When the Russian army invaded the Ukrainian borders back in February, no one knew just how long the conflict would last and how it would send shockwaves through the rest of the world. Now, the war is approaching its 4th month and the economic fallout is...
I just spent the last 10 weeks interviewing 76 financial advisors across the U.S. I asked them about their risk tolerance process. Specifically, how they discover the right level of investment risk for their clients. The results were varied but the challenges were the same. Firstly,...
Understanding financial risk can be a complex subject mostly because everyone seems to have a different definition. Traditionally risk has been defined by a dry and mathematical term called volatility. Volatility being a measure of the dispersion of returns for an investment. Essentially, the amount...
As a financial adviser you get judged on many metrics but chief among them is portfolio performance. Which client would want a financial adviser who routinely looses them money? Depending on what you read asset allocation determines between 40%-100% of portfolio performance (The CFA institute has...
Before the 2008/2009 financial crisis you probably didn’t worry too much about your client’s liquidity risk. Getting their money out would be as simple as putting it in. That was until Northern Rock happened. Given what unfolded and the recent troubles in Cyprus, liquidity is...