Not long ago I received a form letter from an investment firm we deal with.
This is one of the top such firms in the world.
In the letter was the following paragraph.
When I read it, my image of the company immediately plummeted.
Can you tell me why? I understand that upon my death my interest in the ______ Individual Retirement Plan (the "IRA") described above shall become the property of the primary beneficiary, if her or she survives me, and if no primary beneficiary survives me, than of the contingent beneficiary, and if no contingent beneficiary survives me, or the Custodian cannot locate the beneficiary, then the Custodian shall distribute the amount payable to my spouse, if he or she survives me, and, if not, to my children in equal shares, and if no children survive me, to my estate.
Did you spot the mistakes? There are two hard-core errors: 1.
"...
if her or she survives me, ...
" should be "...
if he or she survives me, ...
" 2.
"...
than of the contingent beneficiary, ...
" should be "...
then of the contingent beneficiary ..
..
" Two major mistakes in just one paragraph! Plus, the paragraph is a single, 93-word, run-on sentence that is improperly punctuated and basically unintelligible.
Had this paragraph been in a quick e-mail from an account manager to us, that would be bad enough.
But no - it was part of a standard form letter that is probably sent to tens of thousands of customers all over the world month after month after month.
Didn't they care enough to have someone take a minute to give it a quick proofing? If they are that careless with their written communications, how careful can they be with our little nest egg? They came close to losing our account that day.
Don't make the same mistake.
Don't let carelessness with your written communications damage your image.
When image is important, write carefully and proofread what you write!