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.

Dr. Charles and Dr. Brad begin the show by talking about motivation and how it impacts client behavior. They then outline 4 things every planner should know about both setting goals as well as ways of helping clients stay focused on their goals (and the client-planner relationship). As usual, they sprinkle-in some bad jokes throughout the episode.

Dr. Charles talks about the importance of understanding and responding to clients' various learning styles. He then walks through each of them and perhaps most importantly, what a planner can do to accommodate the learning style of each client whether in-person or video chat.

Dr. Charles and Dr. Brad talk about the steps that advisors can take to get their current clients to go from inaction to action, whether it is make a decision, adopt a financial plan, or adjust their behaviors so they are consistent with their plan. They also talk about tools and techniques to use with new clients so they do not "get stuck" in their current relationship with you, their financial planner.

Dr. Charles and Dr. Brad talk about the usefulness (and lack thereof) of behavioral finance as it relates to financial planning practice. They then dive into several of the biases and heuristics that they see as most relevant to a practitioner and how each can be applied in practice.

Dr. Charles and Dr. Brad discuss 7 ways advisors can help their clients through this difficult market, including steps that financial planners can take to care for themselves and make the most our of this challenging time in the market. The conversation meanders from zombies to dogs to new initiatives related to the Psychology of Financial Planning.