“Why I Hate Mutual Funds and You Should, Too”
Client: American IRA Advisor, Fremont, Neb.
A white paper is a positioning paper. It represents a company or an individual’s thought leadership, and it can have a profound affect on clients and prospects.
American IRA Advisor had a great subject. We put our storytelling chops to work to create a hard-to-put-down piece that differentiates the firm. Here is the opening to the paper, “Why I Hate Mutual Funds and You Should, Too.”
Some Things No Longer Make Sense to Own
THE MODEL T
On October 1, 1908, the Ford Motor Company began production of the Model T in Detroit. Ford would build 15 million Model T cars over the next 181⁄2 years — the longest production run of any automobile model in history except for the Volkswagen Beetle.
Though the Model T was fairly expensive — about $20,760 in today’s dollars, $825 in 1908 — it was designed and built for the common man. It had a four-cylinder, 22-horsepower engine, which was all anyone needed at the time. The car weighed 1,200 pounds and reached 40 miles per hour. People who had been walking to where they
needed to go suddenly had better lives.
By the 1920s, Americans wanted cars with more style (more colors than black), more luxury (improved suspension) and more power (to keep up with the developing nation). So, Ford revamped its cars, and in 1927 the Model T ceased production.
Would you buy a Model T today? Maybe, if you love vintage cars. But for most of us, a Model T makes no sense to own. Modern traffic can’t support a product created in 1908.
What about buying a financial product that essentially has not changed since the early 1900s?
