Editorial Style Guide

Overview

This Confluence page hosts the F&G Editorial Style Guide, which will continue to evolve over time. This guide focuses on our brand voice and unique style choices. Note: This guide does not include standard grammar rules unless F&G’s style deviates from the norm.

Company Name and Entities

It’s important to be consistent in how we’re referring to the company across all materials. Below is the rule of thumb to follow as well as a breakdown of the corporate entities at large.

• Use “F&G” in all materials.
• If needing to use our full, legal name: Use “Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company” on first reference and “F&G” on subsequent references. This typically applies to formal documents (e.g., legal documents, SOUs, etc.).
• Only use “F&G Annuities and Life, Inc.” when referring to the entity that replaced FGL Holdings in 2020.

  Correct	Incorrect
  F&G	F&G Annuities and Life
  Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company	F&G Life
  	FG Life
  	FGL
  	FG
  	Fidelity & Guaranty
  	Fidelity & Guaranty Life
  	All other variations

Editorial Style Rules

If a specific rule is not listed below, follow the AP Style Guide.

Abbreviations & Acronyms

• Avoid using an abbreviation or acronym on the first reference. On the first reference, spell it out and list the acronym in parentheses after, using the abbreviation or acronym on subsequent references. Headers are the exception if space is an issue.
• Acronyms and abbreviations may be used for the first reference if they are widely recognized, such as AARP.
• States – Use postal abbreviations for states and territories of the United States. Spell it out in body copy.
• Quarters – Use Q4 2020, not 4Q 2020. Spell out in body copy: fourth quarter 2020.
• United States should be spelled out as a noun and as U.S. as a modifier (e.g., U.S. citizen).

Ampersands

The ampersand (&) should not be used in place of and, except when it is part of a company’s formal name or in a title/header.

Audiences

• In consumer materials, address the audience as you and your.
• In agent materials, use your client.
• IMO agents should be called agents, not advisors. They can also be called financial and insurance professionals.
• Financial institutions (e.g., broker/dealer and banks) should be called advisors, not agents. They can also be called financial advisors, financial professionals, or financial and insurance professionals.
• When addressing emails:
  • Agents: Financial & Insurance Professionals
  • IMO contacts: Distribution Partners
  • Consumer/general (e.g., Aspirement Digest email): No need to address or use personalization tokens

Capitalization

• Headers and sub-headers – Sentence case; Capitalize only the first word and proper nouns.
• Bullet points – Sentence case unless proper nouns.
• CTAs – Sentence case; Capitalize only the first word and proper nouns.
• Colons – Capitalize the first word after a colon only if it is a proper noun or the start of a complete sentence. He promised this: The company will make good all the losses. VS. There were three considerations: expense, time and feasibility.
• Diseases – Do not capitalize diseases (e.g., cancer, emphysema, leukemia, hepatitis). Do capitalize the shorthand (COVID-19, MERS, SARS).
• Email addresses – Capitalize each new word/name to the left of the at sign (e.g., SalesDesk@fglife.com, Contracting.Support@fglife.com, Jordan.Doe@fglife.com).
• Job titles – For generic references, lowercase when in body copy ( e.g., Contact your financial or insurance professionals). When referring to a specific person or using as part of their name, capitalize (e.g., President and CEO Chris Blunt or Chris Blunt, President and CEO).
• Laws – Capitalize legislative acts but not bills (e.g., the Americans with Disabilities Act, the education bill)
• Historical periods and events – Capitalize widely recognized popular names for periods and events (e.g., the Great Depression, the Great Recession).

Terms to capitalize in marketing:

• F&G product feature names such as:
  • Impairment Multiplier
  • Enhanced Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit
• Rider names such as:
  • Funding Bonus Rider
  • Overloan Protection Rider
• Policy document names such as:
  • Statement of Understanding
  • F&G Market Conduct Guide

Do not capitalize legal language in marketing materials; only capitalize in the Statement of Understanding and other legal/policy documents.

Commas

• Do not use a serial comma (aka Oxford comma) in a simple series (e.g., The flag is red, white and blue.)
• However, if a series includes a more complicated structure, the serial comma may be used for clarity/to avoid ambiguity. For example, if a series includes 3+ items and at least one of the items uses a conjunction, the serial comma may be used.

Citations & Footnotes

• Use numbers for citations/footnotes. Never use asterisks or other symbols.

Dashes & Hyphens

• Do not use dashes in phone numbers, use dots (e.g., 888.513.8797).
• Use a space on both sides of an EM dash.
• Do not use a single hyphen, or an EN dash, in place of an EM dash.
• A single hyphen may be used to show a fiscal year (e.g., 2019-20).
• For other date ranges, unless within a graph, spell out the range (e.g., from 2015 to 2020).

Dates

• Do not use ordinals with dates (e.g., November 19, not November 19th)
• Only add the year if it’s not the current year (e.g., November 19, 2020)

Decimals

• Do not exceed two decimal places in copy unless necessary for the circumstance.
• For amounts less than 1, use a zero before the decimal point (e.g., 0.25)
• Avoid decimals that end with zeros in copy, but aim to be consistent within a piece with decimal places (e.g., 3.00%, 4.35% or 3%, 4%).

Disclosures & Boilerplates

• Compliance requires we follow this order:
  • F&G/general disclosures
  • Product-related disclosures
  • Crediting options disclosures
• Must be 7-point font size or larger and should not appear hidden.
  • Meaning: Disclosures should not be in a font that is too light to read or that matches the color of the background that the text is on. The disclosures must be easily viewed.
• Specific product or service features should have footnotes appear close to the promotion of that feature and not in a long list in the back of a multi-page piece.
• More general or full disclosures may be located at the back of the piece in the disclosures section.
• Refer to spreadsheet of disclosures maintained by Ad Review on InTouch - http://intouch.fglife.com/docs/default-source/product-development-actuarial/guidelines-policies/ad-review-style-spreadsheet

Dollar amounts

• For amounts less than $1 million, use figures (e.g., $950,000).
• For amounts equal to or greater than $1 million, use numerals out to two decimal points (e.g., $1.05 billion)

Numerals

• Spell out numbers zero through nine except:

  • Ages
  • Credit hours
  • Dates
  • Dimensions
  • Guarantee periods (e.g., 3-, 5- or 7-year MYGA)
    • Spell out numbers 1-9 if we are generically referencing the period, e.g. “If you have seven to 15 years before retirement…”. Use numerals when we are referencing the policy period specifically, e.g. “Vests over 7, 10 or 14 years, depending on the duration of your policy.”
  • Page numbers
  • Percentages
  • Measurements
  • Room numbers
  • Weight

  Note: Always spell out numbers that begin a sentence, unless the number is a year.

• Use numerals for 10 and above

• Spell out fractions less than one and hyphenate (e.g., two-thirds or five-sixteenths)

• Use numerals for whole numbers and fractions (e.g., 2 2/3)

• Use the word million or billion in both the first and last number of a range (e.g., from $4 million to $6 million. Not: from $4 to $6 million, unless you truly mean $4).

Page numbers

Marketing materials over two pages must have page numbers on each page. Pieces that end in only disclosures on the final page should be numbered as Page X of X.

Percentages

• Can spell out or use the percentage symbol, but be consistent within one piece.
• When spelling out, use percent with numerals (e.g., Enrollment increased 7 percent) and percentage when not paired with a number (e.g., The percentage of people agreeing is small).
  • Percent does not equal percentage. A change from 10% to 13% is a rise of 3 percentage points, not a 3% change (as it’s actually a 30% increase).

Periods

• Use a single space after a period at the end of a sentence.
• Use three periods for an ellipsis with a space on either side of the ellipsis.
• Use periods with bullet points only when they form complete sentences. Fragments do not need a period.
• Phone numbers should use dots, not dashes (e.g., 888.445.8797)

Policy form numbers

• The list should begin with “Policy form numbers:” in sentence case.
• There should be a space before the parenthesis in a form number
  • E.g., ICC19-2003 (1-19)

Possessives

It is okay to use F&G as a possessive (e.g., F&G’s culture)

Product type

The product type (e.g., fixed indexed annuity, fixed indexed universal life, etc.) should prominently appear on marketing materials.

Rankings & Ratings

• Use symbol in headers, sub-headers, callouts, etc. (e.g., #3) rather than ordinals.
• Spell out in body copy (e.g., third)

Symbols

• The plus sign may be used when referring to a period that does not specify an end (e.g., policy years 11+)
• Trademarks should be superscripted and used in headers/sub-headers and the first reference in the body copy.
  • Exception: S&P 500^® uses the trademark in every instance.

Time

• Minutes are not necessary unless specific time is needed (e.g., 3p.m. not 3:00p.m.).
• Use a.m. and p.m. lowercase and with periods.
• Use simplest form of time zone abbreviations: ET, CT, PT (do not use EST, CST, etc.)
• Use noon and midnight rather than 12a.m. or p.m.
• The order for listing an event is: time, day, date, place
  • The meeting will be at 2p.m. on Monday, July 1, at the Civic Center

URLs

• Do not use the prefixes http://, https:// or www. in URLs (e.g., fglife.com)