Risk tolerance is a much talked about area in financial planning and it is one core component of an investor's unique financial behavior - what we call their Financial DNA. It is so fundamental that we are always talking about it and making decisions with reference to it.

A huge difficulty has been reliably measuring an investor's risk tolerance. One of the problems is that an investor's risk tolerance is assessed today but then a portfolio is developed for the long term which has to cope with fluctuating markets. Do you truly know what your client's risk tolerance for the long term is? How much of your assessment of the client's risk tolerance is based on current situational factors and their emotional impulses today about the market? Then add in the fact that a person's risk tolerance may differ across different asset classes. Of course, an advisor's own risk tolerance can color the situation resulting in the client "eating" the behavior of the advisor. There have been lots of examples where a group of advisors addressing the same case facts at the same time will come up with different risk tolerance assessments for the client.

After more than 10 years of studying financial behaviors, including risk, and performing research based on our online profiles Financial DNA Resources has now launched our "Behavioral Portfolio Report". You can download a copy of it here: http://financialdnaresources.com/FinancialDirections.

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