Consider the emotional gamut we face on an everyday basis.
There’s the kind of short-lived stress that comes with a tight project deadline or a last-minute meeting — intense in the moment, but quickly forgotten.
The emotions behind investing, navigating financial turbulence and interpreting geopolitical unrest, however, are anything but.
Tariffs, international conflicts, shifting policies and market uncertainty — how do you stay grounded when the landscape keeps changing?
Ilana Schonwetter is an investment advisor with BlueShore Financial, a division of Beem Credit Union, and a portfolio manager with Aviso Wealth. She has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, working with high net-worth individuals in Canada and abroad across mutual funds, stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds and more.
She recently spoke with Business in Vancouver editor-in-chief Hayley Woodin-Hastings to discuss practical solutions during impractical times.
“I think we are drowning in information and starving for wisdom and people don't know which information to react to,” Schonwetter says.
The onset of 2025 saw precisely that – business owners paralyzed by decisions around how to proceed, how to deploy capital and how to execute on business plans in the face of daily tariff talk.
For Schonwetter, the process begins with a plan equipped with a defined starting point centred around key questions: ‘What risks can I tolerate? Where does the roadmap take me? How will my emotions dictate my decisions?’
“[Having a plan] is extremely important,” Schonwetter says. “I think loss has to be experienced to be understood – clients will sometimes have one risk tolerance during good times and a completely different risk tolerance during bad times. You have to really ask yourself and be honest with yourself, ‘How much volatility can I tolerate?’”
So how to cut through all that noise and plan for the back half of 2025?
Schonwetter’s first rule of thumb is a well-diversified portfolio, where only a portion of your money is exposed to the market, along with commodities, bonds and potentially some real estate. She also recommends some asset classes that have a reverse correlation to the stock market – if markets falter, these additional components either remain completely stable or increase in value.
“I'm not investing in the overall market, I'm potentially investing in a couple of Canadian large banks [or] a couple of telecoms,” Schonwetter says. “Are those companies going to stop making money? No. So the right mix of businesses in your portfolio and the right mix of asset classes should smooth out that experience.”
Beyond the Googles and Amazons of the world, Schonwetter is seeing clients invest with their hearts just as much as their heads at a clip unlike any other point in her career. They are foregoing opportunities that don’t align with their values – weapons, gambling or tobacco, for example – or avoiding taking chances on regions of the world involved in political or social upheaval.
“If it comes to industries or things that you do not wish to support, absolutely 100% voice your opinion on that and there are absolutely ways to invest while excluding certain industries, without diluting your financial results,” she says.
Schonwetter forecasts the latter part of the year as being more predictable and less emotional, though she still preaches prudence and practicality.
“The market is now really looking a little bit more at the fundamentals: consumer confidence, unemployment, interest rates and the general GDP environment,” she says. “So, seat belts still on, but I think the worst of it is behind us.”
To hear the full conversation between Ilana Schonwetter and Hayley Woodin-Hastings, click on the podcast episode link below.
