Tip for how to connect with your workshop attendees

Advisors, you can deepen your connection with folks who attend your investment or financial planning workshops using a technique I observed at the Financial Planning Association of Massachusetts annual conference on May 7. Consultant Shari Harley, whom I wrote about in “How to improve your financial planning client relationships,” handed out postcards to her audience. […]

Financial bloggers’ posts may violate copyright law

Copyright law isn’t on the curriculum of most business schools or for CFP or CFA candidates. So it’s not surprising that I’ve seen well-meaning financial advisors unintentionally violate copyright law in their blogs.  What NOT to do You cannot copy someone’s entire  newspaper article or  blog post  word-for-word, then make it okay by giving credit […]

Start with a good lead, or lose your reader

“…the lead is the doorway into every text. Its job, never a minor one, is to draw the reader over the threshold,” says Francis Flaherty in The Elements of Story, p. 201. The lead, also spelled lede, is the first sentence or paragraph of your blog post or article.  Write a weak lead and you […]

Using CFP in your Twitter name–Read the CFP Board’s position

Using a term such as CFP in your Twitter name makes sense as a marketing strategy for financial advisors. It immediately identifies you as a credentialed professional. However, it also means you’re violating the CFP Board’s rules. Twitter alerted me to this issue. When I dug into the CFP Board’s Guide to Use of the […]

Poll: Which should investors fear more? Which #CFA2010 speakers were right?

CFA Institute Annual Conference speakers raised many concerns about the future during the conference, which ran from May 16 to May 19 in Boston. But they didn’t always agree with one another. Their mixed opinions inspired this month’s poll. Which do you fear more?  * Inflation or deflation?  * Continued fiscal stimulus or spending cuts […]