Holly Mackay, Founder & CEO of Boring Money, sits down with Communify to discuss how the investment decision-making process needs a new narrative. Without
clear communication and a story to tell, clients will remain timid and indecisive, missing out on real investment opportunity.
The wealth management industry has long struggled in putting its best foot forward with retail clients.
And it’s not for a lack of investment talent and performance, but a lack of engaging investment narrative.
Ultimately, investment decision-making needs a proper channel, framing ideas in a way people can truly grasp: making the boring interesting, the complex simple, and the intangible tangible.
This is precisely the mission of Holly Mackay, Founder of Boring Money, an independent financial education and research organization.
In an interview with Finextra Pro at the Communify Insights Experience in London, Ms. Mackay shared what it takes to bring that much-needed clarity and engagement in wealth management, highlighted below.
5 Ways to Increase Clarity and Engagement in the Investment Decision-Making Process
1. Flip the Narrative: Make Investing Interesting (Again)
As Ms. Mackay stated, investing is interesting.
The journey toward building wealth and achieving financial freedom should be enough to excite anyone. However, this excitement is often buried under layers of regulatory language, disclaimers, and jargon.
While compliance is essential, it’s a dull and dry component of investing, and a bit intimidating or confusing for those that don’t understand it.
This leads many people to conclude, "I'm just a regular person. Investing isn't for me."
According to Mackay, the key is to communicate in a way that truly piques interest, especially through storytelling.
2. Home in On One Piece of the Investment Puzzle
Instead of talking about broad market indices like the FTSE 100, focus on a single, compelling story, according to Mackay.
For example, instead of discussing companies in the aggregate, talk about one specific company and why it's a good investment.
By focusing on a single, tangible story, you can make investing feel more approachable and relatable.
3. Articulate the Why and the Risk of Waiting
Many people put off investing, choosing to let their cash sit idle.
The truth is, time in the market always beats timing the market.
Waiting for the "perfect moment" to invest means missing out on the power of compounding.
Plus, inflation silently erodes the value of savings over time.
It's no wonder that Mackay considers not investing at all to be one of the worst financial decisions someone can make.
And a majority of Americans and elderly agree that they wish they started investing sooner.
4. Be Transparent. Always.
It’s easy for clients to feel lost — or even that they don’t belong — in the world of investments and investment decision-making.
They worry about fees, question the value they’re getting, and are unsure about industry jargon. This uncertainty can create a wall of disengagement, enough to make them put off investing altogether.
Break through that wall by being proactive and transparent.
Mackay recommends explaining fee structures simply and clearly, showing the real value of your expertise and advice. Also, educate clients on their investment strategy and the long-term thinking behind it, how you're mitigating risk and building real wealth.
If you use AI, explain its role, but make it clear that a human is always there to guide them.
5. Keep Clients Engaged, Not Overwhelmed.
While education is essential, a deluge of data is not.
Clients need to be informed, but too much information can feel like a chore.
The goal is to provide the right updates at the right time. Share what's most important in small, digestible pieces that empower them, rather than burying them in detail. Think of it as storytelling, using clear and compelling narratives to illustrate progress and value.
This allows clients to feel in control and knowledgeable without the burden of constant analysis.
Give Clarity and Get Engagement
The investment decision-making process doesn't have to be opaque or exclusionary. It just needs the right channel, the right message, and a dose of compelling storytelling to keep clients engaged and informed.
As Holly Mackay has long advocated, this means reframing the narrative around investing, breaking down investment details and complex concepts into small, manageable pieces, addressing client concerns head-on, and being radically transparent.
The Communify platform and suite of digital apps are the solutions that make this vision a reality, empowering financial advisors to deliver captivating narratives and present complicated investment details in a way clients can easily understand. By leveraging MIND™ AI stories, advisors can access a powerful toolkit for storytelling, translating complex data into engaging and digestible content.
This sophisticated feature allows advisors to build and share personalized insights and updates, making them a go-to resource for their clients. It's why MIND™ AI delivers over 5 million insights daily to more than 100 million end users, driving engagement across 394 million daily user sessions and 11+ billion monthly webpage views. This powerful reach and impact are why over 85% of North American brokerages have already chosen to partner with us to transform their client communication.
To learn how Communify can help you build a more honest conversation around money and forge lasting client relationships, contact us today.
