opportunity set of emerging markets, while also dedicating space to describe the investment team's philosophy, process, and experience. The article is structured with side-bars and stand-alone sections, thus making it scan-friendly and easily digestible.

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Here's another piece of collateral targeted toward institutional investors. This portfolio of case studies was assembled to share real-world uses for ETFs that the readers (institutional investors) may not have considered for their specific situations.

Defining the problem, summarizing the solution, and articulating the outcome in just a page or two put a premium on being concise. It was a forced economy of words, which in retrospect was probably a good thing. 

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Let's face it, you better be able to punch up the narrative when writing about something as exciting as fixed income. In this piece written for financial professionals, I dig into a nuanced segment of the fixed income asset class - bank loans. The goal was to educate advisors on the merits of a product that could generate income and, potentially, appreciate in a rising rate environment.

Using a clever metaphor and marrying it with some cool imagery can go a long way to grabbing the reader's attention. I think this piece proves that you can differentiate from the typical financial services dribble and make a compelling argument in an interesting manner. 

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The challenge writing for an institutional audience is that you can't bluff the reader. They know too much...probably more than the writer. 

This article was written for institutional investors on the infrastructure asset class, which is more widely accepted and better-established outside of the U.S. There's no shortage of criticism (some of it justified) for public-private partnership structures, but there are also success stories. Does this approach align interests by offering investors a chance to grab higher yields while also providing a new potential source of funding for badly needed infrastructure? Or is it a disaster waiting to happen? Let the debate begin. 

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