How to talk about investments

If you’re a pension trustee you’ll be thinking about your Statement of Investment Principles, telling members how you make strategic investment decisions. You’ve probably also thought ahead to your Implementation Statement, telling members what you’ve done to put those principles into practice.

Quietroom contributed to the PLSA’s excellent guidance on writing Implementation Statements. Here, I’ve distilled the chapter on comms to a few tips.

People are getting more and more interested in where their money goes. So this an opportunity to get them excited about their pensions - but only if you can bring the tricky subject of investments to life. Here’s how.

Give people the big picture first

Most people don’t realise their pension money is invested. So set the scene before zooming in on the details. At least be clear to every segment of your audience what’s relevant to them.

Look ahead as well as back

Most investment communication talks about past performance, costs and approach. In fact, your Implementation Statement has to - that’s what the new regulation demands. But this is also a chance to share your vision and longer-term strategy. Bring people alongside you and show them where you’re aiming to take them.

Talk like a human

You can probably spot industry jargon and already try to avoid it or explain it. But also beware of an overly formal tone. Use people’s own language. It brings them into the conversation and helps them feel more confident about a subject they might have found intimidating in the past. So, use words that resonate with them – let them know (don’t notify them). Help them (don’t offer assistance). Use the active voice – say we’ve done this, not this was done. And use short sentences.

Tell stories

Talking about investment strategy involves talking about repeatable processes, backed up by facts and figures. But processes don’t get the heart pumping. Figures don’t stick in the mind. Bring them to life by highlighting one or two examples that tell the story of your strategy in action. How? Turn lists of actions or outcomes into chains of events linked by causation. One thing explains the next. So, ‘Because of x, we did y, which led to z.’ Even better, talk about any obstacles and how you overcame them: ‘This was the situation, this is what we wanted to achieve, this was the obstacle, so this is what we did and the outcome was this.’

Give examples people can picture

You can’t hold ‘strategy’. You may well understand the concept of ‘investments’ but you can’t prod it. So these abstract things don’t feel real to most people. Pick out concrete details. Find specific, solid examples - things people can imagine holding or prodding - and they’ll bring your whole strategy to life. It could be as simple as mentioning shares in a single company that makes a familiar product, or the name of a single wind farm you could point to. And, of course, to make it truly vivid, use actual pictures. Show people what their money is doing in the world.

Make it a dialogue

Good communication goes both ways. Give people a way to talk to you about their questions and concerns. Show you’ve been listening, perhaps with examples of real questions you've actually received. And make sure you answer them with the language people used in the questions.

So... questions? Concerns?