Video Marketing for Financial Firms

A firm can start with a few formats that answer a question a client would otherwise ask in a first meeting. Each of these can be cut into a captioned vertical clip for social platforms:

• A short explainer that answers one client question.
• A retirement, estate, cash-flow or market-concept explainer.
• A team introduction or a walk-through of how the firm works with a new client.
• An FAQ video on fees, onboarding, planning scope and what a first meeting covers.
• A longer educational video, cut into shorter clips.
• A webinar, seminar or podcast excerpt.
• An English and a Spanish version of the same video, when the firm serves both audiences.

Each platform has a different job. YouTube suits searchable explainers and a lasting video library. LinkedIn suits team videos and communication with referral partners. Instagram and Facebook suit short clips and local familiarity. TikTok reaches a different audience and calls for tighter supervision. The firm's own website holds the controlled version, with a transcript. A firm's Google Business Profile can also carry photos, videos and updates, within Google's policies for financial services.

Video supports a firm's other channels; it does not replace them, and we do not present it as a source of clients.

A public video that offers advisory services can fall under the Investment Adviser Marketing Rule. The SEC's guide to the rule says the definition covers a direct or indirect communication offering advisory services, and leaves out one-on-one communications and certain live, unscripted oral ones. The rule bars untrue or misleading statements, material claims without a reasonable basis, benefits described without a fair treatment of the risks, and unbalanced presentation of performance. Testimonials and endorsements are allowed only with the disclosures, oversight and written agreements the rule describes, which is why we build educational videos that do not depend on them.

For broker-dealers and their representatives, FINRA's social media guidance applies FINRA Rule 2210 whether the communication is a video, a website or a post. Content must be fair and balanced, and it cannot be false, exaggerated or misleading. FINRA Regulatory Notice 11-39 separates static content, which generally needs a registered principal's approval before use, from interactive content, which is generally supervised after the fact like correspondence. A video posted to a page generally counts as static. Business communications also carry recordkeeping duties, and the SEC guide requires advisers to keep copies of the advertisements they distribute.

If a video features a customer or someone with a connection to the firm, the FTC's endorsement guidance asks that material connections be disclosed in the same medium as the endorsement. A visual endorsement needs a visual disclosure, and the viewer should not have to click to see it. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials also bars fake reviews and testimonials.

CFP Board's social media guide asks CFP professionals to follow firm policy, complete approval, monitor and archive posts and comments, and include required disclosures. State rules differ, and the firm's compliance professional decides which ones apply.

This is regulatory information, not legal advice.

We do the work ourselves, from intake to the final files. For each video we:

• Run an intake on the firm's regulatory status, audience, language and channels.
• Choose topics from the questions the firm's clients actually ask.
• Write a script limited to educational claims, and mark every claim the firm needs to verify.
• Add the disclosure language the firm supplies or approves.
• Prepare teleprompter copy, a shot list and interview questions.
• Direct and record the spokesperson, on site or remotely, and edit the video.
• Produce captions, a transcript, thumbnails, titles, descriptions and versions for each platform.
• Adapt the video into Spanish, and keep the claim and the disclosure the same in both languages.
• Format an archive package for the firm's own recordkeeping system.

The firm keeps the decisions. It identifies its regulatory regime, decides whether a piece is an advertisement, a retail communication or something else, and approves the topic, the claims, the spokesperson and the channels. Where it applies, a registered principal gives approval. The firm confirms that any performance, tax, legal, testimonial or endorsement statement is allowed and supported, removes client information unless it has authorization, reviews both language versions, and keeps control of its own business accounts and passwords. We send each script to the firm for its compliance review before filming or posting, and nothing is posted before the firm completes its approval. We cannot certify that a video meets a rule, and we do not give investment, tax or legal advice.

Client confidentiality is handled at the script stage. Names, account details, documents, screens, tax returns and identifiable client stories stay out of a video unless the firm has documented authorization, and a generic or fictional example usually does the same job.

A finished video comes with what a reviewer needs later: the final video, captions, transcript, thumbnail, description, script and the version that was approved. The record also notes who approved it, the platform and the publication date. The video should work without sound, so the captions must match the spoken words. Disclosures should be readable in the same medium as the claim they qualify. The firm should always be able to say which version was approved and where its archive copy is stored.

One trial video starts at $79. Monthly plans start at $99 a month for 2 videos and $199 a month for 4 videos. All fees are flat fees. Nothing on this page is a quote or a contract. Work starts with a signed written agreement that sets the scope, the price and the timeline, and with a paid setup or build fee.

Once the build fee is paid, the firm owns its website, domain, design, copy, photos, finished videos, code, analytics, Search Console, forms and client data. We transfer ownership of the accounts the firm needs, and accounts it already owns stay its own. If the firm leaves, everything leaves with it, and we hand over credentials and documentation. We do not promise rankings, leads, clients, assets or results.

More on how we work with firms is on the page for financial firms, and the contact page is where a firm asks for a written agreement.

A shoot goes faster when the firm arrives with its name, regulatory status and regulator, its approval workflow, and its approved brand language and prohibited claims. We also ask for the intended audience and language, topics that are safe to discuss in public, the spokesperson, filming location and office availability, logos, colors and headshots, a list of real client questions, any confidentiality limits, and the places the video will run. The more of these the firm brings to the first session, the less review time the finished files need.