The Vine Brook Group at Morgan Stanley

Jordan King is a founding partner, chief investment officer and operating director of the Vine Brook Group at Morgan Stanley. He has been in the investment management business for over 30 years. Jordan has guided clients through many distinct market cycles and historic downturns (notably 2000, 2008, 2020 and 2022.) The Team’s investment philosophy is informed by this experience and is based on four investment pillars: investment management is the management of risk and not the management of returns, market timing is meaningless, taking a contrarian position has the potential to enhance your success and ”It’s never different this time”.

Throughout his career, Jordan has demonstrated his ability to work closely with families to understand their circumstances, their finances, their individual and collective goals, and how these may impact one another while creating a risk managed portfolio that is aligned with their investment aspirations.

A Senior Portfolio Management Director and Senior Investment Management Consultant, Jordan’s primary role for The Vine Brook Group team is portfolio construction and ongoing management and oversight of the Team’s investment portfolios. Jordan holds additional titles of Workplace Advisor and Financial Wealth Advisor, FWA.

Outside of his work at Morgan Stanley, Jordan plays the drums in his cover band, Bad Reputation. Jordan is an Economist by training with a bachelor’s degree from The University of Massachusetts at Amherst (1985). The father of three grown children, Jordan enjoys music, pickleball and boating with his wife Donna.

Pam Lasher, a Certified Financial Planner^® and a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst™, brings over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry to her role as a financial advisor and chief planning strategist at The Vine Brook Group. Pam began her career in the late 1980’s, when most clients and advisors were men. Inspired by those early experiences, she focuses her practice on helping women in transition due to death of a spouse, divorce, or retirement.

Pam has always been dedicated to providing clients and their families with comprehensive wealth management and financial planning. For Pam and The Vine Brook Group, wealth management means more than just investments. Providing strategies for wealth enhancement, wealth protection, wealth transfer and charitable giving are all part of the process. Optimizing just how wealth is used is also part of the process. In addition to investment management, Pam’s primary roles on the team are financial planning, practice management and coordination of women’s initiatives.

Pam received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH. She is a mother of two grown children She enjoys sailing with her husband on Buzzards Bay and spending time with her Labrador retriever.

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.

Denise Simpson has spent her life surrounded by those in the aviation industry. Her parents were Boeing engineers who worked on the design of the 737 and 777 and her husband has been a commercial airline pilot for more than 15 years.

As a caring and knowledgeable wealth management professional, Denise has developed a disciplined process to help clients define and reach their financial goals, so they can focus on what matters most: family, career and retiring with confidence.

Just like a pilot who sets a flight plan for the journey ahead, she begins by understanding where you are today and where you want to go. She then assesses the path you are on and provides easy to implement and actionable ideas to help ensure you arrive at your destination on schedule.

Denise’s passion has always been to serve her community. For 20 years, she worked in the philanthropic arena, supporting donors in fulfilling their charitable vision. Charitable giving can be an integral part of a family’s wealth management picture, and Denise brings her experience as a professional to assist our clients and their families with their charitable goals.

Denise received her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and German from University of the Pacific in California and later obtained her Master of Business Administration at Babson College. She lives in Needham with her husband James and their children. She enjoys cheering her two daughters on at volleyball tournaments and being a Class Parent Representative at Ursuline Academy where both girls attend.

Elena Istratescu is a Wealth Management Associate with The Vine Brook Group at Morgan Stanley. Elena is responsible for client service and administrative support functions, while also playing a key role in streamlining operational processes, assisting with investment management and financial planning implementation and monitoring, and uncovering new business opportunities. Elena not only knows how to help meet each client's specific needs, she also knows how to anticipate them as well. Among other things, the combination of Elena’s industry knowledge, reliability and upbeat personality gives clients confidence as she works to find solutions to their financial challenges.

Elena’s desire to cultivate relationships with clients and proactively help them resolve issues, her persistence to learn and grow, and her attention to detail are all a direct result of her parents’ unbreakable work ethic and dedication to building a new life after emigrating to the U.S. from Eastern Europe.

Elena received her Bachelors’ degree in Business Administration and Economics from Worcester State University. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Elena worked as a mortgage consultant and helped her clients achieve the American dream of owning a home.

Debra Davidoff is a Portfolio Associate and Financial Planning Associate who came to Morgan Stanley in June of 2008 from UBS Financial Services where she was the Branch Risk Officer. Debby has over 28 years of experience in the financial services industry. Debby is known for providing premier client service. She has the Series 3, 7, 63 and insurance licenses. Debby received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Boston University. She started her career in the financial services industry at Kidder, Peabody & Co. Inc., as an Assistant in the Municipal Bond Department. Debby enjoys working out, traveling, cooking and fishing.