“If the advisor cannot demonstrate some value by sounding intellectual without sounding unapproachable, they’ll lose the client,” says Anthony Stich, director of global marketing at Advicent. “You still have to sound smart. This paradox harms today’s younger financial advisor, as the same attributes that signify age also signify wisdom. It’s better for them to use accurate, intellectual language.”

However, advisors must also limit their intellectual language, says Carolyn McClanahan, director of financial planning at Life Planning Partners, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based RIA.

“I think too many advisors are already trying to impress clients with their knowledge,” says  McClanahan. “They already know that we know what we’re doing; that’s why they’re our clients. The best way to impress then is to show that we really care about them and are interested in their goals.”

These were some of the worst-offending financial advice buzzwords, according to some industry experts:

EQUITIES, STOCKS, or COMPANIES

“I stay away from the term equities; a lot of people don’t know that equties are stocks,” says McClanahan. “We need to avoid going into very technical explanations about the markets and their constituents without knowing whether, one, the client actually wants to hear those things, and two, whether the client is going to understand what we’re saying.”

Changing equities to “stocks” might not cut it for many clients, says Blease, and advisors should be careful that they might turn concrete assets into abstractions with their terminology.

“I don’t talk about stocks, I talk about companies when I build a portfolio,” says Blease. “I want clients to know that they’re owning companies, not just stocks.”

BASIS POINTS or BPS

“For the investor, it’s better for the advisor to talk in terms of actual dollars than that of basis points,” says Williams. “Fewer than one-third of investors understand the advisory fees that they’re paying, so most clients aren’t going to grasp what the basis point is.”

ASSET ALLOCATION

“Talking about asset allocation is still too much information for our average client,” says McClanahan. “We talk about riskier assets versus safer assets, bringing it down to a very basic level -- but before we talk about investments at all, we discuss their financial plan.”