RiskProfiler™

RiskProfiler assists you in identifying the proper balance between growth and safety you need in your portfolio.

Growth is needed to increase portfolio value over time and is the surest way for most of us to achieve our long term investment goals. Stocks are the most aggressive investment normally recommended for the growth category. Historically, stocks have outperformed every other common investment for the investor who is willing to hold them long enough. However, there have been times in the past where more than fifteen years was needed just to break even in stocks. Stocks, therefore, are an appropriate buy & hold strategy for growth when time horizons are at least 10 years.

Not all investors are comfortable with the amount of risk that comes with investing in stocks (bear markets can often reduce stock values by 50%, occasionally by even more). Safety provides a vehicle for minimizing portfolio volatility. The safest investments over time are U.S. Treasury bills and money market funds made up of treasury bills. These investments also have about the lowest returns around. Adding treasury bills to a portfolio of common stocks will reduce both upside and downside volatility at the cost of lowering expected portfolio performance.

RiskProfiler will help you determine how much safety you need in your portfolio and then Market Insights can assist you in optimizing the performance of the growth portion of your portfolio.

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