David Christensen

As a founding partner of The Rockefeller Center Group at Morgan Stanley, Dave Christensen is a Senior Vice President and Family Wealth Director at Morgan Stanley.  He joined the firm in 2009, along with partners and financial advisors Sallie Behnke and Howard Grace, from Merrill Lynch where he was a Financial Advisor for over 11 years.  Dave is a highly experienced relationship manager guiding clients through every aspect of wealth management and he is involved with the majority of the Group’s nonprofit clients. He also holds the Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) designation and completed the Advanced Portfolio Management Program at the University of Chicago.  He also completed the Family Wealth Director program at Morgan Stanley.

Dave grew up in Michigan and graduated from Kalamazoo College with a BA in Economics with an emphasis on business and the banking industry. As a senior in college, he worked in the Merger and Acquisitions department of First of America Bank developing acquisition criteria and prospective targets as a result of changes in the interstate banking laws. Upon graduating from college, Dave served for eight years as a senior officer in the Armed Forces. His military services included tours in Germany, Hawaii, Georgia, and the Middle East (Operation Desert Storm) where he led a variety of military units including an elite parachute unit. Dave joined Merrill Lynch in 1997 through the veteran officers recruiting program.  Upon completing the financial consultant training program, Dave began his financial advisory practice in Merrill Lynch’s World Headquarters office in New York.