By Weld Royal
From an office on Silicon Valley's Sand Hill Road, Morgan Stanley private wealth advisor Katie Partridge works with tech company founders as part of a 16-person team with about $50 billion in assets under management. On our latest The Way Forward: Next Generation podcast , Partridge talks about the challenges of serving the technology industry in a period of AI-driven optimism, when company founders may accumulate significant paper wealth but still face cash crunches. "The level of optimism and excitement in the valley is peak," she says. "We have young clients that are creating astronomical wealth."
Partridge notes that artificial intelligence has changed the nature of initial conversations among advisors and prospective clients. "More times than not, they have put their own situation into ChatGPT before they even come to a meeting," Partridge says. They walk in ready to ask about liquidity strategies, no-down-payment mortgages, and tax arbitrage. To prepare, Partridge now pretends to be a specific prospect and uses ChatGPT to predict the kinds of questions he or she will ask.
The human advantage. Armed with specific information, Partridge employs three strengths that she believes differentiates advisors from AI: judgment, creativity, and execution. To illustrate the point, she describes a client whose company went public in late 2021, just before tech valuations began to deteriorate in 2022. The client held concentrated stock inside a charitable remainder trust, which required annual 5% distributions based on market value. Selling shares into a falling market would have locked in losses.
Rather than automatically defaulting to conditions of the existing trust, her team collaborated with multiple Morgan Stanley experts to develop a synthetic income solution using options to generate liquidity without forcing a stock sale. "You have to roll up your sleeves," she says. Sometimes situations also demand tapping external experts, such as VC firms and investment bankers.
Partridge explains that the current AI boom is generating a level of optimism that reminds her of the smartphone era that began in 2007 and brought innovation and investment. "The first word that comes to mind is, it's fun," Partridge says. "It's really exciting."
Paper wealth versus liquidity. In Silicon Valley, valuations are climbing, and capital is flowing, compounding wealth on paper. But the excitement over conditions can make risk management conversations difficult. After the 2022 market pullback, many founders became more receptive to diversification. With AI valuations accelerating, resistance has returned.
Advisors must balance respecting founders' conviction for maintaining their stakes in their businesses with advocating prudent flexibility through partial liquidity, hedging strategies, or targeted diversification. The challenge becomes acute when unrealized gains dwarf available cash. "'I have this paper asset that is worth so much, but yet, I can't make my rent,'" Partridge says of the quandary facing some founders.
The problem intensifies as companies stay private longer, raising larger rounds and sometimes questioning the need to go public. Partridge talks about the importance of coming up with new ideas to help clients, such as structured tender offers, private share trading desks, and borrowing strategies like stock loans or credit facilities. The key is navigating company policies while balancing liquidity needs with risk. "It's certainly been an evolution in the marketplace since I started in the business," she says.
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February 20, 2026 12:33 ET (17:33 GMT)
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