As part of Financial Planning Week 2011, the Institute of Financial Planning is offering people the chance to find out how they really feel about financial risk by giving them free access to a FinaMetrica risk profile assessment.

This award-winning, in-depth risk profiling system is used by leading financial planners around the world, as the starting point for conversations with their clients about risk. Developed by FinaMetrica, an independent risk profiling organisation based in Sydney, Australia, in conjunction with the Applied Psychology Unit at the University of New South Wales, it has been used in the UK since 2004 where over 450,000 FinaMetrica risk profiles have been completed to date.

To complete a risk profile click here:  Finametrica Risk Profiling Tool

Nick Cann, chief executive of the Institute of Financial Planning, said: Understanding risk and your tolerance to loss is a crucial component of Financial Planning.  Understanding yourself better and how you react to certain events is also an important part of the process in determining how and where you should invest any money you have to meet your goals. Yes there is a trade off between risk and return but if you are unable to sleep at night or get so anxious that it impacts other aspects of your life, then the risk is simply not worth taking. This tool will help you explore how you really feel about risk, and can help you make more appropriate investment decisions as a result.