Plenty of finance businesses lose potential clients before they even reach out, and it’s not their pricing or their expertise. It’s their copy! If you’re a financial advisor, tax pro, or bookkeeper staring at a blank page (or a page full of copy that reads like the fine print on a mortgage), stick around.
I’m Haley, and I write a lot of copy for finance people. Financial advisors, tax firms, wealth managers, accountants, you name it!
These are business owners who are brilliant at what they do and can explain a Roth conversion in their sleep, but freeze up the second they have to describe their own business in a way that makes someone want to hire them.
So let’s fix that! Here’s how financial copywriting works, why you need it, and great examples to get you inspired.
What Is Financial Copywriting?
Financial copywriting is writing that sells financial services and products…without putting your reader to sleep or scaring them off!
It’s the words on your website, emails, lead magnets, sales pages, newsletters, and anywhere else you’re trying to turn a curious stranger into a paying client.
The goal is to take something people find confusing, intimidating, or flat-out boring (money, taxes, retirement, insurance) and make it feel clear, human, and exciting to say yes to.
And finance has its own set of challenges that most industries don’t deal with!
You’re asking people to trust you with their money, which is (arguably) one of the most emotionally loaded things they own. You’re also often explaining complicated concepts to people who don’t speak the lingo. And on top of it, you’re doing all of it under a pile of compliance rules that can make your copy sound like a legal disclaimer if you’re not careful.
Good financial copywriting builds trust, translates the complicated stuff into plain language, stays on the right side of compliance, and still sounds like a person your reader would want to work with.
Financial Copywriting Niches
“Finance” is a giant umbrella. Here are some of the niches that fall under financial copywriting:
- Personal finance
- Financial advising and wealth management
- Accounting firms and CPAs
- Bookkeepers
- Tax preparation firms
- Fintech apps and platforms
- Insurance
- Investment and asset management
- Retirement and estate planning
- Mortgage and lending
- Credit repair and debt relief
- Banking and credit unions
- Cryptocurrency
- Financial SaaS and B2B finance tools
Overall, all of these businesses help people make smart financial decisions and get wealthier, but the copy they need to do that has its own audience, objections, and compliance quirks.
5 Brilliant Financial Copywriting Tips to Connect and Sell More
1. Ditch the Jargon
Your clients don’t think in industry terms! They think about the mortgage, the kid heading to college, and the nagging worry that they’re behind on retirement.
So when your copy is stuffed with words like “tax-advantaged vehicles,” you’re making them make sense of these terms before they can trust you. And most people won’t bother. They’ll just leave.
Plain language wins because it makes people feel smart instead of stupid. Watch the difference:
- Jargon: “We provide comprehensive financial planning solutions tailored to your unique circumstances to maximize long-term portfolio performance.”
- Plain: “We help you figure out what to do with your money so you can retire when you actually want to.”
It’s the same meaning, but one sounds like a brochure nobody reads, and the other sounds like a person you’d want in your corner.
You’re NOT dumbing anything down when you write this way! You’re respecting the fact that your reader has about eight seconds and a lot on their mind.
2. Don’t Be Boring
Finance is serious, and your copy should sound like you take it seriously. But serious and boring are two different things! You don’t have to crack jokes or write in all lowercase to fix this.
You can stay more on the buttoned-up side and still be a pleasure to read because you use precise language, a clear point of view, sentences with some rhythm to them, and relatable messaging.
Here’s an example of copy I wrote for one of my clients, Zestiny Wealth™:
This copy leads with “Time is your most valuable resource” and then names what the reader is feeling: the lack of time and energy and the anxiety that creeps in around investments and portfolios.
Lines like “it’s not your fault” and “you’ve never been taught how to advocate for yourself” are warm and human, but nothing about the copy is silly or gimmicky! It builds trust by showing that she understands the emotional weight of money and positions her as the partner who teaches you to advocate for yourself.
3. Use Storytelling
People looooove to think they buy based on facts, but they don’t! 80% of buying decisions happen emotionally first, logically second, which means that the numbers and credentials on your page are there to justify a choice your reader’s subconscious brain has already made.
Storytelling is how you reach that part of your audience’s brain! Instead of listing what you do, you paint the picture: the couple who can finally stop arguing about money, the business owner who stopped dreading tax season, the client who went from anxious to actually sleeping at night.
When someone sees their own situation in your copy, they feel connected to it. This is why companies with strong storytelling outperform competitors by 20% in revenue growth!
4. Stay Compliant
Depending on your niche and where you operate, you may answer to the SEC, FINRA, state regulators, or IRS advertising standards. Promising returns, using testimonials the wrong way, or making a claim you can’t back up can turn a great line of copy into a legal problem.
The tricky part is that compliant copy often ends up so watered down it says nothing!
A good financial copywriter knows how to stay inside the lines without sounding like a disclaimer, but if you’re trying to DIY your copy, here are a few tips:
- Skip words that imply guaranteed outcomes, like “guaranteed,” “risk-free,” or “you will”
- Handle testimonials carefully, since rules around client endorsements are strict, especially for advisors
- Keep any required disclosures clear and present so your copy is honest and covered at the same time
This doesn’t mean your copy has to be lifeless! You just need to make sure that you’re being persuasive without breaking any rules (or being dishonest, duh).
Learn more about how to use sales psychology in copywriting in an ethical way.
5. Don’t Forget About SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization, which is a fancy way of saying “the stuff that helps your website show up on Google when someone searches for what you offer.”
If a person types “fee-only financial advisor in Austin” and your page is nowhere to be seen, the harsh reality is that you don’t exist to them. But an optimized website helps you fix that!
In a nutshell, optimizing for SEO means knowing the words/phrases (keywords) that your ideal clients type when they’re looking for help and working them naturally into your copy on your website.
I also always recommend writing helpful, genuinely useful content on your blog so Google sees you as an authority in your niche!
This sounds simple, but SEO gets deep fast. Keyword research, search intent, writing engaging content, and making sure that it’s organized well is something that a copywriter (who’s trained in SEO, not all copywriters are!) can handle for you.
Financial Copywriting Examples
Zestiny Wealth™
Zestiny Wealth is a financial planning and investment management firm led by Ally Ecklund, CFP® and CPWA®, serving clients in Colorado, Texas, and across the US. She was launching a brand-new firm and needed website copy that built trust from day one while capturing her confident, friendly, and clearly expert tone of voice.
I wrote copy that spoke to her ideal client, wove in an SEO strategy, and pointed everything toward booking a call. The results were a little wild! Zestiny onboarded more than 12 clients in the first two months with a strong pipeline still coming in, and another advisor referred business specifically because the copy made them confident enough to make the introduction.
WealthPeace
WealthPeace, led by Eunsoo Chung, serves clients wrestling with the biggest financial questions there are: Can we retire? Can we afford this home? Is it time to help our kids? These are people carrying a lot of financial weight who want a guide.
The copy had to sound like Eunsoo and satisfy strict compliance requirements and CFP Board trademark rules. I handled all of it, plus SEO, and Eunsoo said that I captured exactly what was in her head and articulated it more gracefully than she could have herself.
Desi Tax Service®
Desi Tax Service® is a tax firm serving business owners, individuals, and aspiring tax professionals, built on transparency, service, and education. Desi’s problem was a common one! The copy was so buttoned-up that it was pushing away small business owners that needed to hear something more approachable.
I rewrote Desi’s entire website with SEO-optimized copy that stayed professional but sounded human, and within five days of launching, she had five new inquiries. Once she carried the messaging into her email and social media, that number climbed to 25 new inquiries! That’s 20 more leads than she’d gotten in the previous six months combined, and she loved the copy so much she said she’d have us write every piece of copy in her life if she could.
What To Look For When Hiring a Financial Copywriter
Not every copywriter can write for finance, so look for someone who brings:
- Comfort and experience with financial concepts
- A working knowledge of compliance, including how to write persuasively while staying inside SEC, FINRA, CFP Board, or IRS advertising rules
- The ability to translate complexity into plain language without dumbing it down or sounding condescending
- A strong grip on voice so your copy sounds like you
- SEO know-how so the copy gets found by the people searching for you
Learn more about hiring a copywriter and how to make the right decision!
FAQs
How Is Financial Copywriting Different From Regular Copywriting?
There are so many ways it’s different! The core skills are the same, but with financial copywriting, trust is everything, because you’re asking people to hand over their money, so the copy has to work harder to feel safe and credible. There’s also compliance. A regular copywriter can promise the moon, but a financial copywriter has to persuade within a strict set of advertising rules.
Can I Just Use AI to Write My Financial Copy?
Ummmm, no! AI doesn’t know your clients and your voice, and it doesn’t understand compliance, so it’ll happily write a line that gets you in trouble with a regulator. It also tends to produce the exact flavor of generic, forgettable copy that makes finance brands blur together. In recent years, a huge chunk of my work came from rewriting websites that were clearly written by AI and weren’t converting.
Learn more about AI copywriting and if it’s worth it.
How Do I Know If My Financial Copy Is Working?
Look at the numbers behind them! More inquiries, more booked calls, and a higher percentage of leads who are a good fit are all strong signals that your copy is working well. You should also pay attention to how sales conversations feel. When your copy is doing its job, prospects show up already understanding what you do and half-sold before you even talk!
But if leads are trickling in or the wrong people keep booking, those are major signs that your copy needs some TLC!
Meet Your Financial Copywriting Agency, Slade Copy House®!
I’m Haley, the copywriter behind Slade Copy House®, a psychology-driven copywriting agency that writes words that make a difference for brands that do the same®.
If you want your financial copywriting to sound like you, stay grounded in buyer psychology, and make you stand out from your competitors, learn more about my services or book a call!
