“People will never read it all … perhaps that’s the point”
“I’m not stupid but … I’ve heard these words throughout my career from entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, teachers, PhDs.
Financial industry jargon makes people feel that way. The dense fact sheets and technical statements … it’s a broken standard we need to fix.”
~ Helena Wardle, Money Means
Is this the end of jargon?
The UK’s new Customer Duty, which comes into force next year, will demand that financial service providers communicate more clearly to make life easier for customers.
As the Duty says: “Customers are making complex choices about debt, mortgages, pensions, investments, and other products, often on a smartphone.”
It’s not a moment too soon.
“left me baffled”
Jargon, fuzzy language and dense comms is a long-running industry problem. There’s a joke in life insurance that the terms and conditions run longer than a Jane Austin novel.
In 2019, Boring Money focus-grouped the effectiveness of several financial communications and here’s our pick of the feedback:
“People will never read it all … perhaps that’s the point.”
“So, so long.”
“I’ve been investing 20 years and [some] words or phrases left me baffled.”
“I read the document and wanted to cry.”
“People will never read it all … perhaps that’s the point”
Plenty of industries, including high-tech ones, talk to customers with ease, empathy and positivity. They tell us the time … finance firms tell us how to make the watch.
Aside from making people feel stupid, the jargon and dense comms also causes a lopsided power dynamic between provider and customer.
Overwhelmed with text, options and technicalities, many customers choose to hand over control and decision-making power to advisers and planners like us. It’s a huge responsibility that advisers absorb – probably more than anyone else in the chain.
Still, the quality of advice is inconsistent and the Customer Duty has to be a good thing if it prompts providers to bring their clients into conversations and decisions more fully.
That’s what we’ve always done. That’s what we do. We even wrote a book to simplify money so that people don’t feel stupid … and so the relationship between adviser and customer can be equalised.
Imagine this …
Who’s to say finance can’t now take the lead and spin money conversations around?
Imagine if banks talked in positive tones about the joy of choices and the excitement of options. Imagine more advisers enthused about the freedom that comes when you connect your money to what matters to you. Imagine positivity, inspiration, and affirmations in finance …
Pipe dream? Let’s hope not.