The type of plan that may fit you depends on the type of investor you are - your Personal Investor Profile. Are you an adventurous investor? Cautious? Or somewhere in between? We’ve designed an investor questionnaire to help you find out quickly and easily. By answering the questions, you can combine 1) the time period you want to consider for investing, your “Time Horizon,” and 2) how you feel about the risks of investing, your “Risk Tolerance,” to define your investor profile.

Complete the questionnaire by selecting one option for each question. After completing the questionnaire, follow the instructions to help you identify the asset allocation plan that most closely matches your Personal Investor Profile.

## Question 1

I plan to start taking from my investment portfolio within:

Less than 3 years 3–5 years 6–10 years 11 years or more

## Question 2

Once I start taking money from my investments, I intend to spend all of the proceeds over a period of:

Less than 2 years 2–5 years 6–10 years 11 years or more

## Subtotal A: Time-Horizon Score

Total points for questions 1 and 2:

Your score for Subtotal A is less than 3.

Your score for Subtotal A is 3 or greater.

A score of less than three indicates a very short investment time horizon. For such a short time horizon, a relatively low-risk portfolio of 40% short-term (average maturity of five years or less) Gilts or other types of bonds / bond funds and 60% cash on deposit or in money market accounts is suggested, as shares might be significantly more volatile in the short term.

Choose ‘reset’ to try again.

A score of three or more indicates a sufficiently long time horizon for investment securities to be suitable for your portfolio.

Please continue.

## Question 3

I would describe how confident I feel about investing as:

Not confident at all Some concerns Confident Very confident

## Question 4

When I decide how to invest my money, I am:

Most concerned about the possibility of my investment losing value Equally concerned about the possibility of my investment losing or gaining value Most concerned about the possibility of my investment gaining value

## Question 5

Review the following list and select the investments you currently own or have owned in the past. Then choose the one with the highest number of points and enter that number.

Money market funds and/or Cash held in Deposit or Building Society accounts Gilts and/or other types of bonds/bond funds UK shares, either directly or via collective investments such as investment or unit trusts International shares, either directly or via collective investments such as investment or unit trusts

Example: You now own UK shares and have in the past bought a European unit trust. Your point score would be 8.

## Question 6

Consider this scenario:

Imagine that in the past three months, the overall stock market lost 25% of its value. An individual share that you own also lost 25% of its value. What would you do?

I would:

Sell all of my shares Sell some of my shares Do nothing Buy more shares

## Question 7

Review the chart below.

We’ve outlined the most likely, best- and worst-case annual returns of five hypothetical investment plans over a number of different periods. Which range of possible outcomes is most acceptable to you or best suits your investment philosophy?

(The figures are hypothetical and do not represent the performance of any particular investment.)

| A | B | C | D | E
5 year holding period return |  |  |  |  |
Geometric average return | 11.12% | 12.29% | 13.48% | 14.51% | 15.24%
Maximum return | 15.74% | 19.37% | 23.83% | 26.11% | 28.17%
Minimum return | 4.38% | 0.77% | -2.72% | -5.19% | -6.72%

I prefer:

A B C D E

## Subtotal B: Risk-Tolerance Score

Total points for questions 3 through 7:

Now determine your Investor Profile.

## Investor Profile

Subtotal A: This number represents your time-horizon score. Points

Subtotal B: This number represents your risk-tolerance score. Points

Your scores for each question are broken down in the table below.

Question | Max points | Your score | Subtotal section | Subsection max total
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
1 | 10 |  | A | 18
2 | 8 |  | A
3 | 6 |  | B | 40
4 | 8 |  | B
5 | 8 |  | B
6 | 8 |  | B
7 | 10 |  | B

Your time-horizon score and risk-tolerance score have been plotted on the Personal Investor Profile chart below. The intersection of these two points shows the type of investor you may be.

Conservative
Moderately conservative
Moderate
Moderately aggressive
Aggressive

Section A (max 18) goes down the left hand side. Section B (max 40) goes across the top.
| 0-10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
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5 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
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10-12 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
14-18 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

The model portfolio that corresponds to your Investor Profile is shown below. Click the headings to view the other model portfolios.

Conservative Plan

This investment plan is for investors who seek current income and stability and are less concerned about growth.

Moderately Conservative Plan

This investment plan is for investors who seek current income and stability, with some modest potential for increase in the value of their investments.

Moderate plan

This investment plan is for long-term investors who don’t need current income and want some growth potential. Likely to entail some fluctuations in value but presents less volatility than the overall stock market.

Moderately Aggressive Plan

This investment plan is for long-term investors who want good growth potential and don’t need current income. Entails a fair amount of volatility, but not as much as a portfolio invested exclusively in stocks.

Aggressive Plan

This investment plan is for long-term investors who want high growth potential and don’t need current income. May entail substantial year-to-year volatility in value in exchange for potentially high long-term returns.