Keep calm, and stay invested.

Financial plans aren’t meant to be rewritten in the heat of the moment, and even as oil prices and global supply chains are disrupted by the Iran War, most advisors say sticking to a client’s existing strategy is wise. Yet the uncertainty of the conflict’s duration and impact means there are both opportunities and risks worth considering for long- and short-term portfolio management. While the market is holding up remarkably well, especially in light of the significant impact to the energy sector, some advisors are wondering if the markets are actually under-reacting.

“We don’t like to predict these things, but it is a thought-provoking question we’re asking,” said James St. Aubin, CIO of Ocean Park Asset Management. “The market isn’t expecting a long-lasting, protracted disruption of oil out of the Middle East, and maybe that’s overly optimistic on some level.” He noted that during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, there was not a huge market reaction, but there was a significant decline once the Arab oil embargo began. A year later, the S&P was down 40%.

Gulp.

The Strait and Narrow

After large-scale military strikes by the US and Israel, Iran has essentially halted commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil chokepoint. Oil prices have surged, with Brent crude climbing above $100 per barrel, a peak not seen since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

For those considering adjustments, Ben Sullivan, CIO at AE Wealth Management, suggested managed futures offering commodities and currency exposure as an offensive strategy. Defensive sectors like utilities and healthcare, with predictable cash flows and strong balance sheets, can help stabilize portfolios, he said.

A prolonged conflict could hurt growth-sensitive areas such as small caps, said Stephen Kolano, CIO at Integrated Partners. “The longer energy prices stay elevated, the greater the potential impact on US and global economic growth,” he told Advisor Upside. Markets haven’t been rocked dramatically yet, however:

• Gold spiked after the initial US air strikes in February, but has since retreated.
• Investors aren’t rushing to fixed income as a safe haven either, and 10-year Treasury yields have risen sharply, driven by inflation expectations.

Can You Feel It? While the best portfolio decisions are made before a crisis begins, there has been heightened interest in businesses with real assets and durable cash flows, especially companies focused on US-based energy infrastructure, said Trevor Gunter, founder of Four Pines Financial. “In a market worried about conflict abroad and AI disruption at home, those kinds of companies feel more tangible,” he told Advisor Upside.

There’s been much talk about AI tools, and other tech, helping financial advisors serve more clients more effectively. Increasingly, there’s proof.

Carson Group advisors, for example, have boosted their book capacity by 18% in 2026 compared with 2025 without seeing a drop in client-service quality, according to CEO Burt White, thanks to a combination of internal and external technology. The development of AI agents and better data management can push capacity even higher, White believes, making him “extremely bullish” about the wealth management industry. Carson now manages almost $60 billion in assets, a figure that has tripled since White joined as a managing partner in 2022. There are also risks, however, including the temptation to embrace every new tool that hits the market. Lasting success for Carson Group and its peers will require equal parts innovation, ambition and discipline.

“We are in the middle of a paradigm shift,” White said on the sidelines of the Future Proof Citywide conference last week in Miami Beach. “We’re moving from a framework of selecting individual tools and plugging in specific apps and components to a truly unified technology footing. My personal belief is that agentic AI can completely redefine client relationship management and what is possible with personalization.”

A Brave New World

The wealth management industry has never faced such rapid change, or hotter competition, but that’s far from a bad thing, White said. Instead, these developments should further boost advisor growth, but the same forces could leave legacy technology providers that fail to evolve in a vulnerable position. “I wouldn’t want to be a platform that just stores data,” White said. “If your primary value proposition as a software provider for advisors is that you store data, you’re going to lose out.”

AI has redefined the way Carson Group views its tech stack, said Dani Fava, the firm’s chief strategy officer. Previously, technology discussions focused on buying vs. building. Was a given tool better than what the firm could create internally? Was a potential internal tool differentiated enough to justify the cost of building it? “The AI toolset we are working with now changes that whole dynamic,” Fava said at the conference in Miami Beach. “We have a deep partnership with Amazon AWS and other providers that let us create things very quickly and put them in the hands of advisors.”

AI is expected to increase productivity and service quality in the wealth management industry, according to survey research by Fidelity. The research found that among generative AI users in the industry:

• About half saw improvements in decision-making and customer experience, and four in five saw increases in efficiency.
• Among users, nearly four in five use Gen AI for writing assistance, note-taking and meeting preparation, while over half use an AI assistant or copilot.

Kick Those Tires. “We don’t have to settle anymore when we’re picking technology tools,” White added. “In the past, choosing tech was like buying a car. Maybe you liked the engine on this one but the interior on another, so you had to settle for one or the other. Building with AI completely changes that dynamic.”

Everything is up for sale.

Commercial property values are still feeling the effects of pandemic-era office vacancies and post-2022 interest rate shocks, and in major cities, investment-grade opportunities remain roughly 17% below their 2022 peaks, according to industry data. While advisors see some buy-the-dip potential, many are taking a measured approach, weighing the asset class’ illiquidity, performance and even skepticism from clients.

“Given that the sector is experiencing such a negative run, perhaps this is actually a good time to get into real estate,” said Alex Caswell, founder of Wealthscript Advisors. “This doesn’t mean that this is the bottom of the real estate pullback, and I don’t really see a whole lot of investment interest right now.”

The Good and the Bad

Private real estate encapsulates lots of different types of properties, each with their own opportunities, headwinds and outlooks. Many advised clients may not even realize the differences or the potential buy-the-dip opportunities. “There’s this big spread between commercial real estate values and housing values where people haven’t felt it at home,” said Chris Loeffler, CEO of asset manager Caliber. “They don’t really feel like there’s this real estate crash going on, but there’s a real estate crash going on.”

For example, office building usage and values have still not fully recovered even amid return-to-office mandates:

• In Manhattan, office tower values have plummeted below their June 2020 pandemic lows, according to Evercore ISI data reported by The New York Post.
• Office vacancy rates are expected to decrease this year, but it will be a slow process, according to CBRE’s market outlook.

David Krakauer, vice president of portfolio management at Mercer, said he doubts there will be a quick office turnaround. “If interest rates drop, that could work, but we don’t see that happening in the near future,” he told Advisor Upside. “The only other thing that could drive valuations is if the buildings get filled, and it’s hard to do that because everyone is working from home.”

On the opposite end, he sees plenty of opportunity for the industrial segment, bolstered by demand for AI centers, warehouses and last-mile delivery centers. He sees the same for multifamily apartment complexes too. “There’s a ton of demand because of the younger generations not saving for down payments or being able to afford to buy a single family home, so they’re renting,” he said.

Open Wide. Clients may think, “Why bother getting into real estate when I can just allocate more to equities?” but properties should remain a core part of portfolios, said Tom Balcom, founder of 1650 Wealth Management. His firm puts 5% in private real estate and 5% in public real estate. “We maintain it through all different types of market cycles,” he told Advisor Upside. “If you deviate, you’ll miss the upside when it occurs. It’s one of those things like eating your broccoli: You don’t want to do it, but you have to.”