Navigating Modern Wealth: Insights from The Coastal Legacy Group at Morgan Stanley
This interview with Nelson Murray, Managing Director, Financial Advisor, Karen Jankowski, First Vice President, Financial Advisor, Scott Ecklund, First Vice President, Financial Advisor and Joris Buffa, CFA, Financial Advisor from The Coastal Legacy Group at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management explores their approach to wealth management, current financial market trends, and how they create value for their diverse clientele.
Q: Can you provide insight into what your team does and who it serves?
A: The Coastal Legacy Group at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management works with ultra- high-net-worth (UHNW) individuals, family offices, corporate executives, business owners, and sports and entertainment professionals to craft personalized financial strategies. We go beyond traditional financial advising, with a collaborative and client-centric approach. We leverage Morgan Stanley’s extensive resources and our team’s deep experience to help deliver tailored wealth management solutions that address each client’s personalized needs and priorities.
Q: What are some of the biggest topics in financial markets today?
A: One major topic is the growing interest in alternative investments. Morgan Stanley’s platform provides access to comprehensive opportunities, such as private equity, real estate, and hedge funds. Historically, portfolios relied heavily on public equities and fixed income. Today, there’s a shift toward incorporating alternatives to diversify away from traditional assets, potentially reducing volatility and enhancing portfolio stability. This approach can offer flexibility and the potential for higher returns in a dynamic market environment.
Another key topic is tax-efficient investing. This strategy encompasses tax-loss harvesting, concentrated stock management, and other techniques to optimize after-tax returns.
For example, clients can realize losses to offset gains from liquid portfolios, illiquid holdings, or future liquidity events such as business sales or divestitures of concentrated stock positions. With potential tax policy changes in 2025, these strategies are critical for high-net-worth clients.
Q: What are the current needs of your diverse investor base?
A: Our investors seek solutions that provide confidence, save time, and align with their long-term goals. They require tailored strategies to manage complex portfolios, diversify effectively across asset classes (including alternatives), and optimize tax efficiency while reducing the burden of day-to-day financial oversight.
Each one of our clients requires a tailored strategy to manage the complex scenarios that they may face. No situation is the same, but we do notice common trends with some of the following clients.
- Business Executives: Executives need solutions to manage single-company stock risk, plan for liquidity events (e.g., IPOs or business sales), and optimize their financial future through retirement and succession planning.
- UHNW Individuals and Family Offices: These clients focus on maintaining wealth, creating a legacy, and educating the next generation on financial stewardship. They also seek tax-efficient investing and private market opportunities to complement public equities and fixed income, enhancing portfolio resilience.
- Sports and Entertainment Professionals: These individuals need strategies to manage irregular income streams, preserve wealth through market cycles, and plan for a few high-income years to support them for the remainder of their lives. We are also experiencing a new environment and asset class of sports team ownership due to increased investment from private equity firms.
Q: Can you dive into how you create value for entrepreneurs and founders specifically?
A: For entrepreneurs and founders, value creation often stems from building and scaling their businesses. The Coastal Legacy Group creates value by:
- Supporting Business Growth and Exits: We collaborate with Morgan Stanley’s investment banking division to help provide strategic insights on capital raising, mergers, acquisitions, or IPOs. For founders planning liquidity events, we design tax-efficient strategies to help maximize after-tax proceeds. This planning often starts years in advance of any business transaction. For global businesses, we provide hedging solutions to mitigate interest rate or currency risks, aligning corporate strategies with the owner’s personal wealth plan.
- Tax and Legacy Planning: We work in tandem with estate attorneys and CPAs to help establish trusts, family limited partnerships, donor-advised funds, and other vehicles to transfer wealth tax-efficiently to heirs or charities, aligning with founders’ legacy goals.
- 401k and Corporate Cash Management: For founders’ companies, we help design customized 401k plans with diverse investment options, fiduciary oversight, and employee financial wellness programs to attract and retain talent. We also help optimize corporate liquidity through treasury management, high-yield savings, or short-duration bonds, balancing accessibility and returns.
Q: Finally, how is AI shaping your approach to wealth management?
A: AI is revolutionizing how we serve clients. It enhances portfolio management by analyzing real-time data to optimize asset allocation and implement tax-efficient investing strategies. AI can also help provide up-to-date market research, leveraging economic indicators and sentiment analysis to inform our decision-making for clients. Additionally, AI helps streamline operations, automating tasks such as record keeping, which allows our team to focus on personalized client interactions. This allows us to spend more time giving our full attention to our clients and properly safeguard their wealth.
