Traditional risk assessments have been part of financial planning for decades but do they really tell advisors how clients will behave when markets become uncertain?

In this episode, Dr. Charles Chaffin sits down with Dr. John Grable, one of the world's leading researchers in financial risk tolerance, investor behavior, and financial psychology, to explore a deeper question:

What does it really mean for a client to be comfortable with risk?

Dr. Grable has spent more than 30 years studying how people understand, perceive, and respond to financial risk. Together, two of the MRI co-founders explore why clients often behave differently than their stated risk preferences suggest, why emotions play such an important role in financial decision-making, and why traditional risk questionnaires may not provide the complete picture advisors need.

The conversation introduces the research and thinking behind MRI Comfort with Risk™, a behavioral risk assessment designed to help financial advisors understand more than a client's willingness to take risk. Comfort with Risk™ helps advisors explore how clients experience risk emotionally, how they may respond during periods of market volatility, and how behavioral insights can strengthen the financial planning relationship.

In this episode, financial advisors will learn:

• Why risk tolerance is more complex than a single score.
• The difference between risk tolerance, risk capacity, risk perception, and comfort with risk.
• Why some clients who appear aggressive on paper struggle during market downturns.
• What traditional risk assessments measure well—and what they may miss.
• How MRI Comfort with Risk™ provides advisors with deeper behavioral insights and practical guidance.
• How advisors can use behavioral risk insights throughout the client relationship—not just at account opening.

Whether you are a financial advisor, financial planner, wealth manager, or someone interested in the psychology behind money decisions, this episode provides research-based insights into how understanding human behavior can improve financial planning outcomes.

Dr. Charles and Dr. Brad kick things off by tackling one of the toughest questions advisors face: which clients are the most challenging and why. From there, they unpack key ideas from their new book, exploring how financial psychology continues to shape client behavior in ways advisors can’t ignore. They close with a forward-looking conversation on the future of the profession, including the growing role of AI and why, despite all the technological change, human needs and human biases aren’t going anywhere.

Dr. Charles and Dr. Brad open the show talking about FOMO and how it can impact a client's risk profile as well as their communication with their advisor. They then talk about ways that advisors can plan for and respond to FOMO both during and in the beginning of the client-planner relationship.