Yet another web-based risk tolerance tool focused on the individual investor was launched last year, with a goal to educate amateur investors by allowing them to compare their portfolios to professionally designed models.

Boston-based FinMason isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, but to ensure a smoother ride by ushering do-it-yourself investors toward more substantial advice.

The tool, available at finmason.com isn't particularly notable for its interface, but for its revenue model: The tool is free to consumers and relies on advertising purchased by advisors for its bottom line.

“We think that information should be given to people for free, so we never charge users anything,” says FinMason CEO Kendrick Wakeman. “Essentially, we’re able to direct users in a productive way towards venues for advice, and ultimately we’re going to get compensated for that.”

The tool offers advisors the opportunity to advertise their model portfolios on its risk tolerance platform.

FinMason is also trying to build an advertising network for advisors, says Wakeman, giving financial bloggers the opportunity to nest FinMason’s risk tolerance tool on their pages, with the idea that bloggers, the tool and advisors will support each other.

“If you’re an advisor, you’re constantly trying to market your services, getting clients is a top priority,” Wakeman says. “That puts a lot of advisors in an unhappy situation, not many that I’ve talked to are happy with their options. We’re giving them away to digitally contact more clients who are already engaged with managing their financial lives and interested in more advice, and that’s been very welcomed.”

As noted, the interface is streamlined — investors enter information about their age and retirement plans, and the tool figures out a model allocation and savings amount for retirement. FinMason does spice up the presentation a little, however, allowing a user to compare a series of actual portfolios to determine which best suits their preferences.

“We think it’s more effective for people who have no financial training,”Wakeman says. “They’re not asked to do any fancy math, they’re just comparing risk by looking at performance.”

The result is a little like sitting in an optometrist’s chair — investors are asked to choose between the performance of pairs of portfolios until an ideal match is found for them. Users are not shown a portfolio’s underlying components, instead, they’re shown the hypothetical upside of the portfolio at the time of their retirement, the estimated downside experienced by the portfolio during the 2008 financial crisis and the likelihood of achieving their retirement goals with the portfolio.

Wakeman says the comparison tool is easier for investors than the traditional lengthy risk tolerance questionnaire.

“There’s a subset of investors who do not respond well to the psychological questionnaires,” Wakeman says. “They find them confusing, or they misinterpret the questions, or the questions produce anxiety and they shut down the process and walk away. Allowing them to compare and to see what happens in a crash of 2008 situation sets a reasonable expectation in the investor’s mind: we’re solidifying their understanding of risk.”

At the end of the process, FinMason tells users where the portfolio they identified is being offered, and gives them the option of clicking through to begin the onboarding process at that firm. It also warns investors and recommends that they seek advice if their goals are out of reach.

This process doesn’t really show do-it-yourself investors the value of professional advice, says Joel Bruckenstein, publisher of Technology Tools for Today.

“Tools like this are interesting, but they’re not going to look at your allocation and see if you’re on the efficient frontier or not,” Bruckenstein says. “All they do is show you model portfolios, they don’t really demonstrate any of the value of receiving financial advice, they’re only recommending investments that they think are low cost.”

FinMason also allows users to measure an existing portfolio against its recommendations with an account integration tool. Wakeman says that the tool fills public demand for unbiased investment device.

“Our tool makes things simple and clear, and people tend to trust things they see on computers,” Wakeman says. “We’ve found that people are starting to use our tool to see if their current portfolio matches up with their risk tolerance, and if it doesn’t they hopefully go out and get some help. We’re fans of professional advice, we think it do-it-your-self puts people ant a disadvantage.”

Brukenstein questioned whether the advice could be considered unbiased in light of FinMason’s revenue model.

“I think the model is conflicted,” Bruckenstein says. “The advice isn’t free, there are advertisers in the form of roboadvisors and other firms paying to have their model portfolios used in the tool. Even if they’re trying to provide as unbiased advice as possible, as an investor it looks like there’s a pay-for-play issue at work. That would leave a bad taste in my mouth.”

However, FinMason is likely to deliver on its primary goal: to create more educated investors, says QuonWarrene’s Neal Quon.

“If an investor is approaching a site like FinMason, it’s usually driven by a desire for more advice,” Quon says. “Even do-it-yourself investors may be interested in one of the model portfolios or receiving additional advice. For more sophisticated investors, however, this is too simple, you can’t calculate an individual’s risk tolerance with two to five questions.”