One client conversation can produce two documents: a private follow-up for the client, and a public lesson with no detail that identifies the client unless the client approves it in writing. When a client's words are used to promote the adviser's business, the Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides apply, and a quote has to reflect what the client actually thought or experienced (16 C.F.R. 255.1). The rules below are United States federal rules, given as general information and not as legal advice.
One conversation, two separate pieces
The private follow-up holds the client's own situation, next steps and documents. The public lesson keeps the part that applies to other clients and drops whatever shows whose situation it was.
| Question | Private follow-up | Public lesson |
|---|---|---|
| Written for | The one client | Anyone facing the same question |
| Details allowed | Anything the client said | Only details that identify no one |
| Who approves it | The adviser | The adviser, plus the client whenever anything about them remains |
| Where it goes | To that client, by email or on paper | A website, a newsletter, a talk |
What identifies a client
A name, a business name, an address, a photo and a voice each identify a client on their own. Other details identify only in combination: the industry, the town, the size of the company and the month it sold. "A pool service company in a small lake town that sold to a regional buyer in the spring" names no one, and a competitor in that town could still say whose sale it was.
Each detail left in is read the way the client's employees, customers and competitors would read it. If any of them could recognize the company from it, the detail is changed or cut. Details that carry nothing the reader needs can change freely: in a piece about how a buyer reads tax returns, the industry and the town can change, and what the buyer asked for cannot.
When a confidentiality or listing agreement covers the conversation, its terms set the limits first.
Three ways to tell the story
| Approach | What changes | How it is labeled | When it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Composite | Details from several situations combined into one | "A composite of several situations" | The same question comes up with many clients |
| Made-up example | The business, the people and the numbers are invented | "Made up for this example" | The point needs specific numbers |
| Named story | Nothing, with the client's written permission | The client's name, worded as they approve | The client wants to be known for it |
In April 1981 The Washington Post gave up a Pulitzer Prize won by a feature about an eight-year-old heroin addict. In a telegram to members of the Pulitzer Prize Foundation, the paper's executive editor, Benjamin C. Bradlee, said the reporter, Janet Cooke, had acknowledged that the story was a composite, that its quotes were fabricated and that certain events had not happened (The Christian Science Monitor, April 16, 1981). Cooke resigned. The Society of Professional Journalists' code of ethics, revised in 2014, asks journalists to "Clearly label illustrations and re-enactments" (code of ethics).
When a client's words promote the business
A client's words on the adviser's website, in a proposal or in a post about the adviser's services can be an endorsement under the Endorsement Guides. The Guides define an endorsement as an advertising, marketing or promotional message that people are likely to believe reflects the opinions, beliefs, findings or experiences of someone other than the advertiser (16 C.F.R. 255.0). The Guides are the Commission's own reading of the FTC Act's ban on deceptive practices, and an ad that conflicts with them can draw corrective action under the Act. Three parts of the Guides come up with client stories.
- The endorsement has to reflect the client's own opinion, findings, beliefs or experience. A quote can be shortened or paraphrased unless it is presented as the client's exact words, and it cannot be taken out of context or reworded in a way that distorts what the client meant (section 255.1, linked above).
- A story about one client's experience on a central point will likely be read as what others can expect. Without evidence that the experience is typical, the piece has to state clearly what people in that situation can generally expect (16 C.F.R. 255.2). If one client's sale closed in five weeks and most of the adviser's sales take months, a quote about the five weeks needs the usual time beside it.
- A connection the audience would not expect, such as a discount, a payment or a family or business tie, is disclosed clearly (16 C.F.R. 255.5).
A separate federal rule, in effect since October 21, 2024, bars a business from publishing a testimonial that it knew or should have known misrepresents that the person exists, that they used the business or what their experience was (16 C.F.R. 465.2; effective date from the Commission's questions and answers on the rule). The rule is written for consumer testimonials, and whether it reaches a particular business setting is a question for a lawyer.
A permission request the client can answer
When a lesson needs a detail that identifies the client, or quotes the client, the request goes out with the exact draft attached. Invented for the example:
"I would like to publish the article below on my website and in my newsletter. It quotes you by first name and describes your sale as it appears in the draft. Please reply with yes, with changes or with no. If you agree now and change your mind later, tell me and I will take the article down within a week."
The reply is filed with the draft. A yes covers that draft only, so a rewritten article goes back to the client for a new yes.
Lee's tax returns, written twice
Invented for the example: a broker talks with Lee, who owns a commercial cleaning company and plans to sell in about two years. Lee is surprised to hear that a buyer may ask for three years of tax returns and compare them with the company's own profit and loss statements.
The private follow-up, written for Lee:
"Lee, as we discussed, pull your last three federal tax returns and your profit and loss statements for the same years. Where the two differ, write one line explaining why. Send them to me by the 15th and we will go through them together."
The public version, written for the broker's website:
"A buyer may compare a seller's tax returns with the company's internal statements and ask about every difference. A seller who writes a one-line reason for each difference before the buyer asks has the answers in hand when the questions come."
The name, the industry, the timeline and every figure are gone from the public version, so it goes out without asking Lee.
The interview plan worksheet covers planning the conversation itself. Once the public version is ready, how to release one conversation across several channels covers the order the pieces go out in and the checks each one passes.
Sources
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, 16 C.F.R. 255.0, purpose and definitions.
- Legal Information Institute, 16 C.F.R. 255.1, general considerations. Paragraphs (a) and (b).
- Legal Information Institute, 16 C.F.R. 255.2, consumer endorsements. Paragraph (b).
- Legal Information Institute, 16 C.F.R. 255.5, disclosure of material connections.
- Legal Information Institute, 16 C.F.R. 465.2, the federal rule on fake testimonials.
- Federal Trade Commission, questions and answers on its 2024 rule on testimonials. Source of the effective date, October 21, 2024.
- The Christian Science Monitor, Pulitzer declined by Washington Post, April 16, 1981.
- Society of Professional Journalists, Code of Ethics, revised September 6, 2014.