By Sally Cates

We polled several financial advisors within the Dynasty Financial Partners network about where to invest $1 million right now. We asked about their asset allocation preferences, how they build in inflation protection, and to name one unconventional investing idea. Here are some highlights from their responses:

Matt Price, CEO and founder, Clear Trail Advisors. We develop a holistic financial plan, and a part of that process is calculating your family index number -- the rate of return that your portfolio needs in retirement to meet your goals. With a 5% family index number in today's market, we would recommend 50% in equities, 35% to fixed income, 10% to alternatives, and 5% to real estate.

We have had a heavier tilt to technology stocks over the past few years and have actively trimmed those positions recently. One of our favorite sectors right now is energy. One of our stock strategies is called dividend growth, where we focus on companies that have historically increased their dividends year over year. This is a great way to combat inflation in retirement. We also will look at some Master Limited Partnerships, which are oil/gas pipelines that contractually will increase their income year over year.

Tim Harder, co-founder and CIO, Quotient Wealth. We are heavily emphasizing the need to allocate outside of U.S. large-cap stocks due to the increasing concentration of the S&P 500 in a handful of companies. In terms of alternatives to stocks and bonds, we continue to view private equity as an extension of the public equity markets and an additional opportunity for diversification. We may make an incremental allocation of up to 5% from an investor's current private market holdings. Private credit is on pause or we reallocate to real estate and infrastructure.

I suggest looking for any opportunity to invest outside of the Mag Seven. This doesn't mean an investor needs to abandon AI or tech, just manage concentration. I would look for something in a market that hasn't had huge appreciation over the past decade that might benefit from a rotation out of tech if the AI trade ends, like international, or even small-caps.

Nick Holuta, portfolio manager, Dynasty Financial Partners. For a $1 million allocation, we would build a balanced portfolio across equities, fixed income, and private markets, specific to the client's risk profile. Real assets, especially gold, play an important role in our portfolios. They offer both a hedge in uncertain markets and meaningful upside given continued demand. We also think private markets deserve a seat at the table. With more companies choosing to stay private longer, we see real long--term growth opportunities in private equity. On the income side of private markets, manager selection is increasingly important.

We expect equities to outperform bonds this year, helped by earnings growth that's projected to be in the low--double digits. We currently favor themes tied to AI, power, banks, and defense, and we maintain an overweight to the U.S. relative to international developed markets. We don't expect fixed income to struggle, but we think returns will be in the mid--single--digit range.

Brian Gately, managing partner, Anchyra Partners. We start our allocation process with a muni bond/S&P500 blend to arrive at a volatility number that matches the return objective and risk tolerance of each client. We remain constructive on both equities and bonds at this point. We've long carried a growth tilt to our portfolios, which tends to lead us into technology.

Equities are the best hedge against inflation and are always a large portion of our allocation. Real estate is a secondary allocation, however most of our clients have large personal CRE holdings. Given that we are classically trained investors, we've never seen the value in crypto assets, but per recent price volatility we'd be inclined to leg into Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP.

Ryan Ferrell, associate advisor, TritonPoint Wealth. We often implement an allocation of approximately 50% stocks, 25% bonds, and 25% alternatives. While our core sector allocations generally align with the Russell 1000, we may lean more heavily toward technology and communications, as well as private markets -- including private equity and private infrastructure -- due to their central role in artificial intelligence adoption.

In addition, we see opportunity in the financial sector given the current regulatory backdrop. Private equity and private infrastructure investments support innovation and the physical buildout of AI -- such as data centers, power generation, grid modernization, and cooling.

Maintaining a modest 3--5% cash allocation provides essential liquidity to support portfolio rebalancing, ongoing trading needs, and near-term cash flows without forcing sales at inopportune times. It also allows us to act decisively when attractive opportunities emerge, giving the portfolio flexibility to add risk thoughtfully rather than reactively during periods of market volatility.

   Sally Cates   is a managing director and is responsible for public relations and communications for Dynasty Financial Partners and the Dynasty Network of Advisors. Previously, she led global communications at Citi Private Bank and Smith Barney. 

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February 03, 2026 16:29 ET (21:29 GMT)

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