Monday, May 02, 2011

Watch Your Finglish!

Real people need to hear about stocks and bonds and diversification, not equities and fixed ncome and asset allocation. So suggests an Invesco survey featured by Brett Arends in the WSJ.

Ditch the jargon, in other words. "Solution," a word overworked throughout the business world, is a dud in finance – not only stale but lacking credibility. At best, an investment strategy cannot be more than a "possible solution."
Surce: The Wall Street Journal
After the Great Depression, Americans craved financial security. Merrill Anderson's first newsletter was titled accordingly. With boom times worries about mere security faded away. What goes around comes around: the craving for security is back.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't know that "asset allocation" is necessarily a poor choice of words vs. "diversification."

I think the advisor would likely need to use both phrases (and many others) to emphasize the importance of the risk/return, as the concept may be new or unfamiliar to many clients.

The link to the survey didn't work, at least for me.