The ground-state properties of the tetranuclear Ni2+ cluster [Ni-4(H2O)2(PW9O34)(2)](10-) were investigated by combining magnetic susceptibility and magnetization measurements with a detailed inelastic neutron scattering (INS) study on a fully deuterated sample of K6Na4[Ni-4(H2O)(2)(PW9O34)(2)]. 24H(2)O. The temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility indicates a ferromagnetic coupling of the four constituent Ni2+ ions (s = 1), and a low-temperature magnetization study provides the magnitude of the S = 4 ground-multiplet splitting due to the single-ion anisotropy of the Ni2+ ions. Besides a more direct and precise determination of the anisotropic S = 4 ground-multiplet splitting, INS enabled the determination of excited spin multiplets. The best fit to the experimental energy level diagram was obtained by an isotropic Spin Hamiltonian with the inclusion of axial single-ion anisotropy: H=-2J(S1S3 + S1S4 + S2S3 + S2S4)-2J' S1S2 + D(S-z1(2) + S-z2(2)), where J = 0.83 meV, J' = 0.39 meV, D = 0.47 meV, and D' = 0.60 meV. Within this model the experimental intensities of the magnetic cluster excitations, their characteristic dependence on the scattering vector (Q) over right arrow, as well as the temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility and the magnetization properties are reproduced.