How to create the perfect investor questionnaire

Every investor is different. Some like to play it safe and protect their wealth at all costs. Others embrace risk and the promise of high returns. To ensure that your customers enjoy success in the financial markets, you need a solid understanding of who they are.

This is where investment questionnaires come in. A well-written questionnaire allows you to understand who your clients are, what they want, and how you can help them. In this article, we’ll explain:

• The key questions to cover in your investment questionnaire
• How to gather the information you need quickly and efficiently

What questions should I be asking in an investor questionnaire?

Investor questionnaires must be detailed enough to gather all the information you need to make smart investment decisions on behalf of your clients. But if they’re too long and complicated, you could put clients off altogether. 

In this section, we’ll highlight some of the key questions to ask, allowing you to strike the perfect balance between detail and complexity.

Investment objectives

Let’s start at the most important place: investment objectives. After all, if you don’t know what your client hopes to achieve by investing their hard-earned money, how can you effectively help them?

Every investor will have slightly different objectives. Some may be aiming for a comfortable retirement, while others may be looking to aggressively grow their portfolio. The following questions will help you understand more about a client’s specific goals: 

• Is your investment attitude conservative, moderate, or aggressive?

• What is your investment time horizon? (In other words, when do you plan to sell or make withdrawals?)
• Over how many years do you plan to be making withdrawals? 

Risk tolerance

While investing always comes with some degree of risk, everyone has a different appetite for the level of risk they can take on. A person’s risk tolerance is usually dictated by factors including their age, net worth, financial situation, and future plans. 

By asking the right questions, you can gauge the level of risk your client is comfortable with — and the asset allocation that best suits them. Here are some examples:

• What’s more important to you, protecting your portfolio or generating high investment returns?
• How would you describe your investment philosophy? 
• What do you expect to be your next major expenditure?
• Over the next few years, do you expect your annual income to decrease, stay the same, or increase?
• What type of stocks are you interested in? (Tech, blue chip, value, etc.)
• Do you want to invest in stocks, bonds, commodities, funds, or a combination of all four?

How Content Snare can help you gather the information you need

Creating the perfect investor questionnaire is one thing. Collecting your clients’ replies in a smart, seamless way is another altogether. Without a dedicated system for recording, storing, and approving client information, it’s difficult to keep track. This is where Content Snare can help. 

Content Snare simplifies the collection of customer data, documents, and content. So instead of getting lost in messy email threads, spreadsheets, or folders, you have everything you need in one place. And with our dedicated investor questionnaire, you can get the information you need faster than ever. 

With Content Snare, you can:

• Send automated reminders
• Request, approve, or reject information without email
• Gain a 360-degree view of progress across your company
• Answer customer questions and solve issues
• Integrate with your favourite tools and apps
• Download customer data or export to the cloud