2025 Summer Leadership Series – Experts Share Outlook, Risks, and Opportunities 

In the tenth installment of Connect Money’s 2025 Leadership Series, a group of industry leaders shared candid perspectives on the outlook for the next 6–12 months, highlighting both the risks that weigh on decision-making and the factors that inspire confidence. The conversation covered market volatility, potential economic shocks, and how investors can move beyond passive waiting by employing proactive hedging and risk management strategies. 

Featured voices in this discussion include Heidi Wheatley, Founder, Sponsor Growth Solutions; Garett Bjorkman, CEO, PEG; John Swift, Managing Director & Head of Wealth Management, Rockfleet Financial Services Inc.; Derek Schug, Head of Portfolio Management at Kestra Investment Management; and Michael Lee, Partner, HKS Real Estate Partners. 

When you look out over the next 6–12 months, what keeps you up at night — and what gives you the most confidence?   

Heidi Wheatley

Heidi Wheatley, Founder, Sponsor Growth Solutions: What keeps me up at night is the disconnect between investor expectations and the reality of today’s market dynamics. We’re seeing persistent uncertainty—whether it’s policy shifts, inflation pressures, or geopolitical instability—and yet many investors are still anchored to traditional models that assume consistent performance from stocks and bonds. 

What gives me confidence, though, is the increasing awareness and adoption of non-correlated, income-generating alternatives. More advisors and investors are recognizing the value of diversifying not just by asset class, but by return drivers. Whether it’s private credit, real assets, or structured income solutions, these strategies offer a way to stay invested with more predictability and less reliance on market timing.  

That shift—from chasing returns to building durable income—is a sign of healthier, more resilient portfolio construction. And that gives me real optimism for the months ahead. 

Garett Bjorkman, CEO, PEG: Sticky construction costs remain a concern. Despite some normalization from pandemic-era volatility, inflationary pressure in labor and materials continues to pose challenges. However, real estate is a long game, and we anchor our strategy in conservative underwriting, realistic income projections, and operational excellence. What gives me the most confidence is our vertically integrated platform and deeply experienced team. Whether navigating capital markets, sourcing off-market deals, or managing through development and operations, we are built to execute across cycles. That resilience is what positions us—and our investors—to win long term. 

Garett Bjorkman

John Swift

John Swift, Managing Director, Head of Wealth Management, Rockfleet Financial Services Inc.: What genuinely concerns me is widespread complacency in the face of fundamental structural shifts—whether fiscal dominance reshaping bond markets, accelerating geopolitical realignment affecting global trade flows, or the growing fragility of liquidity assumptions embedded in private markets portfolios. Too many sophisticated investors are constructing portfolios using backward-looking models that may prove inadequate for the regime changes ahead. 

The private markets liquidity assumption particularly concerns me. Extended holding periods and compressed distribution yields are creating portfolio concentration risks that many institutional investors haven’t fully recognized. When private valuations eventually adjust to reflect public market realities, the simultaneous pressure across asset classes could challenge traditional diversification assumptions. 

What provides genuine confidence is observing the evolution in allocator sophistication. Experienced investors are asking fundamentally better questions about portfolio construction, demanding enhanced transparency from managers, and implementing more rigorous scenario planning processes. This institutional learning from previous market cycles—particularly the insights gained from 2008 and 2020—demonstrates remarkable discipline in maintaining long-term perspectives while preparing for multiple potential outcomes. 

Additionally, the resilience of American innovation capacity, the depth and adaptability of our capital markets infrastructure, and the fundamental entrepreneurial energy driving private markets growth provide lasting confidence in our ability to navigate whatever challenges emerge. 

Considering current market volatility, what proactive hedging strategies could investors employ beyond simply waiting?   

Derek Schug, Head of Portfolio Management at Kestra Investment Management: Despite a significant spike in March and April, market volatility has returned to what we consider normal levels, and for US stocks, has been below average in June and July. While volatility often increases in the next few months on a seasonal basis, it is not something that jumps out as overly concerning. Somewhat concerning are the stretched valuations in US large-cap growth stocks and the high concentration of these stocks in the broad market indices.  

Derek Schug

Since the tactical implementation of portfolio hedges is difficult to time and can often be a drag on long-term performance, we prefer to increase the overall diversification in our portfolios by underweighting the more expensive large cap stocks and tilting towards less expensive core and value stocks which increases the overall number of stocks we own and reduces the downside risk inherent in expensive stocks that tend to decline more during volatility spikes.  

Additionally, we have increased allocations to non-US stocks and, within bonds, are targeting higher quality and shorter duration securities, including some inflation-protected bonds. 

Michael Lee

Michael Lee, Partner, HKS Real Estate Partners: We’re seeing many sponsors take a proactive approach by refinancing loans ahead of their official maturity dates. With interest rates returning to the 5% range – where rates historically settle — there’s a growing sense that this may be the new normal. Despite rates being considered “high” for the past three years, the only Fed rate cut in fall 2024 was followed by an increase in borrower rates, which was unexpected.  

That experience reminded many that hedging often means working within current conditions, not against them. There’s also been a return of local and regional banks to the market, offering better-than-expected pricing. In a volatile environment, optionality itself is a hedge.