Sigmalign Behavioural Intelligence Inc.
Sigmalign is developing a psychometric instrument that measures individual investors' cognitive biases—such as loss aversion and susceptibility to social influence—to help financial advisors understand client behavior under stress. The instrument uses a forced-choice design, has completed an independent academic desk review, and is slated for panel validation followed by a 60-day pilot with Canadian advisors in early 2027. It is designed to sit alongside know-your-client and suitability processes, not replace them.
- Data & Analytics
- Financial Technology
Funding
Founders
Founder details are not available yet.
Product
Problem
Despite decades of research establishing that behavioural tendencies systematically distort financial decisions, the advisory industry lacks a standardised, validated instrument for measuring those tendencies at the individual client level. Advisors have no reliable way to document how a client is likely to decide under stress, leaving a gap in the know-your-client and suitability workflow.
Solution
Sigmalign is developing a psychometric instrument that identifies how individual investors are likely to decide under stress, grounded in behavioural economics and prospect theory. The instrument uses a forced-choice design and draws on validated measures where suitable ones exist, with oversight from behavioural scientist Dr. Ann-Renée Blais. It is being developed in sequence: an independent academic desk review was completed in 2026, findings are now being worked through in a structured redesign, followed by panel validation and then a 60-day observational pilot with Canadian advisors in the first half of 2027. The instrument produces dimension scores that map to interpretive bands describing how strongly a tendency is likely to express under stress, with suggestions for how the advisor might prepare for that conversation. It is designed to sit alongside know-your-client and suitability processes, not to replace them, and is explicitly not a risk-tolerance questionnaire or a regulated suitability tool.
Target Audience
Primary users are licensed Canadian investment advisors, portfolio managers, and financial planners who need to document behavioural understanding of their clients as part of the advisory workflow. The instrument is also being shaped with input from a small Advisor Council of independent Canadian advisors.
Features
- Forced-choice design intended to reduce response bias in measuring behavioural tendencies
- Independent academic desk review completed in 2026, with findings now informing a structured instrument redesign
- Scientific oversight by Dr. Ann-Renée Blais, co-developer of the DOSPERT risk-assessment scale, with the instrument developed independently and not derived from DOSPERT
- Measures a small set of decision-relevant behavioural tendencies including loss aversion and susceptibility to social influence, drawn from established behavioural finance literature
- Dimension scores map to interpretive bands from low to severe, describing how strongly a tendency is likely to express under stress, with corresponding advisor conversation suggestions
- Designed to integrate with existing advisor workflows alongside know-your-client and suitability processes, with results documented in client records