I would definitely pay off as much debt as possible...hopefully with a $125k/year job he has kept debt to a minimum, but just in case he has credit card debt, s

I would definitely pay off as much debt as possible...hopefully with a $125k/year job he has kept debt to a minimum, but just in case he has credit card debt, student loans, car payment, etc., I would pay these off. If he's risk-averse, he probably has little experience with investing, so the money is probably fine where it is.