Are You Setting Up Your Teens for Financial Responsibility?

How Does Morton Wealth Actually Pick Its Investments?

Most clients trust their wealth manager to make sound investment decisions on their behalf. Far fewer ever get to see exactly how those decisions are made. This episode is for the ones who want to know.  In this special edition of Financial Commute, Executive Vice President Eric Selter sits down with Chief Investment Officer Meghan Pinchuk to pull back the curtain on Morton Wealth's full investment research process. From what triggers a new idea to how funds get vetted, how structures get scrutinized, and what it actually takes to earn conviction, this is the conversation most firms never have in public.  Key Takeaways * The investment process starts long before any money moves. From initial sourcing to final funding, a new investment can take 18 months or more. That is not a flaw in the process. It is the process.  * The structure around an investment matters as much as the investment itself. A great underlying asset in a poorly structured fund can leave you locked out, illiquid, or exposed to risks that have nothing to do with market performance.  * Good market conditions hide a lot. It is easy to look like a strong fund in a good market. The real test is how someone handles adversity. Morton Wealth actively looks for funds that have been tested and can clearly articulate what they learned.  * People are still the most important variable. AI can streamline data processing. It cannot assess character. Whether a fund will do the right thing when things are hard is a judgment call that requires real relationships and real time.

You're 50+. Should You Be Taking Less Investment Risk?

It's one of the most common questions people type into Google once they hit 50: should I be taking less investment risk? It feels like a reasonable question. But according to Chief Investment Officer Meghan Pinchuk, it may be the wrong one entirely.  In this episode of Financial Commute, Meghan and host Chris Galeski unpack what drives the right level of investment risk at any age, from longevity and sequence of returns risk to the emotional factors that quietly derail even well-built plans. Spoiler: age is further down the list than most people think. QUESTIONS THIS EPISODE ANSWERS Should I take less investment risk now that I'm 50? Not necessarily, and maybe not at all. Age by itself is not the right variable. The more useful question is: how close are you to the spending phase of your life, and how long does your portfolio need to last? Someone retiring at 65 with a life expectancy well into their 80s or 90s has a 25 to 30 year window their money needs to cover. A portfolio that's too conservative early in that window may not grow fast enough to last the distance. The old model of shifting heavily into bonds at retirement was designed for a world where retirement lasted 10 or 15 years. That world is largely gone.   What is the biggest investment risk people over 50 actually face? Two things come up repeatedly in this conversation. The first is behavioral risk: abandoning a sound investment strategy during a market downturn. Meghan and Chris point to 2008, 2020, and 2022 as examples of periods when investors who panicked and sold missed the recovery entirely, permanently reducing their long-term returns. Research consistently shows that retail investors earn significantly less than the indices they invest in, largely because of this pattern. The second is sequence of returns risk: being forced to sell assets early in retirement, when prices are depressed, in order to cover living expenses. That combination, selling low and losing compounding time, is what genuinely harms long-term plans.   What is sequence of returns risk, and why does it matter so much at retirement? Sequence of returns risk is the danger of experiencing a major market decline right at the moment you transition from accumulating assets to spending them. If your portfolio drops 30 or 50 percent in the first years of retirement and you're selling shares to cover expenses, you lock in those losses and shrink the base that would otherwise recover and compound. The timing matters as much as the magnitude. A 50 percent decline early in retirement is far more damaging than the same decline ten years in, when you've already drawn down a portion of your portfolio and have fewer assets exposed.   How does longevity change the risk equation for people over 50? Significantly. Earlier generations could plan for a retirement of 10 to 15 years. Today, a 65-year-old retiring without a pension may need their savings to last 25 to 35 years. That length of time changes almost everything about portfolio design. It means you likely need more growth assets, not fewer, to outpace inflation and sustain your lifestyle. It also means the risk of running out of money may be a greater threat than the risk of a temporary market decline. At the same time, most of this generation is the first to fund retirement entirely on their own, without a pension providing a guaranteed income floor.   How do advisors think about how much risk to take in a portfolio? Meghan and Chris break it into two questions. First, how much growth do you mathematically need? Given your expenses, savings, and expected retirement length, what return does your portfolio need to deliver for your plan to work? That's a numbers question. Second, what is your actual emotional tolerance for volatility? Someone who needs strong returns but cannot psychologically handle large drawdowns is in a difficult position that pure math can't resolve. A good financial plan has to account for both, because a strategy you abandon in a panic is worse than a more conservative strategy you can stick with.   What is the bucket approach, and how does it help manage risk in retirement? The bucket approach divides your portfolio by time horizon and purpose rather than treating it as a single pool. Bucket one covers your emergency fund and near-term expenses, held in stable, liquid assets that won't lose significant value in a downturn. Bucket two generates the income you need to cover living expenses over the medium term. Bucket three is your long-term growth engine, invested in equities and other higher-volatility assets. The practical benefit: when markets fall, you draw from bucket one rather than selling growth assets at depressed prices. You don't need to react emotionally because you already have a structured plan.   What if I take less risk and miss out on a strong market run? This is a real risk that doesn't get discussed enough. If you reduce your equity allocation because you feel you don't need the growth, and then markets rise 20 or 30 percent over several years, the emotional pressure to chase that return can cause investors to buy back in at much higher prices than they would have paid originally. Meghan calls this FOMO risk, and it's worth running through before you make changes. If the market keeps running and your portfolio doesn't keep pace, what would you actually do? Being honest about that in advance leads to a more realistic allocation decision.   When is the right time to buy more stocks? In theory, the best time to buy growth assets is when they've gotten significantly cheaper, during recessions and sharp corrections. In practice, almost no one does it. Chris notes that across market downturns in 2009, 2011, 2018, 2020, and 2022, very few clients called eager to buy more stocks. The ones who did are, in hindsight, easy to identify as the ones who made the best long-term decisions. Understanding this tendency ahead of time, and building a plan that doesn't rely on making courageous decisions in the middle of a crisis, is one of the most practical things a financial advisor can help with.

How to Pay Yourself in Retirement: Strategies to Help Make Your Money Last

For most of your working life, the financial question is straightforward: earn more, save more, invest wisely. Then retirement arrives, and the question flips entirely. How do you turn decades of saving into a reliable paycheck that lasts as long as you do? In this episode of Financial Commute, Morton Wealth advisors Chris Galeski and Mike sit down to tackle the retirement income questions clients ask most: the 4% rule, Social Security timing, sequence of returns risk, and the three-bucket strategy that can protect your lifestyle through any market cycle. QUESTIONS THIS EPISODE ANSWERS These are the questions people approaching and entering retirement are genuinely asking. We’ve addressed them directly below, and the full conversation is available as a transcript further down the page. What questions should I be asking my advisor that I’m not? The most important question isn’t about a number — it’s about the framework: what decisions today will have the biggest impact 10–20 years from now, and what am I not asking that I should be? The right advisor helps you find those blind spots before they become costly gaps. Does the 4% rule still work today? A useful starting point, but not a strategy. The 4% rule was designed for simplicity, not sophistication. A real plan accounts for your full picture — Social Security, pensions, annuities, taxable and tax-deferred accounts, real estate — each with different tax treatment. Think of 4% as a floor, not a ceiling, and not a substitute for personalized planning. When should I take Social Security? There’s no universal right answer — and regret runs both ways. Timing depends on your health, savings, and other income. Delaying to 70 maximizes your benefit, but if you’ve saved enough to invest early payments and grow them, taking it sooner can make mathematical sense. Run projections across multiple scenarios with your advisor and make the best decision with today’s information. What is the three-bucket strategy, and why does it matter in retirement? The bucket approach organizes assets by time horizon rather than treating everything as one pool. Bucket one is your safety net (2+ years of living expenses in low-volatility assets). Bucket two holds income-generating bonds for the medium term. Bucket three is long-term growth — equities you can leave alone through market cycles. When a recession hits, you draw from bucket one, never forced to sell growth assets at the worst possible time. What is sequence of returns risk, and how does it affect retirement income? The danger of major market losses early in retirement — right when you start drawing down. If your portfolio drops 30% in year one and you’re selling shares to cover expenses, you lock in losses and permanently reduce future growth potential. The bucket strategy protects against this: draw from your stable bucket in downturns and leave growth assets untouched until they recover. Which account should I draw from first in retirement? Order matters enormously for tax efficiency. Assess your account types (taxable brokerage, traditional IRA/401(k), Roth), your current bracket, and expected Social Security income — then “fill” each bracket optimally. Some years that means pulling extra from an IRA; others it means realizing long-term capital gains from a taxable account. There’s no single right answer — revisit it every year. How often should I update my retirement financial plan? At minimum, once a year — and after any major life change. Tax laws shift, markets move, and family situations evolve. An annual check-in lets you ask: does last year’s plan still fit this year’s life? Most years you won’t need dramatic changes, but small course corrections prevent big drift over time.

What Nobody Tells You Before You Sell Your Business

Most business owners spend years, sometimes decades, building something remarkable. But when it comes time to exit, the majority aren't prepared for what happens next. According to research from the Exit Planning Institute, 75% of business owners regret selling their business within the first year.  In this episode of Financial Commute, Wealth Advisor Joe Seetoo sits down with host Chris to walk through the exit planning framework Morton Wealth uses with business-owner clients, from protecting against the Five D's to building transferable enterprise value and knowing who you'll be on the Monday after closing day.

The Real Cost of Gifting Money to Your Children

Giving money to your children is one of the most generous things a parent can do. It’s also one of the most consequential. And the consequences aren’t always the ones you planned for. In this episode of Couchside Conversations, Stacey McKinnon and Chris Galeski walk through what actually happens when families transfer wealth without a plan, the five mistakes they see most often, and what it looks like when families get it right. Tune in if you're thinking about... * Whether you can afford to give and how much is actually safe to gift right now * What happens when you treat children equally instead of equitably * How to give without quietly creating dependency or resentment * Whether to tell your kids what they'll eventually receive, and when * Whether the real risk is the money itself, or the silence around it To watch this episode or read the transcript, visit our website here [https://www.mortonwealth.com/blog-posts/the-real-cost-of-gifting-money-to-your-children].