Writing in Financial Management
Writing is universal. It is found everywhere in day-to-day life is a key component to many professions. Writing is especially crucial in the field of financial management. Financial management, or wealth management, is often the responsibility of a financial advisor. Financial advisors often work on behalf of individuals and corporations. Financial advisors manage the funds of individuals, corporations, local or state governments, and charitable organizations in order to help all parties reach their financial goals. A job in financial management could be focused in some area of investing, raising capital, budgeting, estate planning, or risk management, or could involve a combination of areas.
As a freshmen finance major interested in financial management, I was curious to learn and inform others about the roll that writing in the profession. In my study I interviewed Ryan Bhattacharyya, president of PREMAC Wealth Management Services, a financial management firm out of West Des Moines, Iowa that manages over one billion dollars in assets. According to Bhattacharyya, “Business credibility hinges on the ability to write well.”
Academic Writing
Although writing ability is crucial to the world of finance, financial professionals rarely engage in technical writing considered to be academic or scholarly. Financial advisors write a variety of reports that are written almost exclusively towards cliental. As a result, ideas are simplified and stated more concisely. For example, Exxon Mobile’s 2015 second quarter report includes phrases such as “Driving down costs and improving efficiency,” and “Leader in exploration and development cost,” but does not dive into the technical and geological reasons for improved efficiency or successful exploration. This simplified language choice helps clarify complex ideas to clients.
While financial advisors rarely write academic reports, they often read academic writing. When I asked Bhattacharyya what sort of reading he does, he replied he does, “extensive reading of scholarly articles, financial journals, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.” He went on to explain that in a world with an ever-increasing level of communication, staying up to date is key. Through these academic sources Bhattacharyya stays current with stock market happenings and market research in order to make informed decisions on behalf of his clients. To understand how the decision making process works, I pulled an article published in The Wall Street Journal on September 14, 2015. The article, written by Daniel Gilbert, Erin Ailworth and Alison Slider, states that, “Drillers are bracing for cuts to their credit lines in October, as banks re-evaluate the worth of oil and gas properties.” This article could influence Bhattacharyya and other financial advisors alike to act in a variety of ways. After reading, one may decide to sell or short sell clients’ shares of any highly leveraged oil drilling companies. Or, one might decide to invest in oil companies that are not highly leveraged, assuming they will have the opportunity for valuable acquisitions of smaller oil companies in the near future.
Non-Academic Writing
While reading to stay up to date is a large component of financial management, financial advisors spend more time each day writing. The vast majority of writing in this profession is considered non-academic. For Bhattacharyya, the main reasons for writing include, “Daily to-do lists, emails to industry partners, clients, and prospective clients, and quarterly newsletters to clients.” Bhattacharyya sent an example of a to-do list which includes short hand writing such as, “E/Thomson/risk,” which means he needs to email a client by the name of Thomson with an updated risk management plan. Bhattacharyya is able to write in short hand on his to-do lists because he is the intended audience. In other words, he’s the only person who needs to understand what the lists mean. This requires relatively no writing skill. On the other hand, writing to others takes well developed writing ability that is vital in such a highly connected field.
The most effective way to stay connected in business is through email. Many financial advisors receive hundreds of emails daily. Writing emails requires a certain adroitness, especially when requesting something from another individual, “Email does not have body language, voice tone, emphasis, etc. I always default to being cautious and tactful when asking others to do something on my behalf,” says Bhattacharyya. Although it is difficult, there are certain email techniques that will greatly increase the chances of having someone do something for you, for example, having an employee work late. According to Dale Carnegie in his article “Executive Leadership,” the best way to win someone to your way of thinking is to “Speak in terms of the other person’s interests.” So, if a financial advisor needed to email an employee about working late, he or she might start by addressing the subject line with ‘Job Opportunity.’ He or she would then proceed to write an email complementing the employee’s recent work ethic and explain that by staying late, the employee will increase the likelihood of future raises and promotions. Financial management is as much about handling people as it is money. Bhattacharyya stresses that when writing to others, “Skills most important are proper use of familiarity, grammar, and syntax.” Having learned English as a second language, he has a heightened sense for what is formally correct in English writing. He also recommends to, “Convey the message succinctly so the recipient has a clear understanding of it with minimal need for further clarification.” These skills are exemplified in Bhattacharyya’s resume, a great example of writing directed at others. In one page he summarizes his educational background, his work experiences, and his certifications all in adequate detail. I suspect he uses this as a tool to build trust with potential clients.
Conclusion
Through my research I learned that writing is a central component to a career in financial management. Every day on the job includes academic and non-academic reading, and writing and receiving emails. The last question I asked Bhattacharyya was how he developed his writing ability, to which he replied, “My writing skills have changed over my career and have become more refined from a business perspective… The base line skills were learned in college while a vast majority of the “fine tuning” has been through professional experience.” This has a large implication for freshmen finance majors: work hard now, make grades, and learn the base line skills of writing so that one day you will earn the job you desire and the opportunity to refine your writing ability.
