Name: Kay Grasman
Firm: Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management
Location: New York, NY
Team Custodied Assets: $1.5 billion
Background: Kay Grasman’s career has been shaped by a distinctly international perspective. Raised in Paris, she studied economics and finance at the Sorbonne before earning a master’s degree in finance. She began her career in technology, working at SAP on financial systems and Salesforce solutions for global banks, an experience that gave her early exposure to complex institutional finance. In the early 2000s, Grasman moved to London to work at a boutique investment firm focused on equities before relocating to New York in 2006. Shortly after arriving in the U.S., she joined Morgan Stanley, where she ultimately built her own practice. Today, she leads a seven-person team managing nearly $2 billion, with roughly half of the book made up of international clients. Grasman’s practice is built around ultra-high-net-worth families, with a particular focus on European family offices and cross-border wealth. International clients now make up just over half of her business, including a fast-growing segment of European families and a meaningful presence in Argentina through multifamily offices.
Competitive Edge: “International wealth management is complicated and highly regulated,” she says. “To work with complex international clients, you have to understand the issues they’re dealing with—and my having lived and worked across Europe has made a huge difference.” That background, her fluency in Dutch and French, combined with a high-touch boutique approach, is central to Grasman’s team, which works with just 86 families. “For international clients, cross-border knowledge isn’t optional—it’s the difference between getting it right and missing the complexity,” she says.
Investment Philosophy: Capital preservation is the foundation of every relationship. “Our first priority with any client—especially a new one—is capital preservation,” Grasman says. From there, portfolios are built in a highly customized way, with an emphasis on individual equity selection. “We prefer individual equities because we want to know exactly what we own, do the research and make deliberate stock selections.” The team uses fixed income selectively, often favoring individual bonds or managers with an absolute-return orientation. Alternatives have become increasingly important, particularly as correlations between stocks and bonds have risen. Grasman focuses on differentiated strategies, including secondaries and infrastructure. “We’re not chasing the highest-yield private credit—we look for more specific, differentiated opportunities,” she says. Options strategies are used for a small number of sophisticated, client-driven portfolios. “We live and breathe volatility because we trade options for sophisticated clients, so we spend a lot of time discussing hedging and currency risk,” she notes.
Market Outlook: Grasman remains selective and fundamentally driven, with current emphasis on healthcare, cybersecurity, defense and international equities. Alternatives continue to play a core role, particularly for family offices seeking diversification rather than excess return. “We spend a lot of time talking about geopolitics, currencies and hedging,” she says. “If you preserve capital through volatility and don’t panic, that discipline tends to work very well over time.”
Best Advice: Grasman’s advice to both clients and younger advisors is rooted in discipline and perspective. “My daily motto is simple: never settle for the status quo,” she says. She is also candid about the opportunity for women in the industry. “This is a great business for women, and we still need more education and incentives to bring young women into the field.”
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