Marc Fischer, Graystone’s Fischer Group at the forefront of institutional investment

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A Rochester-based firm’s approach to investing continues to earn national recognition.  

The Fischer Group at Graystone Consulting, the institutional consulting business of Morgan Stanley, has been recognized as part of Forbes’ 2025 Best-in-State Wealth Management Teams list and was also named to the Barron’s 2025 Top 100 Institutional Consulting Teams list. 

In addition, Marc Fischer, managing director of the Fischer Group at Graystone Consulting and institutional consulting director, was named to the Forbes’ top advisor’s list.  

Fischer, who has over 30 years of experience and recently celebrated his 37th year with the business, credits the firm’s employees for its success. 

“It’s all about the team; they are the backbone and the ones we owe our success to,” Fischer said.  

The Fischer Group at Graystone Consulting is among the largest institutional investment consultants in the area, with $4.5 billion in assets under advisement as of Dec. 31, 2024.  

The business, based in Linden Oaks, serves unions, healthcare, educational institutions, nonprofits, family offices, and public and private corporations.  

Its services include institutional investment consulting, endowment management, outsourced chief investment office, defined benefit plan consultation and private wealth management. 

The Fischer Group at Graystone Consulting was one of the original 25 teams selected to join Graystone in 1991 and has been recognized as one of the first to embrace alternative investments to reducing overall portfolio risk while also increasing a client’s probability of achieving desired results. 

Fischer has nearly four decades of experience serving corporations, pension/profit sharing plans, trusts, endowments, institutions, municipalities and high net worth families. 

He was one of the original 25 founding members of Graystone’s Institutional Consulting Group.  

As the group’s director, Fischer oversees all three offices in Rochester, Latham, Albany County and Naples, Florida, and manages client relationships and business development.  

Fischer said the firm is in a growth mode, recently adding a representative in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and said expansion into new geographic markets and increasing the workforce at its current sites, including in Rochester, is likely on the horizon.  

The firm has found success offering fiduciary education and providing hands-on support, as well as committing to fee transparency and objectivity, he said, noting that successful firms have a process they do consistently well.  

As a matter of policy, the firm only recommends outside investment managers and does not manage any of the assets directly.  

One of the biggest sectors the firm serves is unions and other labor-management organizations, helping them align their Taft-Hartley funds with regulatory requirements.  

The firm’s process for this involves testing various asset allocation models under multiple economic scenarios to help enhance performance potential, reduce costs and improve one’s funding ratio.  

Daniel Kuntz, business manager of Laborers’ Local 435 and funds board chair, said The Fischer Group at Graystone Consulting—under Fischer’s leadership—has played a critical role in putting Local 435 in its strongest financial position to date.  

The union, which first partnered with the firm in 2018, has been able to make benefit improvements across all its funds, including health and welfare, pension and annuity. 

“Marc Fischer and the team at Graystone Consulting brought a high level of professionalism, strategy and long-term planning to the table,” he said. “Their guidance has not only strengthened our financial foundation but also helped us better support our members and their families, now and in many years to come.” 

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