Additive Determination of an Investor’s Risk Tolerance in Asset Allocation

This study aims to improve asset allocation by combining traditional finance theory and behavioral finance. The authors construct efficient portfolios using modern portfolio theory (MPT) and identify an appropriate portfolio for a particular investor through a risk assessment score (RAS). The identified portfolio is not only optimal but also suitable based on the investor's risk profile. An RAS questionnaire is designed to produce an additive score in the range of 0 to 100 (i.e., a percentage) that maps linearly to the range of the tangency slope. Their framework is highly flexible and cost effective in terms of both capital market assumptions and the delineation of investor preferences. To emphasize the flexibility of the process, they provide an example questionnaire for retail investors in India, as well as an illustration of a three-asset-class efficient frontier. They also briefly discuss the ability of mapping responses to qualitative inquiries to the tangency slope in the allocation decisions of institutional investors (e.g., defined-benefit pension funds).