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FAQ
What writing
services are available?
What about
other writers and specialists?
What about
corporate work?
What are Nic’s
own credentials as a writer and editor?
Yes, but is he
really any good?
What about his
financial knowledge?
Tell me about
media training
What kind of
courses do you offer?
What about
financial coaching?
Can money
coaching really change my bad financial
habits?
What about
consultancy work?
What makes
Inspired Money’s consultancy services
special?
Isn’t there an
inherent contradiction between journalism and corporate
work?
But doesn’t
corporate work put the journalist at risk of being “bought
off”?
Where is
Inspired Money headed?
Are you
planning to upgrade Inspired Money?
What if people
need independent financial advice or want to buy a
pension?
Will Inspired
Money offer financial advice further down the
line?
Is there life
outside personal finance?
Any more
questions?
What writing
services are available?
Any. In the past 15
years, Nic Cicutti has covered a wide variety of subjects, from
financial issues such as pensions mis-selling and the collapse of
Barings Bank, to the Staffordshire social services “pin-down”
scandal, crime and IRA bombings. Writing styles have ranged from
broadsheet to tabloid.
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What about
other writers and specialists?
Nic has
numerous contacts in personal finance journalism. He can identify
the most appropriate author, designer and sub-editor or other
technical specialists, commission and edit copy, offering a complete
turnkey operation for any publication or website.
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What about
corporate work?
Recent writing by Nic and
colleagues he commissions includes company brochures, pamphlets and
guides, email mailings, website content and newsletters. Companies
they have worked for include many of the UK’s top life insurers,
fund management firms, financial advice firms, banks and building
societies.
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What are Nic’s
own credentials as a writer and editor?
Nic
has spent almost 10 years working for national newspapers. He was
personal finance editor at The Independent and editor of
FTyourmoney, the Financial Times personal finance website, while
also writing for the paper itself.
He still writes for the
FT and also for the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Esquire
magazine and many other financial titles.
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Yes, but is he
really any good?
Over the years, Nic has
won a wide range of journalism awards for his personal finance
writing and editing, the most recent of which is Bradford &
Bingley’s prestigious Scoop of the Year in November
2002.
FTyourmoney won Personal Finance Website of the Year
award for two years running, in 2002 and 2001.
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What about his
financial knowledge?
Many years of writing
about personal finance, researching hundreds of issues in depth,
explaining them to readers in simple language – and then returning
to the subject again and again - tends to leave an indelible
impression on most good journalists.
Hardly surprisingly, Nic
passed Parts 1 and 2 of the Financial Planning Certificate, the
three-part exam for independent financial advisers, at his first
attempt in 2002.
It has to be said, the tests were not hugely
rigorous – not that it stopped a few would-be advisers in his group
failing them. When he finds the time he’ll try to bag Part 3 and, in
time, take things further.
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Tell me about
media training
What proper media training
can do is to set out some guidelines, give those new to the press
greater awareness and experience, refresh the knowledge of those who
already deal with the media, weed out bad habits and provide
insights into how journalism works.
Most skills can be
taught, including writing press releases, appearing in front of a
camera or handling a press conference.
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What kind of
courses do you offer?
There is no one
single way to deal with journalists and their inquiries. Each
depends on a wide range of factors, including the subject matter,
the journalist and the company itself.
All training is
personalised and based on the specific needs of the organisation
that requires it. Courses can run between half a day and three days,
though the latter would clearly be for complete novices and/or
dunderheads.
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What about
financial coaching?
Most of us tend to have
a very uneasy relationship with money. Often, spending money becomes
a substitute for other things missing in our lives.
Some of
us never learned to budget as well as we might, or are unaware that
there are better ways of achieving the same financial ends with less
effort and expense.
At times, we don’t have proper strategies
in place to help us invest, pay off a mortgage or plan for our
retirement. We have the wrong credit cards, loans and bank
accounts.
Money coaching can help in all these areas. All it
needs is a combination of honesty and the willingness to look at our
finances differently.
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Can money
coaching really change my bad financial
habits?
No. Self-motivation and practice is
what changes people’s financial habits. Outside coaching can help.
But you have to do it for yourself.
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What about
consultancy work?
Our consultancy services
operate at various levels.
On the editorial side, they can
range from simple editing tasks, online navigation and
“look-and-feel” to more complicated matters such as magazine or
website launches and re-designs.
We also help financial
institutions to improve the services they offer to consumers,
whether in relation to products, service delivery or any other areas
where they interact with their customers.
Where necessary,
additional expert advice can be brought in to provide further layers
of skill and knowledge.
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What makes
Inspired Money’s consultancy services
special?
One doesn’t spend a decade reading
reams of documents, talking to thousands of consumers, financial
advisers, company executives, Government sources and assorted
hangers-on every year without forming a sophisticated
consumer-focussed view of what is going on in personal
finance.
That knowledge and insight is essential for a
writer. It is also a resource for anyone else who wants a deeper
understanding of consumer issues, of why people act as they do, what
they want and what they hate about personal finance.
That
expertise can help companies deliver a better service and to improve
the products they offer their clients.
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Isn’t there an
inherent contradiction between journalism and corporate
work?
A fair question. At times, as we’ve
discussed above, it is genuinely possible to generate a win-win
scenario for both consumers and an industry that is supposedly there
to meet their needs – yet often fails.
At other times it is
simply not possible: the interests of both sides (and there can be
sides to this, regrettably) may be too far apart to be bridged by
any pretence of goodwill.
If any conflict of interest could
raise its head, we simply don’t accept the work, preferring to refer
business elsewhere.
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But doesn’t
corporate work put the journalist at risk of being “bought
off”?
There is a danger of becoming
“tainted”, of not wanting to do harm to an institution that only a
month before may have offered the journalist a lucrative piece of
work.
The only way round this undoubted dilemma is to be 10
times more vigilant. It means setting down rules about what you will
and won’t do for a company, or the “hospitality” one accepts, to
give an example.
There are people working as “pure”
journalists who think nothing of leaping on a plane to exotic
locations for spurious week-long “briefings” that could just as
easily be carried out over the phone or at a company’s
offices.
In Nic’s case, he has a justified reputation for
hard, fearless journalism. His work is highly respected by his
peers.
Anyone in the financial services industry will testify
to the fact that regardless of who commissions Inspired Money they
can expect no special favours.
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Where is
Inspired Money headed?
Inspired Money tries
to do a number of things. It outlines the various editorial and
consultancy services on offer from us.
At the same time, it
tries to provide regular commentary on events taking place in the
financial services world, passing on information and tips to
consumers.
For those who want to know more, it also offers a
long list of other sites for visitors to go to where they can deepen
their knowledge and understanding of personal finance. If you have
found a helpful site, let us know and we will happily consider
linking to it.
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Are you
planning to upgrade Inspired Money?
We will
be adding fresh content to the site as often as possible. Up to once
a week would be nice. You can register for our updated bulletins
elsewhere on this site or by going here(link to registration
service).
In future, it may also be possible to offer
additional services, to provide more guidance to consumers, helping
them to make better financial choices.
That may mean allowing
them to select and apply for various products, with appropriate help
and tips on what to look out for – and on what to
avoid.
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What if people
need independent financial advice or want to buy a
pension?
Inspired Money is not authorised
to give independent financial advice or to recommend pensions,
investment or other regulated products to consumers.
We can
give “generic” guidance – the basic nuts and bolts stuff, what
people should and shouldn’t be doing and why, what considerations
they should take into account when planning their finances and so
on.
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Will Inspired
Money offer financial advice further down the
line?
It is unlikely. In future we may,
subject to resolving regulatory and other issues, be able to provide
details of some of the top independent financial advice firms to go
to in respect of various financial planning needs.
The aim
here would not be to give out names or provide links on a
one-size-fits-all basis but to match a financial need with an
appropriate expert whom, on the basis of existing experience and
further careful investigation, we trust and respect.
But all
this some way away and we would welcome Inspired Money users’
thoughts on whether to take this further and what they would be
looking for.
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Is there life
outside personal finance?
It doesn’t feel
like it sometimes! But seriously, in his spare time Nic is a scooter
fanatic. He uses a vintage Lambretta to get around London and even
further afield. When the thing actually works, it beats the
congestion charge, if nothing else.
Nic attends scooter
rallies in the UK and abroad, likes a drink or two and enjoys
dancing (badly) at 60s Northern Soul allnighters. But no talk of
parkas in his presence, please: mods and scooterists are two
completely different life forms.
For his sins, Nic supports
Ipswich Town Football Club, the nearly-but-not-quite Premiership
team. He lives in hope and anticipation of better times
ahead.
Finally, Nic likes walking and takes a couple of weeks
off every year to burn off calories. He likes to take his
long-haired collie, Sally, on his walks. But she’s not always as
keen on the exercise.
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Any more
questions?
If you have any more questions
for Inspired Money, some of which you believe could usefully be
featured on this page, email us at
.
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