COVER STORY has dragged on returns. Clients are still getting expected returns, though, he stresses.

He uses conservative assumptions to manage clients’ expectations.“ We ' re going to go through a business cycle, and when it happens, they ' re not that surprised,” Shaffer says.“ They don ' t panic.”

Betting On Alternatives

McKinnon, 39, is more of a Debbie Downer about the markets. Since the financial crisis, there has been only one recession— and it was a bizarre affair induced by the pandemic.

“ I ' m not as optimistic that we are coming out of whatever ' s happening unscathed,” she says.“ Twenty years without a recession is … actually kind of bad news, not good news. It means that when the bubble bursts, it ' s going to be painful.”

She’ s spent her almost 12 years in the business at Morton( she manages $ 100 million in assets for the firm, which has $ 3.5 billion in total AUM). As a millennial herself, she’ s especially tuned into the ways and means of next-generation investors. Four years ago, she launched a technology offering( with an app) called Modearn, Morton’ s initiative for attracting millennials and Gen X clients. The project is going great guns, she says, and hauls in 20 % of the firm’ s new revenue.

She worries about inflation and doesn’ t believe the Federal Reserve should have cut interest rates in September.“ In the history of the firm, we have the lowest allocation we ' ve ever had in equities,” McKinnon declares.“ And we ' re gonna keep it that way.”

Morton is a proud alternatives shop, and has been investing in the space since the 1990s.“ We’ ve been doing alternatives before they were, like, cool,” she says.

Morton has recently been investing much more in the private lending space. McKinnon says it’ s because private loans, backed by real assets or other hard assets, are paying between 8 % to 12 % in income. Her clients have about 40 % of their portfolio on average in alts, up from 25 % 10 years ago.

Emergency Funds As Lifeblood

Uziel Gomez’ s clients aren’ t worried as much about public stock or private equity as they are more pressing issues facing the community he serves, many of whom are first- or second-generation Americans. Their immediate financial needs require more of a focus on things like emergency funds in case their lives are upended by forces outside their control. Although his own clients are documented, in the broader community, even their relatives are looking over their shoulder at harassment from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“ For me, we’ re in uncertain times, specifically within my community,” Gomez says.“ We’ re getting attacked, really.”

In May 2024, the 27-year-old launched Primeros Financial, a Los Angeles-based firm dedicated to empowering these early-generation wealth builders and those early in their careers to take control of their finances. His clients range in age from 23 to 45. Many work in non-profit organizations that are being downsized and more amid the budget-cutting policies of the Donald Trump administration.“ It’ s hard to be optimistic in a world where there’ s a lot of violence,” he says.

Gomez has dire times in his own life to hark back to. During the’ 08 crisis, his own father was out of work for a year, and his family members, who have Mexican heritage, stayed inside their home during the summer, fearful of ICE raids. He calms his clients now by urging them to focus on what they can control, such as saving for the

The peer pressure to give your family experiences or to have experiences yourself, especially around travel, is at all-time highs.”

Stacey McKinnon, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at Morton Wealth

future. Many of his clients worry Social Security won’ t be around when they need it.

“ We ' re being defensive,” he says of his approach to financial planning.“ We ' re buffing up emergency funds. … What I ' m telling clients is that let ' s not allow these moments to take away from also saving for the future.”

Even young tech professionals with company equity, big bonuses and average income of $ 350,000 should have“ adequate” emergency funds, according to Chloé A. Moore, who services those clients as the founder and principal of Financial Staples in Atlanta.

Moore wants her clients, whose average age is 40, to save at minimum 20 % to 30 % of their income and bump up emergency funds to 12 months from the typical six.

Is Buying A Home Still Smart?

Homeownership is still the American Dream for many people. But unfortunately, the cost of buying a house has soared so high that even millionaires are opting to rent more often( at least according to online platform RentCafe). Homeownership by Gen Z and millennials flatlined in 2024— just 26.1 % of Gen Z and only 54.9 % of millenni-

NOVEMBER 2025 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | 33