Beyond Business:
Academic and Creative Writing
Financial writing is read by people who know the subject, hold a position in it, and are professionally obliged to be skeptical: portfolio managers, allocators, analysts, compliance officers, and shareholders with long memories.
It has rules of its own:
Make the argument visible without the chart. State the number once and correctly. Never let style outrun substance. And, get to the point.
The work below was written for asset managers, banks, insurers, and private markets firms — including one of the world's largest asset managers, where regulated, investor-facing writing was the daily work.
Rather than a catalogue, we have chosen one piece in each of three formats: long-form research that carries an argument with evidence, short-form commentary that carries it to investors, and PR content that carries it to the public. Each is presented with its brief, an excerpt, and a link to the full piece. Additional samples in every format are available under NDA.
On this page:
Long-Form: Thought Leadership, Whitepapers, Research.
Short-Form: Articles, Commentaries, Newsletters.
Micro-Form: Social, PR, Advertising.
Long-Form:
Thought Leadership, Whitepapers, Research
Long-form content, at its best, becomes a firm's north star: the statement of what it believes that every later decision, and every shorter piece of writing, is measured against.
It is the work that carries an argument with evidence — whitepapers, industry reports, macro outlooks, original research, and the internal memos and studies a firm writes for its own decisions.
Whether published to the world or circulated to a dozen people, the format is typically the same: a meticulously researched thesis, the support for it, and a conclusion the reader can act on or argue with.
DESCRIPTION OF PRINCIPAL CAPITAL PROJECT
EXCERPTS
DRIVE LINK
Project image and title.
Short-Form:
Articles, Commentaries, Newsletters
Short-form content is how a firm stays in the conversation. Where long-form sets down what a firm believes, short-form applies it — to this quarter, this market move, this question from a client — and does so on a cadence a reader comes to expect.
It is the work that circulates: articles and op-eds for the press, posts for a firm's own site, fund commentaries and investor updates written to regulatory standard, and the newsletters that arrive in a client's inbox and are opened because the last one was worth reading.
The reader has minutes, not an afternoon, so the format is one idea, stated early and supported briefly, with a clear view of what it means for them. It is the writing that gets read most often, and the writing most likely to be forwarded.
DESCRIPTION OF FUND COMMENTARY SAMPLE
EXCERPTS
DRIVE LINK
IMAGE OF PROJECT. Title of project.
Micro-Form:
Social, PR, Advertising
Micro-form content is where a firm's thinking meets the largest audience in the smallest space. A post, a headline, a quote in a press release, a line of ad copy — each is the smallest unit of a firm's voice, and the one the rest of the world is most likely to encounter.
It is the work built for the feed and the wire: social posts for executives and portfolio managers, press statements and media quotes, campaign and advertising copy, and the short lines that carry a long-form idea into a channel where no one will read the whole thing.
The format allows for no supporting argument, so the words must do the work alone: precise enough to survive a compliance review, distinctive enough to be recognized as the firm's, and clear enough to be understood in the time it takes to scroll past. It is the writing with the least room for error, and the widest reach.
DESCRIPTION OF FED VICE CHAIR STATEMENT
EXCERPTS
DRIVE LINK
IMAGE OF PROJECT
About Robert Walker Cohen & Elegant Ink.
Elegant Ink was founded by Robert Walker Cohen, a Columbia University graduate whose career spans management consulting, venture capital, and financial communications at one of the world's largest asset managers.
His ghostwriting has included public statements on U.S. interest rates for former Federal Reserve leadership, bylined articles for C-suite executives and founders from public companies to startups, and social content for portfolio managers and executive leadership at a global asset manager.
He handles every engagement personally. There is no bench.
Contact Us.
Interested in working together? Schedule a private consultation or fill out our contact form.
Based in New York City and serving clients across the Bay Area and international markets.