About John L Vessa
John Vessa is a Managing Director Wealth Management at Morgan Stanley in New York City who has been with the firm for over 3 decades. John also is a founding partner of The Harbor Group at Morgan Stanley. As a designated Family Wealth Director, John is one of a select few financial advisors recognized by Morgan Stanley for their experience and knowledge in providing wealth advisory services to some of the firm’s most affluent private clients and corporate executives. John is a member of Morgan Stanley’s 2024 prestigious Chairman’s Club, an elite group composed of the Firm’s top Financial Advisors.
Along with Wealth Management, John's team focuses on asset management for SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) trust accounts. With almost 20 years of experience, over 130 SPACs and tens of billions of SPAC trust fund assets managed, John’s team has become a preferred provider in this space.
John has been named to Forbes Magazine’s annual list of America’s Best in State Wealth Advisors (2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018), Barron’s Top 1,200 Financial Advisors (2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020), the Financial Times 400 Top Financial Advisors (2020), Barron’s Top 250 Private Wealth Management Teams 2024, Forbes America’s Top Wealth Management Teams 2022, 2023 and 2024 as well as Forbes Best In State Wealth Management Teams 2023, 2024 and 2025.
After beginning his career as a Certified Public Accountant at Arthur Anderson & Co., Inc. (however, does not perform this function at Morgan Stanley), John served as VP Finance for BJK&E advertising agency (now part of the Interpublic Group). John is a Certified Investment Management Analyst SM through IMCA and the Wharton School of Business as well as a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™. A native New Yorker, John currently resides on Long Island where he and his wife have been involved in a variety of community and charitable activities. When not counseling clients, John enjoys travel, golf, music and sports.
Award Disclosures:
2018, 2019, 2022, 2021, 2022, 2023, 204-24 Forbes Best-In- State Wealth Advisors
Source: Forbes.com (Awarded 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022). Data compiled by SHOOK Research LLC based 12-month time period concluding in June of year prior to the issuance of the award.
2023 Barron's Top 1,200 Financial Advisors: State-by-State
Source: Barron's.com (Awarded Mar 2023) Data compiled by Barron's based on time period from Sept 2021 - Sept 2022.
2024 Barron's Top 1,200 Financial Advisors: State-by-State
Source: Barron's.com (Awarded Mar 2024) Data compiled by Barron's based on time period from Sept 2022 - Sept 2023.
2020, 2021, 2022 Barron's Top 1,200 Financial Advisors: State-by-State (formerly referred to as Barron's Top 1,000 Financial Advisors: State-by-State)
Source: Barrons.com (Awarded 2020, 2021, 2022). Data compiled by Barron's based on 12-month period concluding in Sept of the year prior to the issuance of the award.
2020 Financial Times 400 Top Financial Advisors
Source: ft.com (Awarded Apr 2020) Data compiled by the Financial Times based on time period from 6/30/16 - 6/30/19.
2024 2023 & 2022 Forbes America’s Top Wealth Management Teams
Source: Forbes.com (Awarded Nov 2022) Data compiled by SHOOK Research LLC based on time period from 3/31/21 – 3/31/24.
2025, 2024 & 2023 Forbes America’s Best-In-State Wealth Management Teams
Source: Forbes.com (Awarded Jan 2023) Data compiled by SHOOK Research LLC based on time period from 3/31/21 – 3/31/24.
Barron's Top 250 Private Wealth Management Teams 2024 Source: Barron's - Awarded May 2024. Data compiled by Barron's for the time period from Jan 2023 - Dec 2023.
Securities Agent: MD, MA, ID, CA, SD, PR, IN, NV, NH, MN, DC, CT, TX, RI, LA, AZ, WA, VA, SC, NM, NC, IL, GA, DE, VT, TN, MO, AK, WI, ME, AR, NY, MT, IA, NJ, MI, CO, KS, PA, OH, FL, WY; General Securities Representative; Investment Advisor Representative; Transactional Futures/Commodities; Managed Futures
NMLS#: 1270033