Private Wealth · Bethesda MD
Morgan Stanley
Private Wealth Mgmt
Kress Monarch Team

Capital, composed
with intent.

We are a Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management team in Bethesda, Maryland — building retirement, estate, and tax-efficient strategies for families, founders, and executives across the greater Washington DC metro. Thoughtful advice. Disciplined portfolios. A relationship built to outlast the next market cycle.

$412M
Assets under advisement
11 yrs
Average client tenure
CFP® · CFA®
Lead credentials
Wealth advisory meeting in a Bethesda office overlooking the DC skyline
Q3 Review +8.4%
Rebalance Q4 · 2025
Live portfolio telemetry
Kress Monarch advisor reviewing a financial plan with a client at a wood conference table
Bethesda Office
KM /01
— Who we are

A boutique team inside a global platform.

Kress Monarch is a senior wealth advisory team operating within Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management. We were founded on a simple conviction: that families in the DC metro deserve institutional-grade thinking delivered with the attentiveness of a small practice — not the volume-driven model of a call center.

Our clients are physicians at NIH and Suburban Hospital, partners at Bethesda and Chevy Chase law firms, founders cashing out of government-contracting businesses, and multi-generational families coordinating trusts across state lines. We sit with them through job changes, inheritances, divorces, and the quiet, consequential decisions that shape a financial life.

Because we operate inside Morgan Stanley, our clients access institutional research, alternative investments, and lending capabilities that standalone RIAs simply cannot offer — yet they work directly with a named advisor who knows their children's names.

01 / FIDUCIARY

Advice first, always

Fee-based planning with a documented fiduciary standard on every recommendation we sign.

02 / BESPOKE

Custom portfolios

No model-kit allocations. Each household is built around its own tax lots and timeline.

03 / COORDINATED

CPA & attorney liaison

We coordinate directly with your existing CPA and estate attorney — we don't replace them.

04 / ACCESS

Institutional reach

Private equity, private credit, municipal bonds, and structured notes via Morgan Stanley channels.

— Services & engagement

Six disciplines, one relationship.

Every engagement begins with a written financial plan. From there, clients may engage any combination of the services below — most are included in the advisory fee, others are billed separately when scope requires.

01

Comprehensive Financial Planning

A written, multi-goal plan covering cash flow, retirement projections, insurance gaps, and education funding — refreshed annually.

$3,500One-time plan
02

Investment Management

Discretionary portfolio management across taxable, retirement, and trust accounts — built with direct indexing and tax-aware rebalancing.

0.85%Annual · AUM
03

Retirement & 401(k) Strategy

Pre-retiree income planning, Roth conversion ladders, and 401(k) rollover analysis for executives at Lockheed, Marriott, and Capital One.

$2,200Standalone module
04

Estate & Trust Planning

Coordination with your estate attorney on revocable trusts, gifting strategy, generational transfers, and beneficiary alignment.

$4,800Per engagement
05

Equity Compensation & RSUs

Concentrated stock strategy, 10b5-1 plans, ISO/NSO exercise timing, and AMT modeling for tech and gov-contracting executives.

$1,800Annual review
06

Tax-Loss Harvesting

Systematic harvest of embedded losses against gains, direct-index overlays, and municipal bond placement for high earners.

IncludedIn advisory fee
— How we work

A four-step onboarding.

From first call to signed plan, most clients complete onboarding in three to four weeks. No pressure, no product push — just a structured conversation about what your money is for.

01

Discovery

A 60-minute conversation — in our Bethesda office or by video. We listen to goals, family dynamics, and current frustrations. No deliverable, no fee.

02

Analysis

We gather statements, tax returns, and benefit documents. Our team models your retirement, estate, and tax picture against multiple scenarios.

03

Plan Delivery

A written plan presented in a second meeting. You receive specific recommendations — and the freedom to implement them anywhere you choose.

04

Ongoing Stewardship

For engaged clients: quarterly reviews, proactive tax work, and an annual planning summit. We reach out before you have to.

Hands reviewing a printed financial plan and estate documents on a desk
Trusted · Since 2014
They are the only advisors who ever asked what our children's college towns cost before showing us a single chart. That is the moment we knew we were in the right room.
M & D Harrington · Clients since 2018 · Chevy Chase, MD
— Begin the conversation

Let's talk about what your capital is for.

We accept a limited number of new client relationships each quarter to protect the quality of our existing practice. The fastest way in is a brief intake — tell us a little about your situation and we'll reply within one business day to schedule a complimentary discovery call.

  • Office Bethesda, Maryland
    Montgomery County
  • Affiliation Morgan Stanley Private
    Wealth Management
  • Minimum $1.5M investable
    assets suggested
  • Service Area Bethesda · Chevy Chase
    Potomac · NW Washington

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