2025 Summer Leadership Series – Alternatives and Discipline Emerge as Keys in Volatile Markets 

Our Connect Money Summer Leadership Series highlighted a clear consensus: in today’s structurally volatile environment, waiting is not a strategy. Leaders from across alternatives, wealth management, and real assets emphasized that success depends on disciplined diversification, proactive financing, and resilient income streams.  

Family offices, asset managers, and advisors alike are turning to private markets, necessity-based real assets, and flexible capital structures as the new hedges—tools that provide stability, cash flow, and inflation protection when traditional stocks, bonds, and hedges fall short. The path forward isn’t about timing the market—it’s about building portfolios that can withstand uncertainty and compound across cycles. 

Alternatives as the New Hedge 

From Jade Miller, CEO of ADISA to Michael Underhill, CIO of Capital Innovations, leaders underscored that private real estate, private credit, and infrastructure provide investors with non-correlated returns and income resilience that traditional stock-bond mixes can no longer guarantee. Heidi Wheatley, founder of Sponsor Growth Solutions, reinforced that alternatives help “smooth out” portfolios by shifting the focus from short-term price swings to consistent cash flow and capital preservation. 

Discipline in Portfolio Design 

Market volatility makes tactical hedging difficult, but leaders like Derek Schug, Head of Portfolio Management at Kestra Investment Management, and Warren Thomas, co-Founder and Managing Partner, ExchangeRight, highlighted that disciplined allocation and contractually secured income are more effective long-term hedges than trying to time the market. Many are underweighting expensive large-cap equities, tilting toward value, and integrating necessity-based real assets or tax-efficient structures as ballast. 

Financing Strategy Matters 

Several leaders, including Michael Lee, Partner at HKS Real Estate Partners, Garett Bjorkman, CEO, PEG, and Jordan Lang, President of McCourt Partners, emphasized the importance of proactive debt management—refinancing early, using interest rate caps, swaps, and collars, and tailoring capital stacks to specific business plans. Optionality itself was described as a hedge: building flexibility into financing and capital structure enables managers to weather both rate shocks and liquidity squeezes. 

A Shift from Episodic to Structural Volatility 

John Swift, Managing Director, Head of Wealth Management, Rockfleet Financial Services Inc., captured a key theme: volatility is structural, not episodic, demanding new approaches to portfolio architecture. Traditional hedges like Treasuries or gold are less reliable when correlations converge, requiring barbell strategies, floating-rate exposure, and hybrid private capital structures that adapt across regimes. 

Resilience, Not Complacency 

While many leaders voiced concerns—policy misalignment, according to  Underhill, private credit seasoning risk as per Jake Heidkamp, Principal, Co-President, FactRight, or policy-driven shocks in energy (Ganesh Sakshi, CFO, Mountain V Oil & Gas)—they also expressed confidence in long-term drivers: the resilience of U.S. innovation, the depth of capital markets, and enduring demand for real assets like housing, energy, and infrastructure. 

Confidence Through Income and Real Assets 

What unites the perspectives is a return to fundamentals: income, inflation protection, and capital preservation. From select-service hotels (Bjorkman) to net-leased necessity real estate (Thomas) to infrastructure-linked commodities (Underhill), real assets with contractual or utility-like cash flows are increasingly viewed as the ballast in stormy seas. 

The bottom line: The leadership consensus is that the next phase of investing won’t be won by those waiting for clarity. It will be won by those who embrace disciplined diversification, align capital structures to long-term plans, and harness alternatives as both a hedge and a growth driver.