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Last month a war (of sorts) was declared, pitting various risk tolerance companies against each other concerning their methodologies relating to portfolio risk assessment and analysis. The dispute appeared to be outside the realm of measuring a client’s appetite for risk. However, there is a very real and clear line of demarcation in the world of risk-tolerance assessment “advisortech” with respect to the method employed in assessing the investor’s so-called “risk tolerance,” particularly the …
As the full impact of COVID-19 continues to unveil itself in the financial services industry, many advisors we are hearing from have begun to plan for a long-term remote practice. If you are contemplating a similar shift for the future, it is important to understand the limitations of the methods you used in the past to get to know prospects. Two of these methods, (a) judgment based on direct interaction and (b) forms with …
If you have ever taken a quiz entitled “How to tell if your boyfriend is cheating on you” or “Answer these five questions to learn to see if you’re a good friend,” then you’ve probably taken something akin to what we call a “Cosmo test.” Your answers to just a few questions will result in a detailed analysis of your personality, along with a lengthy set of advice on improving your life (or a …
“My neighbor is driving me crazy. She always says she’s the most frugal person she knows, but she’s spending every dime on *&#$* at Target. It’s not frugal. It’s stupid.” A friend recently shared this sentiment with me, and it is an excellent example of the fact that some of us aren’t great at evaluating our own personal characteristics. Some of us lack self-awareness when it comes to specific attributes about ourselves. Frugality is …
In his “Intelligent Investor” column in the September 7, 2019 print edition of the Wall Street Journal, Jason Zweig wrote about an idea that we’ve thought about a good deal in the recent past: the fact that not all risk tolerance assessments are created equal. In the piece, Mr. Zweig—himself an accomplished and noted author regarding topics related to the intersection of money and our brains—takes specific aim at what some have referred to …