Communication Task Difficulty in Investment Risk Profiling: A Linguistic Perspective

This paper reports a preliminary study of one Australian financial planning firm’s investment risk profile questionnaire, and how it was used by planners in consultations. Five authentic ‘one-issue’ telephone-based consultations which were audio-recorded for quality control purposes have been analysed by the researcher using applied linguistic theory to investigate communication task difficulty. The theory proposes three key factors as contributing most to communication task difficulty: (1) language code complexity; (2) cognitive complexity of task; and (3) communicative stress. The paper explicates how these three factors are implicated in, and can impact the determination of, a client’s investment risk profile.