Risk Profile Questionnaire (Tolerance • Capacity • Need)

Understanding Risk in Your Financial Plan

Are you avoiding market risk in hopes of preventing short-term losses? While that may feel safer, the greater risk is often not reaching your long-term goals.

Risk isn't one-dimensional. A well-designed plan considers three distinct aspects of risk, each of which plays a role in building a strategy you can stick with.

Risk Tolerance

reflects your emotional comfort with market volatility. Understanding this helps avoid emotional decisions—such as abandoning a strategy during inevitable market declines.

Risk Capacity

measures how much risk you can realistically afford to take based on factors like time horizon, income stability, liquidity needs, and upcoming withdrawals.

Risk Need

represents the level of return required to achieve your goals. This is determined through financial planning—not a questionnaire—and helps ensure your strategy is aligned with what your goals actually demand.

When these three areas aren't aligned, important tradeoffs may be required. Our role is to help you balance them thoughtfully, so your investment strategy maximizes the probability of success—without taking more risk than necessary.

Risk Profile Questionnaire

Scores are separated into Risk Tolerance (comfort), Risk Capacity (ability), and Risk Need (required return). Designed for discovery sessions and documentation.

Client Info

⚠️ Time horizon should roughly match "Years to Goal" below for consistency.

The sections below drive the three independent scores. Answering more questions improves the reliability of the profile.

Risk Tolerance (Comfort)

0/5
Scoring: higher = greater comfort with volatility and uncertainty.

Risk Capacity (Ability)

0/6
Scoring: higher = greater ability to take risk without threatening near-term needs.

Risk Need (Required Return)

Goal-based

Goal-based need (recommended) ?

Objective

This computes a rough required return to reach the goal. If inputs are blank, the tool falls back to a short "need" questionnaire.

Scoring: higher = a higher required return / greater growth need (often implies higher equity exposure).

Results

Risk Tolerance

Answer questions to generate a score.

Risk Capacity

Answer questions to generate a score.

Risk Need

Enter goal inputs or answer the need questions.

Suggested Risk Band

Complete inputs to see recommendation.
Important Information: This questionnaire is for educational and discussion purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal, or investment advice. Results are based on the information entered and simplified assumptions. Scores are not guarantees of performance or outcomes, and they do not replace a full financial plan and suitability review. Data is stored only in your browser (local storage) unless you export it.