Karen King: Can you learn to unlearn?

Clients and jargon

clock • 4 min read

Advisers should use suitable language, terminology and visual props to deliver clear messages to clients and, writes Karen King, that means 'unlearning' speaking jargon

Jargon. Let's face it: we all use it and - generally speaking - we all need it. It is vital to help speed conversations up and, when we all understand what it means, it is a simple, shorter way of saying the same thing. But here is the problem. In financial services, clients - the very people who need to understand complex financial ideas the most - are arguably the last people jargon should really be aimed at. Jargon is fine at an inter-colleague level but ask yourself this: do everyday normal people really know the difference between, say, ‘alpha' and ‘beta' outcomes? When we commun...

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