Filip Telibasa, a certified financial planner in Sarasota, Fla., asks new clients to answer seven multiple-choice questions. “It’s intentionally short and includes both qualitative, emotion-oriented questions and quantitative, numbers-oriented questions,” he said. “It’s a starting point for a conversation to dig deeper and confirm their true risk tolerance.”

For example, one of the questions probes how a client defines “long term.” (“When making a long-term investment, I plan to keep the money invested for…”)

“If they choose ‘one to two years’ as their answer, that shows they have the lowest risk tolerance,” Telibasa said. “If they choose ‘more than 10 years,’ they have a higher risk tolerance.”