Investment Advice from Winston Churchill
December 14, 2010
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For the past two years, I’ve posted quarterly letters that advisors can use as a starting point to develop client letters of their own … my year-end letters have been particularly popular.
The draft year-end letter for 2010 follows. A reminder of the essential qualities of an effective client letter:
- Keep it reasonably short (three to five pages maximum – and even that will be too long for some clients)
- Be interesting and conversational
- Remain candid and to the point
- Use client-friendly language
- Reflect your own personality and point of view.
- And where possible, tap into credible third party support for your views
For the past 18 months, my draft letters have been designed to balance some of the extreme pessimism among many investors with an objective, positive outlook – the draft year-end letter for 2010 continues with that goal.
To make them memorable and interesting, each client letter has had a theme – past letters have been based on Warren Buffett’s annual missive to investors, a lost lecture by Benjamin Graham and a September conference at which Warren Buffett, GE’s Jeff Immelt and Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer discussed positive views about what’s happening at their companies.
The draft 2010 year-end letter that follows borrows from Winston Churchill’s insight into the difference between optimists and pessimists.
I hope you find this letter useful. And be sure to take the time to tailor the wrap-up at the end, summarizing what this all means to clients to reflect your personal point of view.
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