“The middle-market economy is decoupling from the rest of the global perspective, which is another rationale that exposure in middle markets, in particular credit, might make sense in a portfolio today,” Browe said. “We have falling commodity prices, retail mutual fund outflow, market illiquidity, problems in the bond market, problems in the mutual fund market, we have potential for higher rates, we have a challenged global banking system, geopolitical system is always a concern, and we have China — is it going to be a hard landing?”

Martin Regalia, chief economist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, through even more water on the global economy.

“The economy has grown for the last six years, but it hasn’t grown the way it’s supposed to grow,” Regalia says. “Economies are supposed to reach their potential, they are supposed to employ resources in the most efficient way and as a result create an improving standard of living. Unfortunately what we’re seeing is an economy that hasn’t done that for six years.”

So what’s a fee-only RIA to do? Embrace the change, said keynote speaker Kathy Cleveland Bull of Columbus, Ohio-based N-Compass Consulting.

“We have a choice in how we respond to change,” Bull said. “Everyone has a default setting, it’s the filter through which you view events and circumstances. It’s your choice. The more you use a setting, the more you strengthen tendencies. It’s an attitude muscle, you’re strengthening it day-by-day. We create our own misery or happiness just by what we incrementally strengthen day-in or day-out. “

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