RISK MANAGEMENT TERMS: All Financial Advisors Should Know

By Staff Reporters

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Authentication:

The verification of the identity of an individual, system, machine, or any other unique entity

Authorization:

The process of allowing access to specific areas of a system based on the role and needs of the user

Committee Charter:

A document that defines the purposes and responsibilities of the oversight committee

Compliance Risk Profile:

The current and prospective risk to earnings or capital arising from violations of or nonconformance with laws, rules, regulations, prescribed practices, internal policies and procedures, or ethical standards

Control Assessment:

A high-level review and analysis of controls relating to a process; should encompass both current and missing controls

Controls:

Methods that preserve the integrity of important information, meet operational or financial targets, and/or communicate management policies (See also: Key Control, Secondary Control, Tertiary Control)

ERM Policy Statement:

Defines an organization’s approach to and method of enterprise risk management

Governance:

Processes and structures implemented to communicate, manage, and monitor organizational activities

Impact:

The influence and effect of a risk

Inherent Risk:

Risk that is inherent to a process, taking into consideration the likelihood and impact of a risk

Key Control:

A primary control that is essential for a business process; typically takes place during the process it applies to

Key Indicators:

Measurements that are important for organizations to monitor for potential issues; examples include key performance indicators (KPIs) and key risk indicators (KRIs)

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

A measurement with a defined set of goals and tolerances that gauges the performance of an important business activity

Key Risk Indicator (KRI):

A proactive measurement for future and emerging risks that indicates the possibility of an event that adversely affects business activities

Likelihood:

The probability of a risk occurring

Mitigation Actions:

The necessary steps, or action items, to reduce the likelihood and/or impact of a potential risk

Operation Risk Profile:

1) The risk arising from the execution of an organization’s business processes;
2) The risk of loss resulting from failed or inadequate internal processes, systems, people, or other entities

Price Risk Profile:

The risk to earning or capital arising from adverse changes in portfolio values

Process:

1) The principle elements of essential business functions within work groups or business units;
2) A set of tasks completed by business continuity plan owners within a department

Reputation Risk Profile:

The current and prospective risk to earnings or capital arising from negative public opinion or perception

Residual Risk:

Risk remaining after considering the existing control environment

Risk:

A potential event or action that would have an adverse effect on the organization

Risk Appetite:

A statement that broadly considers the risk levels that management deems acceptable

Risk Assessment:

The prioritization of potential business disruptions based on the impact and likelihood of occurrence; includes an analysis of threats based on the impact to the organization, its customers, and financial markets

Risk Tolerance:

A metric that sets the acceptable level of variation around organizational objectives and provides assurance that the organization remains within its risk appetite

Secondary Control:

An important control that typically takes place after the process it applies to (i.e., reporting or ongoing monitoring)

Strategic Risk Profile:

The current and prospective risk to earnings or capital raising from adverse business decisions, improperly implemented decisions, or lack of responsiveness to industry changes

Tertiary Control:

A non-essential control that can still be applied effectively to a business process

Velocity:

The time it takes a risk event to manifest itself

Vulnerability:

An entity’s susceptibility to a risk event as determined by the entity’s preparedness, agility, and adaptability

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PURE: Absolute Risks of Physicians

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd

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What Is Pure Risk?

Pure risk is a category of risk that cannot be controlled and has two outcomes: complete loss or no loss at all. There are no opportunities for gain or profit when pure risk is involved. Pure risk is generally prevalent in situations such as natural disasters, fires, or death. These situations cannot be predicted and are beyond anyone’s control. Pure risk is also referred to as absolute risk.

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1. Personal Risks

Now, there are basically 3 types of pure risks that concern individual physicians. These incur losses like loss of income, additional expenses and devaluation of property. There are 4 risk factors affecting them:

  • Premature death. This is death of a breadwinner who leaves behind financial responsibilities.
  • Old age / retirement. The risk of being retired without sufficient savings to support retirement years.
  • Health crisis. Individual with health problem may face a potential loss of income and increase in medical expenditures.
  • Unemployment. Jobless individual may have to live on their savings. If savings are depleted, a bigger crisis is awaiting.

2. Property Risks

This means the possibility of damage or loss to the property owned due to some cause. There are two types of losses involved.

  • Direct loss which means financial loss as a result of property damage.
  • Consequential loss which means financial loss due to the happenings of direct loss of the property.

For instance, a medical practice that burned down may incur repair costs as the direct loss. The consequential loss is being unable to run the practice business to generate income.

3. Liability Risks

A doctor is legally liable to his wrongful act that cause damage to a third party; physically, by reputation or property. S/he can be legally sued with no maximum in the compensation amount if found guilty.

Knowing how risks are classified, and the types of pure risks an individual is exposed to, will provide a fundamental overview on these risk topics and prepare you to further acquire the knowledge of how to deal with and manage them as a physician executive, leader, or manager.

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EDUCATION: Books

SPEAKING: Dr. Marcinko will be speaking and lecturing, signing and opining, teaching and preaching, storming and performing at many locations throughout the USA this year! His tour of witty and serious pontifications may be scheduled on a planned or ad-hoc basis; for public or private meetings and gatherings; formally, informally, or over lunch or dinner. All medical societies, financial advisory firms or Broker-Dealers are encouraged to submit an RFP for speaking engagements: CONTACT: Ann Miller RN MHA at MarcinkoAdvisors@outlook.com -OR- http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

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INVESTMENT POLICY STATEMENT CONSTRUCTION: For Physicians and Medical Professionals

THE ESSENTIAL DOCUMENT

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

SPONSOR: http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

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In order to create and monitor an investment portfolio for personal or institutional use, the physician executive, financial advisor, wealth manager, or healthcare institutional endowment fund manager, should ask three questions:

  1. How much do we have invested?
  2. How much did we make on our investments?
  3. How much risk did we take to get that rate of return?

Introduction to the IPS

Most doctors, and hospital endowment fund executives, know how much money they have invested.  If they don’t, they can add a few statements together to obtain a total. But, few can answers the questions above or actually know the rate of return achieved last year; or so far this year. Everyone can get this number by simply subtracting the ending balance from the beginning balance and dividing the difference.  But, few take the time to do it. Why? A typical response to the question is, “We’re doing fine.”

POOR DOCTORS: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2025/07/29/why-too-many-physician-colleagues-dont-get-rich/

Now, ask how much risk is in the portfolio and help is needed [risk adjusted rate of return]. In fact, Nobel laureate Harry Markowitz, Ph.D. said, “If you take more risk, you deserve more return.” Using standard deviation, he referred to the “variability of returns;” in other words, how much the portfolio goes up and down, its volatility [Markowitz, H: Portfolio Selection. Journal of Finance, March, 1952].

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COMMENTS APPRECIATED

EDUCATION: Books

SPEAKING: Dr. Marcinko will be speaking and lecturing, signing and opining, teaching and preaching, storming and performing at many locations throughout the USA this year! His tour of witty and serious pontifications may be scheduled on a planned or ad-hoc basis; for public or private meetings and gatherings; formally, informally, or over lunch or dinner. All medical societies, financial advisory firms or Broker-Dealers are encouraged to submit an RFP for speaking engagements: CONTACT: Ann Miller RN MHA at MarcinkoAdvisors@outlook.com -OR- http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

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OSTRICH BIAS: Negative Information

SPONSOR: http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

Financial Advisor, Planner and Insurance Agent Information

By Staff Reporters

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Ostrich Bias is a behavioral phenomenon describing the tendency of individuals to avoid or ignore information that they perceive as negative or threatening. This term is derived from the popular but inaccurate belief that ostriches bury their heads in the sand when faced with danger, even though they do not exhibit such behavior.

Evidence: There is neuro-scientific evidence of the ostrich effect. Sharot et al. (2012) investigated the differences in positive and negative information when updating existing beliefs. Consistent with the ostrich effect, participants presented with negative information were more likely to avoid updating their beliefs; wills, estate plans, investment portfolios, and insurance policies, etc..

Moreover, they found that the part of the brain responsible for this cognitive bias was the left IFG – inferior frontal gyrus – by disrupting this part of the brain with TMS – transcranial magnetic stimulation – participants were more likely to accept the negative information provided.

EXAMPLE: The Ostrich Bias can cause someone to avoid looking at their bills, because they’re worried about seeing how far behind they are on home mortgage payments, credit cards, education or auto loans, etc.

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Feel free to submit education content to the site as well as links, text posts, images, opinions and videos which are then voted up or down by other members. Comments and dialog are especially welcomed.

Daily posts are organized by subject. ME-P administrators moderate the activity. Moderation may also conducted by community-specific moderators who are unpaid volunteers.

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MARKETS: Risk-On, Risk-Off and On-Off

By Staff Reporters

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Risk-On

RO = Asset prices commonly follow the risk sentiment of the market. Investors look for changing sentiment through corporate earnings, macro-economic data, and global central bank action. An increase in the stock market or where stocks outperform bonds is said to be a risk-on environment.

Risk-on environments can be carried by expanding corporate earnings, optimistic economic outlook, accommodative central bank policies, and speculation. As the market displays strong influential fundamentals, investors perceive less risk about the market and its outlook.

Risk-Off

ROff = When stocks are selling off, and investors run for shelter to bonds or gold, the environment is said to be risk-off. Risk-off environments can be caused by widespread corporate earnings downgrades, contracting or slowing economic data, and uncertain central bank policy.

Just like the stock market rises in a risk-on environment, a drop in the stock market equals a risk-off environment. Investors jump from risky assets and pile into high grade bonds, U.S. Treasury bonds, gold, cash, and other safe havens

Risk-On Risk-Off?

Risk-on-risk-off investing relies on and is driven by changes in investor risk tolerance. Risk-on-risk-off (RORO) can also sway changes in investment activity in response to economic patterns. When risk is low, investors tend to engage in higher-risk investments. Investors tend to gravitate toward lower-risk investments when risk is perceived to be high.

Note: Thanks to Chat GPT.

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HFR INVESTMENTS: Two Credit Indices

By Staff Reporters

SPONSOR: http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

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HFRI Fund of Funds Composite Index invests with multiple managers through funds or managed accounts. The strategy designs a diversified portfolio of managers with the objective of significantly lowering the risk (volatility) of investing with an individual manager. The Fund of Funds manager may allocate funds to numerous managers within a single strategy, or with numerous managers in multiple strategies. The investor has the advantage of diversification among managers and styles with significantly less capital than investing with separate managers. The HFRI Fund of Funds Index is not included in the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index.

HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index is a global, equal-weighted index of over 2,000 single-manager funds that report to HFR Database. Constituent funds report monthly net of all fees performance in U.S. Dollar and have a minimum of $50 Million under management or a twelve (12) month track record of active performance. The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index does not include Funds of Hedge Funds.

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MEDIA HEADLINES: Financial Security Risk Management

By Staff Reporters

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Headline risk refers to the risk that a negative news media headline about one security issuer, incident or sector could affect the demand for and pricing of a much wider swath of securities, including those that have no direct relation to the securities headlined and whose fundamentals (defined above) remain intact.

Financial analyst Meredith Whitney’s appearance on “Sixty Minutes” in December 2010 was a classic example of the potential impact of headline risk, when her prediction of “a spate of municipal bond defaults” helped trigger a massive municipal bond market selloff, even though most municipal bonds actually faced no immediate default threat at that time, and the number of municipal defaults actually declined in the subsequent 12 months.

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INVESTING RISKS: Retained Earnings, Weighted Assets and Sequence of Return

By

SPONSOR: http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

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Retained Earnings Risk: Profits generated by a company that are not distributed to stockholders as dividends. Instead, they are either reinvested in the business or kept as a reserve for specific objectives, such as paying off debt or purchasing equipment. Retained earnings risks are also called “undistributed profits,” “undistributed earnings,” or “earned surplus.”

Risk-Weighted (or risk-adjusted) Assets: Within the context of measuring the financial stability of banks and other financial institutions, the risk-weighted assets figure is an aggregate of a financial institution’s assets (usually loans to its customers) after the loans have been individually adjusted for their risk. This involves multiplying each loan by a factor that reflects its risk. Low-risk loans are multiplied by a low number, high-risk by high. The aggregate number can then be used to calculate the financial institution’s capital ratio. Lower risk-weighted assets typically result in higher capital ratios, and higher risk-weighted assets usually translate to lower capital ratios.

Sequence-of-Returns Risk: The risk of market conditions impacting the overall returns of an investment portfolio during the period when a retiree is first starting to withdrawal money from investments as income. For example, if a retiree has to withdrawal income from his or her portfolio when market prices are depressed, the portfolio may lose out on the potential returns that income could have made once market prices recovered.

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APPLE: What is its Corporate Value

AS INVESTORS – HOW DO WE EVALUATE FINANCIAL RISK?

By Vitaliy Katsenelson CFA

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READ: https://vitaliy.substack.com/p/what-is-the-value-of-apple-how-do?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

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What to Expect After the Silicon Valley Bank [SVB] Collapse

By CFA

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Over the past decade, the Federal Reserve has manipulated asset prices by interfering with free markets by deciding what both short-term and long-term interest rates should be. This resulted in an increase in risk-taking behavior among investors.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/08

Risk became a four-letter word uttered only by curmudgeons; the only thing investors feared was being left out. The more risk you took, the more money you made – until you lost it all.

RISK: https://www.routledge.com/Risk-Management-Liability-Insurance-and-Asset-Protection-Strategies-for/Marcinko-Hetico/p/book/9781498725989

READ: Silicon Valley Bank’s Downfall: A Cautionary Tale of What’s to Come

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How [DOCTORS] Construct Investment Portfolios That Protect Them

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ASK AN ADVISOR

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Vitaliy N. Katsenelson, CFA - YouTube

By Vitaliy N. Katsenelson, CFA

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Question: How do you construct investment portfolios and determine position sizes (weights) of individual stocks?

I wanted to discuss this topic for a long time, so here is a very in-depth answer.
CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/082610254

Answer
For a while in the value investing community the number of positions you held was akin to bragging on your manhood– the fewer positions you owned the more macho an investor you were. I remember meeting two investors at a value conference. At the time they had both had “walk on water” streaks of returns. One had a seven-stock portfolio, the other held three stocks. Sadly, the financial crisis humbled both – the three-stock guy suffered irreparable losses and went out of business (losing most of his clients’ money). The other, after living through a few incredibly difficult years and an investor exodus, is running a more diversified portfolio today.

Under-diversification: Is dangerous, because a few mistakes or a visit from Bad Luck may prove to be fatal to the portfolio.

On the other extreme, you have a mutual fund industry where it is common to see portfolios with hundreds of stocks (I am generalizing). There are many reasons for that. Mutual funds have an army of analysts who need to be kept busy; their voices need to be heard; and thus their stock picks need to find their way into the portfolio (there are a lot of internal politics in this portfolio). These portfolios are run against benchmarks; thus their construction starts to resemble Noah’s Ark, bringing on board a few animals (stocks) from each industry. Also, the size of the fund may limit its ability to buy large positions in small companies.

There are several problems with this approach. First, and this is the important one, it breeds indifference: If a 0.5% position doubles or gets halved, it will have little impact on the portfolio. The second problem is that it is difficult to maintain research on all these positions. Yes, a mutual fund will have an army of analysts following each industry, but the portfolio manager is the one making the final buy and sell decisions. Third, the 75th idea is probably not as good as the 30th, especially in an overvalued market where good ideas are scarce.

Then you have index funds. On the surface they are over-diversified, but they don’t suffer from the over-diversification headaches of managed funds. In fact, index funds are both over-diversified and under-diversified. Let’s take the S&P 500 – the most popular of the bunch. It owns the 500 largest companies in the US. You’d think it was a diversified portfolio, right? Well, kind of. The top eight companies account for more than 25% of the index. Also, the construction of the index favors stocks that are usually more expensive or that have recently appreciated (it is market-cap-weighted); thus you are “diversified” across a lot of overvalued stocks.

If you own hundreds of securities that are exposed to the same idiosyncratic risk, then are you really diversified?

Our portfolio construction process is built from a first-principles perspective. If a Martian visited Earth and decided to try his hand at value investing, knowing nothing about common (usually academic) conventions, how would he construct a portfolio?

We want to have a portfolio where we own not too many stocks, so that every decision we make matters – we have both skin and soul in the game in each decision. But we don’t want to own so few that a small number of stocks slipping on a banana will send us into financial ruin.

In our portfolio construction, we are trying to maximize both our IQ and our EQ (emotional quotient). Too few stocks will decapitate our EQ – we won’t be able to sleep well at night, as the relatively large impact of a low-probability risk could have a devastating impact on the portfolio. I wrote about the importance of good sleep before (link here). It’s something we take seriously at IMA.

Holding too many stocks will result in both a low EQ and low IQ. It is very difficult to follow and understand the drivers of the business of hundreds of stocks, therefore a low IQ about individual positions will eventually lead to lower portfolio EQ. When things turn bad, a constant in investing, you won’t intimately know your portfolio – you’ll be surrounded by a lot of (tiny-position) strangers.

Portfolio construction is a very intimate process. It is unique to one’s EQ and IQ. Our typical portfolios have 20–30 stocks. Our “focused” portfolios have 12–15 stocks (they are designed for clients where we represent only a small part of their total wealth). There is nothing magical about these numbers – they are just the Goldilocks levels for us, for our team and our clients. They allow room for bad luck, but at the same time every decision we make matters.

Now let’s discuss position sizing. We determine position sizing through a well-defined quantitative process. The goals of this process are to achieve the following: Shift the portfolio towards higher-quality companies with higher returns. Take emotion out of the portfolio construction process. And finally, insure healthy diversification.

Our research process is very qualitative: We read annual reports, talk to competitors and ex-employees, build financial models, and debate stocks among ourselves and our research network. In our valuation analysis we try to kill the business – come up with worst-case fair value (where a company slips on multiple bananas) and reasonable fair value. We also assign a quality rating to each company in the portfolio. Quality is absolute for us – we don’t allow low-quality companies in, no matter how attractive the valuation is (though that doesn’t mean we don’t occasionally misjudge a company’s quality).

The same company, at different stock prices, will merit a higher or lower position size. In other words, if company A is worth (fair value) $100, at $60 it will be a 3% position and at $40 it will be a 5% position. Company B, of a lower quality than A but also worth $100, will be a 2% position at $60 and a 4% position at $40 (I just made up these numbers for illustration purposes). In other words, if there are two companies that have similar expected returns, but one is of higher quality than the other, our system will automatically allocate a larger percentage of the portfolio to the higher-quality company. If you repeat this exercise on a large number of stocks, you cannot but help to shift your portfolio to higher-quality, higher-return stocks. It’s a system of meritocracy where we marry quality and return.

Let’s talk about diversification. We don’t go out of our way to diversify the portfolio. At least, not in a traditional sense. We are not going to allocate 7% to mining stocks because that is the allocation in the index or they are negatively correlated to soft drink companies. (We don’t own either and are not sure if the above statement is even true, but you get the point.) We try to assemble a portfolio of high-quality companies that are attractively priced, whose businesses march to different drummers and are not impacted by the same risks.  Just as bank robbers rob banks because that is where the money is, value investors gravitate towards sectors where the value is. To keep our excitement (our emotions) in check, and to make sure we are not overexposed to a single industry, we set hard limits of industry exposure. These limits range from 10%–20%. We also set limits of country exposure, ranging from 7%–30% (ex-US).

CONCLUSION

In portfolio construction, our goal is not to limit the volatility of the portfolio but to reduce true risk – the permanent loss of capital. We are constantly thinking about the types of risks we are taking. Do we have too much exposure to a weaker or stronger dollar? To higher or lower interest rates? Do we have too much exposure to federal government spending? I know, risk is a four-letter word that has lost its meaning. But not to us. Low interest rates may have time-shifted risk into the future, but they haven’t cured it.

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