John M Geelan
My Mission Statement
My Story and Services
John’s mission is to deliver thoughtful, personalized advice that simplifies complex financial decisions so clients can make confident choices, help protect what they have built, and strive to pursue long-term outcomes.
John subscribes to a client-first approach focused on helping clients define and strive to meet their goals by bringing Morgan Stanley resources together in a way that fits how they invest and what they want to achieve, with access to experienced investment professionals, a premier trading and execution platform, and a broad range of investment choices.
John is part of the North Anchor Group at Morgan Stanley, where the team emphasizes building long-term relationships and delivering individualized strategies supported by specialized expertise across areas such as financial planning, alternative investments, equity compensation, and stock concentration. The North Anchor Group has been recognized on the Forbes | SHOOK Best-In-State Wealth Management Teams list in 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026.
NMLS#: 1689832
CA Insurance License #: 0C14051
Our Process, Your Journey
Our comprehensive process focuses on you and your future - where you are today and where you want to go tomorrow. Working with you, we'll develop the strategies to help you get there, navigating life's challenges and empowering you to make smart decisions about your wealth now, and as your needs change.
We'll start with a brief 15-minute call to get to know one another and discuss what you would like to achieve by working with a financial advisor. This helps me get a sense of where you are currently, and where you would like to be in the future. I'll conclude by sharing a bit about me and my process and determine if we are a good fit.
Next, we'll meet in-person to take a deep dive into your financial picture and discuss your near and long-term goals. We'll discuss your money values and dig into the questions that brought you here in the first place. This is a completely pressure-free meeting, and if you decide to proceed, we will move forward to our next meeting.
In between our meetings, we review your documents and your goals and put together a strategy to answer some key questions.
During this meeting we explain, in plain English, your options and opportunities and some strategies that you can implement right away. Then we'll decide on a clear roadmap forward.
Upon your approval, we begin the disciplined process of executing your plan. We often collaborate with specialized professionals in key areas, as well as your CPA and estate attorney, to help ensure transparency and lead to a cohesive implementation.
We meet with you regularly to provide updates and keep your plan on track to achieve your goals. Committed to best-in-class service, we focus on developing a relationship that provides exceptional value to you, your business, and your family.
OVERVIEW
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management is a leading provider of alternative investment strategies with expertise that spans across private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and real estate. We are dedicated to serving the unique needs of clients by delivering exceptional portfolios and custom alternative investment programs.
Private Credit investing is an essential component of Morgan Stanley Investment Management's alternative investments platform. We manage a well-defined group of strategies and seek to deliver attractive returns to our investors by forging successful partnerships with our portfolio companies.
Our private equity teams invest in segments of the market that, in our view, are generally underserved by other providers of private capital. We invest directly in private businesses and also allocate capital to compelling fund managers, secondary market opportunities and co-investments on behalf of our limited partners. We seek situations where we believe our expertise, reputation and access to the unparalleled resources of Morgan Stanley will enable us to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns.
Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI) is the global private real estate investment management arm of Morgan Stanley. With ~200 professionals in 17 offices across 13 countries plus decades of experience investing internationally, MSREI is uniquely positioned to execute core and opportunistic strategies globally.
Professionally managed investment funds that use sophisticated strategies to potentially offset losses during a market downturn, often seeking to generate returns higher than traditional stock and bond investments.
Hear from industry innovators across Morgan Stanley Wealth Management leadership and fund manager partners as they discuss the trends and opportunities shaping the alternative investments landscape.
Explore the latest insights, research, and other informational content coming directly from Morgan Stanley.
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For more information, please see the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC Client Relationship Summary.
2Alternative 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.
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.
4Morgan 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.
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.
6Morgan 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.
7Municipal bonds may not be appropriate for all investors. Income generated from an investment in a municipal bond is generally exempt from federal income taxes. Some income may be subject to state and local taxes and to the federal alternative minimum tax. Capital gains, if any, are subject to tax.
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”) and its Financial Advisors and Private Wealth Advisors do not provide any tax/legal advice. Consult your own tax/legal advisor before making any tax or legal-related investment decisions.
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 Center for Financial Planning, Inc. owns and licenses the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®, and CFP® (with plaque design) in the United States to Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc., which authorizes individuals who successfully complete the organization's initial and ongoing certification requirements to use the certification marks.
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.
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