My Story and Services

David was born and raised in New York City and attended Bowdoin College in Maine. He lived in Los Angeles for five years before moving back to the East Coast and starting his career in the financial services industry with Smith Barney. He left Morgan Stanley Smith Barney for UBS in 2012, and was very happy to rejoin Morgan Stanley in 2025. David lives in Livingston with his wife, two daughters and their dog Stella.
Services Include
Securities Agent: KY, TX, OR, DE, CT, VT, SC, ME, CO, WI, MI, CA, MA, FL, VA, TN, NV, NM, NJ, WA, PA, NH, NC, DC, NY, MD; General Securities Representative; Investment Advisor Representative
Check the background of Our Firm and Investment Professionals on FINRA's BrokerCheck.*

FINANCIAL PLANNING WITH DAVID POTISCHMAN

Your financial plan should include more than just your investment objectives. Rather, it should be tailored to address the personal life and legacy goals you've identified and prioritized.

David's planning process begins with you, your personal goals, your financial goals, and your investment objectives. It is holistic in its approach and encompasses all the key elements of your financial life as well as your cash management needs. Your curated wealth plan includes research and recommendations across a wide range of asset classes, themes, models, and investment managers to accomplish your objectives.

The CFP® Professional:
David Potischman is certified by the CFP® Board. The CFP® designation shows that David has taken the extra step to demonstrate commitment and professionalism by voluntarily submitting to the rigorous CFP® certification process to better serve his clients.

The certification process includes demanding education, examination, experience, and ethical requirements. These four cornerstones set the foundation for the ability in helping clients achieve their goals. David's diverse skillsets can help you navigate the complicated financial factors in your life.

Our LifeView® Platform:
Using Morgan Stanley's LifeView® platform - David can create your personal roadmap to help achieve and protect your goals - a framework that makes the connection between your life goals and your financial resources and provides a baseline for future discussions.

LifeView® helps us help you:

  • Analyze your current investments and financial situation
  • Review and prioritize your goals with you, such as retirement
  • Education funding
  • Major purchases and philanthropic goals
  • Protect your goals
  • Develop wealth transfer strategies
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    1. Discover

    Start with a conversation to gain a thorough understanding of your needs, lifestyle and family – and your goals for the future.

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    2. Advise

    David works with you to develop portfolio strategies to help you achieve and protect the outcomes you envision.

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    3. Implement

    Look across multiple accounts and products to help you implement solutions that are an appropriate fit for your strategy.

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    4. Track Progress

    David helps you track your progress as well as spending and savings to help ensure you remain on track towards your goals.

WHERE I FIT IN

Managing family wealth is like running a company - you need a strategy to help manage assets and mitigate risks. Bridging the gap between wealth and investment management services, David works with owners and founders striving to accelerate growth and develop robust succession plans. He helps manage the entire process by leveraging some of the top research and investment management resources in the industry.

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    Planning for the Unplanned

    Events such as death, disability, or retirement of a business owner don't have to mean the end of a successful business. Succession planning can provide for an orderly transition of ownership and business management during lifetime or at death. There are various options for structing and funding buy-sell agreements, key employee needs, and other executive benefits programs.

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    Transaction of a Lifetime

    Creating and growing a successful business is seldom just about money, nor is the decision to exit the business. Whether that exit is through IPO, merger with another company, private sale, or succession within the family, the process is intense, the details are complex, and the decisions are often an unexpected combination of personal and financial needs. Morgan Stanley has been helping business owners like you bring clarity and confidence to what is typically a once-in-a-lifetime event.

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    Understanding Your Equity Awards

    How performance shares work:

    • The difference between incentive and non-qualified stock options, as well as restricted stock awards and units.
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    Concentrated Stock & Options Analysis

    Designed for executives who have significant wealth in stock and options of their company, the Concentrated Stock and Options Analysis illustrates various valuations of holdings as well as hypothetical diversification scenarios.

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    10b5-1 Plans

    As a corporate executive, you may be aware of material non-public information at any time and can also face company-imposed quarterly or specific blackout periods restricting market access to trading your company stock. A 10b5-1 plan is designed to address these issues. By utilizing a 10b5-1 plan, you can gain an affirmative defense against claims of insider trading. Your plan can include tailored trading schedules that coordinates with your personal need for liquidity and your own timing requirements.

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Tools & Resources

Morgan Stanley's comprehensive suite of digital resources has been carefully designed to help enhance each and every aspect of your financial portfolio and life. Learn more about some of the Modern Wealth Management Tools that we offer to our valued clients.

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    Morgan Stanley Online

    Beyond viewing your account balance and activity, Morgan Stanley Online (MSO) has a suite of features that allow you to manage your everyday finances from paying bills and sending money to transferring funds and authorizing transactions with eAuthorizations.

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    Spending and Budgeting Tool

    Track spending habits, categorize expenses and create budgets across your Morgan Stanley and external financial accounts with our Spending and Budgeting Tool.

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    Total Wealth View

    View all your external financial accounts directly in Morgan Stanley Online or the mobile app. By linking your accounts, you'll benefit from more informed wealth planning, secure data access and convenient connectivity.

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    Digital Vault

    Digital Vault allows for easy sharing and convenient access to your most important documents from wills and deeds to financial statements and tax fillings. Easily manage your encrypted financial records all in one place.

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    eDelivery

    eDelivery provides you with the ability to view statements and other documents electronically in lieu of paper. Clients who are registered in Morgan Stanley Online may enroll in eDelivery.

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    Family Office Resources

    Morgan Stanley Family Office Resources provides specialized, technical expertise to select clients across a broad range of family wealth management issues. Our core capabilities span three complimentary areas of focus including Governance & Legacy, Wealth Strategies and Signature Access.

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    MS Reserved

    Reserved Living & Giving is a tiered complimentary loyalty program that rewards Morgan Stanley's most valued clients. The program is designed to enhance your lifestyle and relationship with the firm beyond traditional wealth management services.

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    Cyber Security Resources

    At Morgan Stanley, safeguarding your assets and personal information is among our highest priorities. Learn about our security measures and use our resources and ideas to help protect yourself online.

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    Thoughts on the Market Podcast

    With perspectives on the forces shaping the market, join Morgan Stanley's Chief Investment Officer and Chief US Equity Strategist as he and his colleagues discuss their viewpoints regarding the latest trends in the financial marketplace.

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    GIC On the Markets

    Detailed market commentary from Morgan Stanley's thought leaders on topics such as global equities, fixed income, monetary policy and more.

    Read the Latest Report
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    GIC Weekly

    The Global Investment Committee's Lisa Shalett headlines this weekly look at markets, asset class performance and fixed income.

    Read the Latest Report
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    2025 Federal Tax Tables

    This document outlines the 2025 tax rate schedule, education and health savings account limits, retirement contribution and deduction limits, among other information.

    View 2025 Federal Tax Rates

Managing Assets & Liabilities

Following a thorough discovery and ongoing review process, David identifies the areas in which he can provide a high level of service and analytical financial management framework. This cultivates a personalized and comprehensive wealth strategy that centers on growing your wealth by managing both sides of your balance sheet. Below are the major areas David targets when working with investors:

    Professional Portfolio Management

    Managing an investment portfolio should be consultative, disciplined process that balances your attitudes about investing with careful analysis of the financial markets. Working together, David creates a customized strategy that applies long-held investment principles to help your assets appreciate appropriately or generate cash-flow/income as you require.

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    Tax Management Awareness

    It is important to understand how taxes can affect after-tax returns on a basic level. It can be commonly understood that the realization of gains and payment of taxes will ultimately have an impact on the ending value of the investment portfolio, but by how much? Tax-Efficiency and Active Tax-Loss Harvesting are strategies targeted at minimizing these costs. This can be accomplished through proper asset allocation, calculated liquidation strategies across various holdings, tactical distributions and many more insights that David reviews with his clients to help them achieve their financial goals.

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    Cash Flow & Risk Analysis

    Budgeting can be the simplest of tasks and helps create a foundation in financial management, but often gets forgotten. David starts with a focus on inflows vs. outflows. Specifically, what are the planned contributions and distributions? By identifying the cash flows, your forecasted risk can be prudently determined by David. Forecasted risk is a combination of calculated risk and behavioral risk which pinpoints an appropriate framework for asset allocation and behavioral finance tendencies. These pillars will help you keep short-term and long-term objectives equally in the limelight while constructing your personal wealth plan.

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    Debt & Cash Management

    David recognizes that clients and their families have unique needs that require dedicated experience and capabilities. His goal is to help simplify your financial life with a combination of cash management and lending solutions designed to complement your investment strategy and support your financial goals.

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    Strategic Financial & Legacy Planning

    Applying sophisticated analytical tools, models and applications, David is able to produce quantitative analysis of complex situations and scenarios. This helps quantify the implications of taking various courses of action, helping you make clear and informed decisions and ultimately solving the complex financial planning challenges you and your legacy can face. David works with you and your attorneys to help ensure your estate plan is aligned with your values and your aspirations for the next generation.

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    Charitable Giving

    Collaborating with your legal and tax advisors, David can help integrate charitable giving or philanthropy into your wealth plan so you may enhance the impact within your community and organizations. David is there at each stage to better define your mission and values as he creates a sustainable and effective charitable or philanthropic strategy throughout your life.

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    Family Governance and Wealth Education

    David strives to maximize family wealth education, making it more likely that all members of your family will have the foundation they need to lead meaningful, fulfilled and engaged lives. This includes the dynamics of intergenerational wealth transfer and, when needed, providing personalized wealth education to prepare younger generations to be stewards of the wealth they will inherit.

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    Business Succession

    Exiting your company in a way that supports your financial objectives, preserves business value, and positions your wealth to potentially achieve your legacy and multigeneration goals takes careful planning that begins years and many months in advance. David assists at each and every stage of the process, helping you map out and illustrate potential issues against your current timeline, all while working with your outside advisors to help ensure that you are properly positioned to help minimize taxes from the transaction.

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Location

340 Mount Kemble Avenue
Morristown, NJ 07960
US
Direct:
(973) 660-4765(973) 660-4765

Meet My Team

Wealth Management
Global Investment Office

Portfolio Insights

Retirement

Working with you to understand your life goals and develop a personalized wealth strategy. Today and for the years to come.
  • 401(k) Rollovers
  • IRA Plans
  • Retirement income strategies
  • Retirement plan participants
  • Annuities
4 Financially Smart Ways to Take Money Out of Retirement Accounts
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4 Financially Smart Ways to Take Money Out of Retirement Accounts

Discover how planning for required minimum distributions from retirement accounts can help you fund future needs and support loved ones.

Investing

Working closely with you to guide your wealth and investments through the most challenging market cycles.
  • Asset Management
  • Wealth Planning
  • Traditional Investments
  • Alternative Investments
  • Impact Investing
Tax-Smart Ways to Sell Securities
How investors can tap their portfolios in tax-savvy ways.

Tax-Smart Ways to Sell Securities

Realizing profits seems like the best part of investing, but taxes can add up. Our new analytics tool can help investors tap their portfolios in tax-savvy ways.

Family

Creating customized financial strategies for the challenges that today’s families face.
  • Estate Planning Strategies
  • 529 Plans / Education Savings Planning
  • Long Term Care Insurance
  • Special Needs Planning
  • Trust Services
529 Plans: A Powerful Tool to Save for Education
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529 Plans: A Powerful Tool to Save for Education

Though education costs continue to climb, starting to save and invest early can make a difference.

Business Planning

Helping you on key aspects of your business such as ownership, liquidity and developing opportunities.
  • Succession Planning
  • Business Planning
  • Qualified Retirement Plans
Financial Planning for Life After Selling a Business
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Financial Planning for Life After Selling a Business

Selling your business can mean big changes for your life, both personally and financially. Know how to make the most of your windfall.

Philanthropy

Making sure your philanthropic dollars are managed with the same high quality service as the rest of your wealth.
  • Endowments
  • Foundations
  • Donor Advised Funds
  • Impact Investing
Donor Advised Funds: A Smart Way to Manage Your Giving�
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Donor Advised Funds: A Smart Way to Manage Your Giving�

There?s more to charitable giving than you may realize. Here?s one method that may be a tax-efficient way to give and can help maximize your impact.
Ready to start a conversation? Contact David Potischman today.
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, and CFP® (with plaque design) in the United States, which it authorizes use of by individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements.

1Morgan Stanley Wealth Management is the trade name of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, a registered broker-dealer in the United States.

For more information, please see the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC Client Relationship Summary.

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2Morgan Stanley offers a wide array of brokerage and advisory services to its clients, each of which may create a different type of relationship with different obligations to you. Please consult with your Financial Advisor to understand these differences or review our Understanding Your Brokerage and Investment Advisory Relationships brochure available at www.morganstanley.com/wealth-relationshipwithms/pdfs/understandingyourrelationship.pdf.
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.

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3Morgan Stanley offers a wide array of brokerage and advisory services to its clients, each of which may create a different type of relationship with different obligations to you. Please consult with your Financial Advisor to understand these differences or review our Understanding Your Brokerage and Investment Advisory Relationships brochure available at www.morganstanley.com/wealth-relationshipwithms/pdfs/understandingyourrelationship.pdf.

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4When 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.

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5Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC does not accept appointments nor will it act as a trustee but it will provide access to trust services through an appropriate third-party corporate trustee.
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 and other legal matters.

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6Morgan 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 and other legal matters.

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7Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC is a registered Broker/Dealer, Member SIPC, and not a bank. Where appropriate, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC has entered into arrangements with banks and other third parties to assist in offering certain banking related products and services.

Investment, insurance and annuity products offered through Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC are: NOT FDIC INSURED | MAY LOSE VALUE | NOT BANK GUARANTEED | NOT A BANK DEPOSIT | NOT INSURED BY ANY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY

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Check the background of our Firm and Investment Professionals on FINRA's BrokerCheck*.

The information, products and services described here are intended only for individuals residing in states where this Financial Advisor is properly registered as described in this site.

Morgan Stanley reserves the right, to the extent permitted under applicable law, to retain and monitor all electronic communications. Morgan Stanley will not accept purchase or sale orders via any Internet site, social media site and/or its messaging systems. Morgan Stanley does not endorse and is not responsible and assumes no liability for content, products or services posted by third-parties on any Internet site, social media site and/or its messaging systems. All electronic communications are subject to terms available at the following link:
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The securities/instruments, services, investments and investment strategies discussed in this material may not be appropriate for all investors. The appropriateness of a particular investment, investment strategy or service will depend on an investor's individual circumstances and objectives. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC recommends that investors independently evaluate particular investments, strategies and services, and encourages investors to seek the advice of a Financial Advisor or Private Wealth Advisor. This material does not provide individually tailored investment advice. It has been prepared without regard to the individual financial circumstances and objectives of persons who receive it.

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.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”) is not implying an affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement with/of the third party or that any monitoring is being done by Morgan Stanley of any information contained within the website. Morgan Stanley is not responsible for the information contained on the third-party website or the use of or inability to use such site. Nor do we guarantee their accuracy or completeness.

The views, opinions or advice contained within third party websites or materials are solely those of the author, who is not a Morgan Stanley employee, and do not necessarily reflect those of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, or its affiliates. The strategies and/or investments referenced may not be appropriate for all investors as the appropriateness of a particular investment or strategy will depend on an investor's individual circumstances and objectives.

*References to length of service at Morgan Stanley include years at Morgan Stanley and predecessor firms.

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and federally registered CFP (with flame design) in the U.S, which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements.

The use of the CDFA designation does not permit the rendering of legal advice by Morgan Stanley or its Financial Advisors which may only be done by a licensed attorney.  The CDFA designation is not intended to imply that either Morgan Stanley or its Financial Advisors are acting as experts in this field.

Awards Disclosures
CRC 6491812 (04/2024)