The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that the investment industry does a poor job when it comes to talking about risk. The Globe's Rob Carrick writes that a study commissioned by an Ontario Securities Commission investor advisory panel has found questionnaires for new clients are mostly junk. Eighty-three per cent of the risk questionnaires looked at in the study were judged inadequate for reasons that include too few questions, or questions that are poorly worded or confusing. Another notable glitch is that 55 per cent of these questionnaires had no way to recognize risk-averse clients that should hold only cash. On the other hand, investing giant BlackRock found surprisingly high levels of doubt about investing, particularly in stocks, and it showed that people are holding a lot of their wealth in safe but slow-growing cash. Those lame risk questionnaires feed this nervousness. The study for the OSC investor advisory panel makes it clear that regulators have to do more to guide advisers on how to assess risk, and that advisers need to be more diligent about the process. The problem with risk assessment tools is that they are too often treated as part of the process of selling investments.