By Jonathan Chevreau on March 26, 2026 Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

How retirees should respond to the Iran crisis

By Jonathan Chevreau on March 26, 2026 Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

In the likelihood of a protracted conflict, these experts think people in or close to retirement need to review their asset allocation.

Cynics have rechristened America’s attack on Iran as Operation Epstein Fury, suggesting the main reason for Operation Epic Fury (as the Trump Administration originally called it) was to distract from the Epstein Files and the president’s one million mentions therein. Whether that cynicism is justified is beside the point for most investors, and especially retirees and those who hope to retire in the next few years. Experts consulted for this column believe the global conflict launched in late February will drag on far longer than the “few weeks” initially advertised. Look at Vietnam or Russia’s “special military operation” against Ukraine, now in its fifth year.

While the U.S. may yet attract some second-tier allies, thus far Trump seems to be isolated and forced to “go it alone,” perhaps a karmic response from the allies he spurned with his tariffs and global trade war.  

For a comprehensive look at recommendations by 14 investment advisors and business owners in the U.S., see the recent blog on my site, coordinated by Featured.com on LinkedIn. In the more limited space available for this column, I have added Canadian input from four well-known domestic financial pros. 

Don’t let geopolitics torpedo your plan

Typical of the Featured.com blog is this comment from an advisor who warned against making major asset allocation shifts because of geopolitical events like Iran: “Large structural shifts are rarely advisable for retirement investors because they can introduce timing risk,” said Dennis Shirshikov, head of growth and engineering, Growthlimit.com. 

“A more disciplined approach is to review whether the portfolio already includes defensive characteristics such as income-producing assets, diversified sectors, and a stable allocation to fixed income. When those foundations are in place, geopolitical events tend to have less influence on long-term outcomes. Investors often benefit more from maintaining diversification and liquidity than from attempting to reposition aggressively during uncertain moments.”

Or as another source succinctly put it, “For most retirees, this is more of a rebalance-and-defend moment than a reason to overhaul the portfolio.” Lastly, investment banker Oliver Bogner of the Advisory Investment Bank describes his major defensive move as “a barbell: keep quality equity exposure, but pair it with explicit ‘shock absorbers’ that don’t pretend to predict the war.”

His exchange-traded fund (ETF) picks include “GLD [invested in........

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