Glossary · Risk and suitability

Risk tolerance

Risk tolerance is a client's psychological willingness to accept volatility and loss — how much they can bear without abandoning the plan.

It is measured by questionnaire and it is the softest of the three risk dimensions, because answers given in a calm market and behaviour exhibited in a falling one differ.

Tolerance is routinely collapsed together with capacity and requirement into a single score, and the collapse is where risk tooling stops being useful.

Read more: Risk tolerance is not one question →