My Mission Statement
My Story and Services
Wealth planning was what attached me to finances since I was young. I began my financial career in 2015, then later joined Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in 2021, attracted by its global resources and the opportunity to provide comprehensive planning services to individual clients. In addition to being a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor™ I’m a Financial Planning Specialist and a Workplace Advisor—Equity Compensation.
Born and raised in New Jersey, I graduated Hobart and William Smith Colleges. An avid golfer, I’m a fan of the New York Mets and Penn State football.
NMLS#: 1863597
Custom Process & Planning
The Cypress Grove Group provides our clients with a distinctive process and an exhaustive planning approach, both tailored to the character and needs of executives and entrepreneurs.
We follow a high-touch process of accountability and frequent reporting that closely mirrors corporate and business operational methods. We supplement the customary four step process—discovery, analysis and recommendation, implementation, and governance—with defined periodic interactions that allow for frequent status and result reviews.
Our planning goes beyond the traditional approach, taking into account the unique needs of our clients. We add executive and business owner planning elements to the traditional package of financial, investment, retirement, wealth and asset protection planning.
Executive Planning
Benefits and Incentive Compensation Analysis
- Types and provisions
- Income tax implications
Stock Options
- Vesting Analysis
- Optional exercise strategies
Concentrated Position Analysis
- Risk analysis
- Diversification strategies
Executive Stock Monetization
- Sales of restricted shares under Rule 144
- Rule 10b5-1 trading plans
- Loans and hedging strategies
Business Owner Planning
Business Needs
- Ownership
- Control and liquidity
- Key opportunities
- Key challenges
Cash Management and Capital Needs Review
- Deposit/ Treasury services
- Lines of credit
- Growth capital
- Key challenges
Retirement and Benefits Assessment
- 401(k), profit sharing an defined benefit plans
- Non-qualified deterred compensation
Risk Management
- Continuity planning
- Buy sell agreements
- Key employee life
- Split-dollar life
Succession or Exit Planning
- Strategic Client Group / Investment Bank (private sale)
- IPO
- Valuation maximization
- Strategic sale
- Financial recapitalization
- Employee stock ownership (ESOP)
The Challenge of Concentrated Stock Positions
There are many reasons you've had a successful career. You're among the best at what you do. You're an innovator. But perhaps most important of all, you're an enterprise leader with the dedication and vision to value the organization's interests as much, if not more than, those of your own unit or department. That's why you've been rewarded with sizable equity compensation in the form of stock grants or options.
While you have additional assets in your retirement plan, other investment accounts, insurance, and real estate, this concentrated stock position in your company represents a significant part of your total wealth. This also represents significant challenges, such as tax implications, liquidity limitations, and potential volatility. You need the help of someone who understands the complex regulations as well as the potential political ramifications surrounding equity compensation.
How We Can Help
The Cypress Grove Group at Morgan Stanley specializes in helping executives manage equity compensation issues and craft bespoke, all-inclusive wealth plans. Drawing on our team's experience and expertise, as well as Morgan Stanley's resources, we help corporate insiders navigate insider trading regulations and reporting requirements.
We can suggest tax-efficient approaches to diversification and strategies to address cash flow needs before stock liquidity is available.
- Exchange Funds: Provide diversification without triggering taxable gains through IRS-approved tax-deferred investment vehicles
- Opportunity Zone Investments
- Donor Advised Funds: Gifting appreciated long-term gain stock to offset income tax in a year when there is a liquidity event
- Portfolio Line of Credit: Borrowing against stock in a portfolio line as needed for immediate cash flow requirements
- 10b5-1 Plans: Preset diversification plans to sell through open and closed windows, approved by legal counsel and executed by third parties
- QSBS Exclusion: Gain from the sale or exchange of qualified small business stock (QSBS) may be 100% excluded from income
THE CHALLENGE OF MONETIZING BUSINESS VALUE
You've devoted yourself to building your own business. It was never really about the money; that was just a way to keep score. It was actually about pursuing your passion, being your own boss, challenging the status quo, and creating something lasting. Through your ingenuity, determination and grit, you've achieved success.
Now you're ready for another challenge, you'd like to spend more time with your family, or both. But you have substantial net worth that's difficult to access. You know your success in business doesn't automatically qualify you to steer your family through this very complex transition. You need advice and guidance from a team with the expertise and experience to help you manage what could be the transaction of a lifetime.
How We Can Help
The Cypress Grove Group at Morgan Stanley specializes in working with entrepreneurs just like you. We help you leverage personal wealth for business growth or liquidity as well as examine potential exit strategies in light of family as well as financial needs.
Drawing on our in-house expertise and the resources of Morgan Stanley we can help you through every stage in the life of a successful entrepreneur:
- Strategic Client Group / Investment Bank (private sale)
- IPO
- Generation: gain access to liquidity for business and personal use through approaches best suited to your needs and circumstances
- Monetization: model alternative strategies to monetize the value of your enterprise and consider how the proceeds hold be structured and invested
- Retirement: calculate cash flow needs, determine post career priorities and implement succession plans for continued family ownership
- Transfer: prepare younger generations with the education and support needed to assume control of family business and philanthropic legacies
THE CHALLENGE OF INTERGENERATIONAL WEALTH
You've been so dedicated to your company's needs that you probably never focused on the wealth you've built. Now that you've integrated the value of your concentrated stock into your plan or monetized the value of your business, you've found that your hard work has potentially provided generational wealth for your family. This realization raises family, lifestyle, and values questions as well as financial issues.
How much of your wealth do you want your heirs to inherit and are they prepared intellectually and emotionally to manage it? How can you make sure the money you donate is used effectively and how can you get your family interested in philanthropy? How can you develop a trust, tax and estate strategy and overall wealth plan that will provide for your current and future needs as well those of your heirs and causes?
How We Can Help
The Cypress Grove Group at Morgan Stanley can help you answer these questions and address these challenges. We bring the same level of attentiveness and service to all the issues you're facing, not just those involving your compensation, business, and finances. Thanks to the resources available from Morgan Stanley we can provide you with comprehensive family office style services.
We will coordinate with your other advisors to explore the elements of your existing TTE plan and see how it works with your wealth plan and if changes need to be made.
We will help you and your family create a mission statement and a charitable giving plan that matches your values as well as your needs.
We will work with your family to ensure that they have the knowledge and understanding to play whatever role in the family's wealth future that you and they wish.
We can offer you access to specialists who can help you with travel and concierge services, health and security advisory, tangible asset management, personal enrichment and financial administration.
Morgan Stanley's Art Resources Team can help you craft bespoke solutions regarding the art and collectibles which may make up a portion of your assets.
Location
Portfolio Insights
Retirement
- 401(k) Rollovers
- IRA Plans
- Retirement income strategies
- Retirement plan participants
- Annuities
Investing
- Asset Management
- Wealth Planning
- Traditional Investments
- Alternative Investments
- Impact Investing
Family
- Estate Planning Strategies
- 529 Plans / Education Savings Planning
- Long Term Care Insurance
- Special Needs Planning
- Trust Services
Business Planning
- Succession Planning
- Business Planning
- Qualified Retirement Plans
Philanthropy
- Endowments
- Foundations
- Donor Advised Funds
- Impact Investing
Financial Wellness
- Reduce employee stress,
- Improve retention and engagement, and
- Set themselves apart by offering comprehensive financial wellness benefits.
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”), its affiliates and Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors and Private Wealth Advisors do not provide tax or legal advice. Clients should consult their tax advisor for matters involving taxation and tax planning and their attorney for matters involving trust and estate planning, charitable giving, philanthropic planning and other legal matters.
For more information, please see the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC Client Relationship Summary.
2Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”), its affiliates and Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors or Private Wealth Advisors do not provide tax or legal advice. Clients should consult their tax advisor for matters involving taxation and tax planning and their attorney for legal matters.
3When Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, its affiliates and Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors and Private Wealth Advisors (collectively, “Morgan Stanley”) provide “investment advice” regarding a retirement or welfare benefit plan account, an individual retirement account or a Coverdell education savings account (“Retirement Account”), Morgan Stanley is a “fiduciary” as those terms are defined under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”), and/or the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the “Code”), as applicable. When Morgan Stanley provides investment education, takes orders on an unsolicited basis or otherwise does not provide “investment advice”, Morgan Stanley will not be considered a “fiduciary” under ERISA and/or the Code. For more information regarding Morgan Stanley’s role with respect to a Retirement Account, please visit www.morganstanley.com/disclosures/dol. Tax laws are complex and subject to change. Morgan Stanley does not provide tax or legal advice. Individuals are encouraged to consult their tax and legal advisors (a) before establishing a Retirement Account, and (b) regarding any potential tax, ERISA and related consequences of any investments or other transactions made with respect to a Retirement Account. Individuals should consult their tax advisor for matters involving taxation and tax planning and their attorney for matters involving trust and estate planning, charitable giving, philanthropic planning and other legal matters.
4Alternative Investments are speculative and include a high degree of risk. An investor could lose all or a substantial amount of his/her investment. Alternative investments are appropriate only for qualified, long-term investors who are willing to forgo liquidity and put capital at risk for an indefinite period of time.
5Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”), its affiliates and Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors or Private Wealth Advisors do not provide tax or legal advice. Clients should consult their tax advisor for matters involving taxation and tax planning and their attorney for legal matters.
6Structured Investments are complex and not appropriate for all investors. An investment in structured investments involves risks. These risks can include but are not limited to: fluctuations in the price, level or yield of underlying asset(s), interest rates, currency values and credit quality, substantial loss of principal, limits on participation in appreciation of underlying asset(s), limited liquidity, credit risk, and/or conflicts of interest. Many structured investments do not pay interest or guarantee a return above principal at maturity. Investors should read the security’s offering documentation prior to making an investment decision.
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Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”), its affiliates and Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors or Private Wealth Advisors do not provide tax or legal advice. Individuals should consult their tax advisor for matters involving taxation and tax planning and their attorney for legal matters.
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Awards Disclosures
