Managing disclosure language has been a critical element of Synthesis’ document automation approach for over two decades. Even with modern technology and processes, disclosures continue to be a pain point for most asset management firms. Recently, we’ve been doing research into the processes asset managers use to manage their disclosures. The goal of this research is to better understand why disclosure management continues to be problematic. Through our discussions with marketing and compliance professionals at large and small investment management firms, we’ve been digging into how firms create, edit, distribute, and retire disclosure language — and what the major issues are.Read More

Every investment marketer would love to get tedious tasks, like updating factsheets, off of their plate. Automation is a great way to accomplish this. When you’re considering how to automate your factsheets or other investment marketing collateral, there are essentially four different approaches you can consider.

Your options are:

• Outsource to a service bureau,
• Implement a “DIY” solution in-house,
• Buy a technology-enabled service (a hybrid of #1 and #2), or
• Build a custom solution in-house (Read our Build vs. Buy guide).

There are pros and cons with each of these options and, depending on your firm’s situation and goals, one of these options will be the best fit. Firms operating under tight budgets and resources will often gravitate toward the first option on this list — outsourcing factsheets to a service bureau. The manual production of marketing collateral like factsheets, commentaries, and client reports is labor-intensive and laden with risk. Not to mention, it’s often the least gratifying work that the marketing team does. “Kicking it over the fence” to a fully outsourced service provider often seems like the most attractive option. Read More

by Noah Menikoff 

A good proofreader is hard to find. Ask any financial services marketer and they will probably tell you this is the worst part of their job – proofreading, editing and updating documents. It’s time consuming work and it takes an enormous amount of time, patience, attention-to-detail, and focus.

Manual proofreading not only requires time and patience, but it also involves thoughtfulness and empathy. Thoughtfulness is required to interpret what is not always an apples-to-apples comparison and empathy is important for evaluating information from the perspective of the end-user. With so many data points and documents to work with, even the most skilled proofreaders face the undeniable challenge of human error. Not to mention, it’s unsatisfying work that takes up time and resources.

Read More