Pull up the last market update you sent out to your clients.
I’m guessing it covered things like the latest Fed moves, what’s going on with inflation, and maybe some earnings season insights. I’m sure it was great. Accurate, well written, and perfectly compliant.
The trouble is, I’m able to guess at that because everyone in the industry sends out pretty much the same thing. I know because I read dozens of them every month. Yours, the one from the advisor across town, the one your broker-dealer puts out… they’re all part of the dozens that are sitting in your clients’ inboxes on any given week.
It’s not that distributing market commentary is wrong. It’s a useful service and a great way to prove out your expertise. It’s just that, in a world where familiarity builds trust, it’s interchangeable.
What generic commentary tells clients
Market commentary answers one question: what’s happening? Nothing wrong with that, but your audience can get that answer pretty much anywhere these days. The financial news has it. Their brokerage app has it. AI will summarize it for them in a few seconds.
That’s a commodity now. I don’t like it any more than you do, but it’s true.
Think about it in terms of what they can’t get anywhere else. How does my advisor think? What are they watching that others are overlooking? And what does this all mean for me?
Commentary signals competence. It tells clients you’re paying attention. But these days that’s just table stakes. Every advisor they’ve ever met seemed competent, but that doesn’t build trust.
The worst part? When your content sounds like everyone else’s, clients and prospects assume they already know what you’re going to say. So they skim, or they don’t open it at all. The thing you spent hours on is quietly teaching people they don’t need to look closer. They don't spend the time it takes to trust you, and we all know that when it comes right down to it trust is the only reason anyone hands someone else their money.
A story-first approach
I’m not saying you should stop talking about the markets. That’s still your area of expertise and it would make no sense to abandon it. I’m just saying maybe reconsider how you frame it.
Here’s a typical take:
“Markets were volatile in the third quarter as investors weighed the path of interest rates and slowing economic data. The S&P 500 declined in August before recovering in September...”
All good stuff. All very find-able on CNBC.
Here’s the same moment with a story behind it:
“In August, a client called me on a Tuesday morning and asked whether she should move everything to cash. She’d been reading the headlines for a week, and she was scared. I didn’t tell her what the market was going to do, because I don’t know. Here’s what I did tell her...”
Same quarter. Same market. But the second version (admittedly not my most creative take) shows the reader how you think under pressure, how you treat people, and what it might be like to be your client. That’s where trust starts.
Three ways to turn commentary into story
You don’t need to be a natural writer to do this, just adjust three habits.
Start with a person, not a chart: Open with a client question, a conversation, or a moment from your own week. Charts are for later, if you need them at all.
Show your decision, not a forecast: Nobody trusts predictions anymore, and compliance doesn’t love them either. But you make judgment calls every day: what you told a nervous client, why you didn’t change a portfolio, what you’re watching and why. Decisions reveal how you think.
End with what it means for them: Not “here’s what the market might do next,” but “here’s how I’d think about it if I were in your shoes.” That last paragraph is where the reader decides whether you’re someone they want in their corner.
This doesn’t have to be a third rail for compliance, either.
Keep situations anonymous or composite, don’t imply results, and describe your thinking rather than predicting outcomes. Run it through review like anything else, but done right stories about how you think and how you treat people can be easier to approve than market predictions dressed up as insight.
Why this matters now
AI can write a perfectly good market recap in seconds, and plenty of advisors are already using it to do exactly that. Within a year or two, generic commentary will be everywhere and worth almost nothing. I’d argue that we’re already there in many ways.
What AI can’t do is tell your story, because it doesn’t know them. It’s generic by design. That’s where you as a human come in, and it’s a huge opportunity at the moment.
So, before your next update goes out, ask one question: if I took my name off this, could anyone tell it was mine? The answer needs to be ‘yes’.
Want to see what this looks like with your own work? Reply with your most recent update, and I’ll send back the story I’d pull out of it. No pitch, just a fresh set of eyes from someone who spent 20 years in journalism.
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