Western Retirement Plans

Investment Personality Questionnaire (IPQ)

- For members of the Academic and Administrative
   Staff Pension Plans

 

The following tool is an Investment Personality Questionnaire designed to assist you in making investment decisions under the Western Retirement Plans.
Please allow yourself at least 15 minutes to complete the questionnaire. Once you have started, your work cannot be saved and returned to at a later time.

Where you see a word that appears in red (and a question mark (?) appears when you roll over it), an explanation of the term can be found by clicking on the word and reading the pop-up window.

You may use this tool in full confidence that your responses to this questionnaire are not being saved, logged or tracked.

Be sure to respond to every question to ensure an accurate assessment. Based on your responses to the questions, at the end, you will be provided with a proposed investment portfolio for your Western Retirement Plan.

If you wish to discuss these results with a Pension & Retirement Consultant, please contact hrhelp@uwo.ca or the HR Communication Centre at x82194

START THE QUESTIONNAIRE NOW...

Section A:

When investing money for retirement it is important to know how long the investment time horizon is; that is how long you have to invest the money before you will draw an income.

The following two questions will help to establish your investment horizon.

1. When do you plan on needing the money?

 I’m already retired, I need income right now
I plan to retire in less than one year
I plan to retire in 1 to 5 years
I plan to retire in 6 to 10 years
I plan to retire in 11 to 15 years
I plan to retire in 16 to 20 years
I plan to retire in more than 20 years

 

2. How do you plan to withdraw the money during retirement?

 Most certainly through an annuity
Maybe through an annuity
Using both an annuity and a Retirement Income Fund (RIF)
Maybe through a RIF
Most certainly through a RIF
I don't know / I have not decided yet

 

Section B:

Each investor has a different personal tolerance for risk. There are several different definitions of risk, but it generally refers to the variability of returns from an investment and the chance of loss.

The following five questions relate to your risk tolerance.

3. What is the maximum loss on your portfolio that you can tolerate over a one to two-year horizon?

 0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
More than 30%

 

4. You bought 1,000 shares of company 'ABC' six months ago. The investment is currently showing a 30% decline. How would you respond?

Sell 1,000 shares
Sell 500 shares
Do nothing
Buy 500 shares
Buy 1,000 shares or more
I have never bought company shares and don't intend to do so in the future

 

5. Should your portfolio sustain a significant loss, how long would you be willing to wait to recover the value of your investment?

Less than 3 months
3 to 6 months
6 to 12 months
1 to 2 years
2 to 3 years
It doesn’t matter, as long as the quality of the investment has not deteriorated

 

6. Aggressive investors can earn higher returns in the long-term but have to go through periods of potentially large declines in value of their portfolio. I would be willing to sustain potentially large (in excess of 20%) and frequent declines in the value of my portfolio if it increases the likelihood of achieving higher longer term returns.

Strongly agree
Somewhat agree
No opinion
Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagree

 

7. The chart below shows the minimum and maximum returns that can be achieved by five different portfolios over a one-year period.

Return Variability Chart

Which portfolio would you choose?

 Portfolio A (-1% ; 14%)
Portfolio B (-2% ; 17%)
Portfolio C (-6% ; 22%)
Portfolio D (-10% ; 27%)
Portfolio E (-14% ; 31%)
Portfolio F (-17% ; 35%)

 

Section C:

Although the overall objective for any retirement savings portfolio is to accumulate savings that will enable a lifetime income in retirement, our investment objectives to achieve this may vary.

The following four questions address possible secondary investment objectives.

8. What is the investment goal of your portfolio?

Preserve accumulated assets
Provide mostly Investment Income and moderate growth on the accumulated assets 
Provide a good mix of investment income and growth on the accumulated assets
Provide some investment income and mostly long-term growth on the accumulated assets through investments with fluctuating returns
Invest solely for long-term growth on the accumulated assets through investments with fluctuating returns

 

9. I want a guarantee of the income from my investments, even if I have to accept a lower rate of return?

Strongly agree
Somewhat agree
No opinion
Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagree

 

10. I can’t afford any possible loss of accumulated assets regardless of the potential return.

 Strongly agree
Somewhat agree
No opinion
Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagree

 

11. I want to be sure that I can sell my investments on short notice and access the proceeds from the sale if necessary.

 Strongly agree
Somewhat agree
No opinion
Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagree

 

Section D:

In determining the appropriate portfolio for you, it is important to consider some additional aspects of your personal situation.

12. What is your familiarity with investing, which includes your knowledge about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, derivatives, income trusts, hedge funds, exchange-traded funds, asset allocation strategies?

Starting to learn and/or know nothing
Some knowledge
Reasonably familiar
Sound knowledge of investments
Knowledgeable and experienced

 

13. Does your household have other sources of income (excluding income from the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security or Guaranteed Income Supplement)?

No, I’m the sole provider
I'm the sole provider but I'm expecting a large windfall (inheritance, selling business, home equity, etc.)
Spouse works, but has no pension plan
Spouse works and has some retirement savings (employer pension plan or RRSP) or spouse is retired and has some retirement income
Spouse works and has a defined benefit pension plan or spouse is retired and has a defined benefit pension plan.
Spouse works, has a defined benefit pension plan (or is retired and has a defined benefit pension plan) and we’re expecting a large windfall (inheritance, selling business, home equity, etc.)

 

14. What is your household income?

Less than $25,000
$25,000 to $34,999
$35,000 to $49,999
$50,000 to $74,999
$75,000 to $124,999
$125,000 to $199,999
More than $200,000

 

15. What are your household investable (financial) assets (includes stocks, bonds, mutual funds, GICs, employer-sponsored defined contribution plan, RRSP account, RRIF account, real estate held for investment purposes, etc.) ?

 Under $25,000
$25,000 to $49,999
$50,000 to $99,999
$100,000 to $149,999
$150,000 to $249,999
$250,000 to $499,999
$500,000 to $999,999
More than $1,000,000

 

16. What is your age group?

Under 30
30-39
40-49
50-59
60-65
65-71

 

 

Your Investment Personality Questionnaire (IPQ) Score is...

Based on your IPQ Score, click on the appropriate portfolio to view the investment details:

SCORE RANGE       PORTFOLIO
01 - 16 ................ Balanced Income
17 - 32 ................ Moderate Growth
33 - 48 ................ Balanced Growth
49 - 64 ................ Intermediate Growth
 65 - 81 ................ Aggressive Growth

 

 

Also from this web page:

Questions?

Cara Bourdeau

cara.bourdeau@uwo.ca
519-661-2111 x85566