Jacqueline Lister

Taxes act as a drag on your investment performance that can be heavier than any fee you pay. But they might also be the easiest to reduce, with the right strategies in place. Morgan Stanley Total Tax 365 offers a full spectrum of tax-efficient solutions to help mitigate the tax drag on your portfolio—so you can keep more of what you earn and improve after-tax returns.

Business owners who are selling their companies and determining how to invest their proceeds for further business opportunities, generational wealth transfers, or retirement. Recipients of an inheritance, divorce settlement, or insurance payouts. Lottery winners, entertainers, and athletes receiving large lump sums, continual payouts, or entering contracts.

Often clients with substantial net worth have accumulated large single stock positions. While these positions have contributed to their wealth over time, this concentration comes with a unique set of risks and tax implications. Our team leverages the Morgan Stanley platform and our unique expertise to help clients navigate this reality.

Generally speaking our solutions fall into these categories, easily remembered by the acronym H.O.P.E.S:

-Hold

-Option Overlay

-Philanthropy

-Exchange Fund

-Sell

Alternative Investments go beyond the stocks and bonds of the traditional 60/40 portfolio. Diverse and versatile, they can help grow and protect your wealth and can shape your portfolio to fit your needs. Alternatives may help you diversify your holdings, so you feel less tied to the ups and downs of the public market- potentially lowering volatility and mitigating downturns. With decades of experience and immense scale, Morgan Stanley is an industry leader in alternatives, resulting in 75% of our fund offerings either being first-look or exclusive to the firm. As an investor, this makes Tennessee Valley Wealth Management at Morgan Stanley the firm of choice for high-net worth investors.

Many of today’s companies stay private longer, with more of their valuation being created before they become publicly traded. Morgan Stanley Private Markets connects a broad network of potential private investors in an accessible ecosystem, allowing eligible clients to buy and sell securities of private companies.

Family Office Resources (FOR) provides specialized technical expertise to ultra-high net worth clients across a broad range of family wealth management issues. These issues include Comprehensive Wealth Planning, Family Governance and Wealth Education, Private Banking, Estate Planning Strategies, Philanthropy Management and more. Look at our Family Office Resources tab for more information.

Morgan Stanley offers a variety of charitable solutions for clients. These include:

-Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs): With a DAF clients make irrevocable, nonrefundable contributions of cash or securities. The assets in the DAF can grow free of federal income tax, and the donor can suggest when and which qualified charities should receive grants.

-Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs): Clients who are 70 ½ or older can make annual QCDs up to $105,000 directly from their IRA to a qualifying public charity. The client will not owe any federal income tax on QCDs.

-U.S. Legacy Income Trusts: The trusts provide Donors contributing cash and/or acceptable securities with the opportunity to avoid recognition of capital gains on contributions of appreciated assets. They also provide monthly distributions of tax-advantaged income for life up to ten individual income beneficiaries designated by the donor. Upon passing of the last income beneficiary, the remainder will be distributed to the donor’s qualified public charities.

-Charitable Remainder Trust: this is an irrevocable trust that is often used for income tax planning and is designed to benefit both individuals and charity. The term of the non–charitable interest may be for up to 20 years or the lives of the individuals – typically the donor and spouse. Contributions to the CRT can qualify for a charitable gift or estate tax deduction and the donor typically receives a charitable income tax deduction for lifetime trusts. Learn more below at the link.

Digital Vault lets you easily and conveniently manage and share life's most important documents, such as wills, deeds and estate plans as well as financial and tax filings.

Your mobile phone makes it easier to connect with friends and family, improve your efficiency, and simplify your daily activities. Make sure that you are taking the necessary steps to protect your mobile phone.

Smart devices provide convenience and efficiency, but they also present security risks. Learn how to enjoy the benefits of this technology without compromising your security.

Social media allows you to stay connected during these unprecedented times. However, it is important to remember to stay safe on social media.

Leveraging a sophisticated suite of analytic tools, as well as the extensive resources of Morgan Stanley, we can help you take charge of your financial future and achieve your goals.

We recognize that wealth consists not only of a family’s financial capital, but also consists of its human and social capital. We seek to help you address sensitive family issues; facilitate communication; manage conflict; and achieve a shared sense of common direction in coordination with your outside network.

The Private Banking Group offers clients a suite of Cash Management and Lending Solutions as an attractive alternative to a traditional bank. These solutions include a range of payment services, from traditional check writing and debit card to online and mobile app services.

We offer a fully integrated analysis of your balance sheet, estate plan and investment strategy through a collaborative process, including your Morgan Stanley Family Wealth Director and Estate Planning Strategist and, at your request, your legal and tax advisors.

Our mission is to help you translate your personal values and family legacies into results-oriented, strategic giving programs by drawing upon our firm’s global reach and expertise in philanthropy.

Lifestyle Advisory understands the importance of enhancing your lifestyle experiences and provides access to knowledgeable third-party providers to help meet your personal needs, from every day to the extraordinary.

Each US person is entitled to transfer via gift or bequest a certain amount of assets free of federal gift or estate tax. Working with your Morgan Stanley Family Wealth Director and Estate Planning Strategist we can help understand these exemptions and put them to work.

Learn how specific trust strategies and the management of lifetime gifts can help you maximize your federal estate tax efficiency.

Explore the different types of irrevocable trusts and the benefits of each in relation to your estate plan.

Capital gains taxes are a fact of life, especially in volatile markets. But working with your Financial Advisor you can work toward lowering your tax burden using Total Tax 365 strategies, like Direct Indexing.

Highly concentrated stock positions can put you at increased risk from market volatility or result in significant capital gains when you sell. We can help qualified investors with solutions that enable you to diversify in a tax-smart way.

By implementing tax-efficient strategies as part of your investment process you may increase potential portfolio returns and achieve your goals faster. Watch to learn more about how Morgan Stanley Total Tax 365 may help you save on taxes and keep more of what you earn.

Liquidating assets to meet a goal can be a land mine of tax risk. Your Financial Advisor can help you navigate the complexities with Total Tax 365 and Intelligent Withdrawals.

Our Goals Planning System (GPS) tool enables us to provide a single, comprehensive snapshot of your finances and adapt a wealth plan to your ever-changing life demands and modify goals as needed.

Our Portfolio Risk Platform, backed by institutional-caliber analytics, assesses thousands of risk factors using a holdings-based approach to assess a portfolio’s exposures, analyze how securities behave together across portfolios and forecast how they influence risk and return moving forward.

Learn how you can use an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust in your estate plan.

Innovative Strategies for Your Portfolio

Learn how to invest for the future with a 529 plan.

Learn how Morgan Stanley Tax Management Services can help efficiently manage your capital gains with a complimentary and fully personalized experience.

Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management helps address the unique and complex needs of highly affluent and multi-generational families.

When it comes to retirement, how long can you make your retirement savings last?

Building healthy money habits doesn’t happen overnight. For example, many of us could use help navigating uncomfortable monetary asks.

You’ve done well managing your investments so far. You know your way around the markets but as your life grows more complex, you just don’t have the time to be a do-it-yourself investor anymore.

Giving back can be one of life’s greatest rewards. But it’s important to have a philanthropic or charitable giving strategy. Here are three simple steps to help make the most of your giving dollars.