Quarterly reports rewritten as stories with heroes and villains

InvestSuite launched Storyteller earlier this year to turn quarterly portfolio reports into short narratives that identify top contributors as “heroes” and laggards as “villains.” The product is used by more than 5,000 users. In a three-month trial with Standard Life, 600 participants were split into two groups; the 300 clients who received Storyteller outputs increased contributions by 30% over the trial period.

Storyteller pulls portfolio data from a firm’s existing systems, runs performance attribution and a news-matching algorithm, and assembles a narrative by selecting from a library of pre-written text snippets. Firms can deliver the output as traditional PDFs, short videos, personalized podcast-style recordings or a web view advisors can use during client meetings.

Founder David Connor described the product’s goal as making it clearer what clients own by grouping holdings by sector and asset class and labelling positions such as large-cap or small-cap to aid understanding.

The product frames each quarter as a simple narrative arc that highlights a few strong performers and a few laggards. Connor explained the system flags a “hero” when an instrument posts a strong positive return and looks for bright spots even in down quarters.

Standard Life’s trial split 600 participants into equal groups. After three months, the group receiving Storyteller reports showed a 30% increase in contributions compared with the control group.

InvestSuite says the system uses deterministic AI limited to internal portfolio and CRM data and does not pull free-form content from external generative models. The company assembles final narratives from a pre-approved text database that compliance teams can review, which the firm says reduces the risk of inaccurate or disallowed statements.

A small number of registered investment advisers in the United States are using Storyteller, and some advisors reportedly use the web view to walk through reports with clients during reviews.

InvestSuite positions Storyteller as a tool for client education, engagement and intergenerational conversations about wealth, offering firms multiple delivery formats and narratives linked to portfolio attribution and relevant news.