Posted by Rick Stine
on September 10, 2009
Investment Banking,
Wall Street /
1 Comment
The home page of Morgan Stanley's website shows the firm's emphasis on wealth management. Not long ago, it was investment banking that took center stage.
The Wall Street Journal just reported on DJ Newswires that James Gorman will head up Morgan Stanley next year and current CEO John Mack will let go of that title and remain chairman. (Company has since issued a press release confirming the news).
The move is significant as it reinforces signals Morgan has sent recently about the importance of the wealth management business. Prior to running the WM business for Morgan, Gorman had done the same thing at Merrill Lynch. Gorman moved Merrill’s model more toward the fee-based business of advising away from the commission-based business of selling people stocks and bonds. He once described that transition as a slow-moving aircraft carrier but one nonetheless he felt was important.
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Tags: Bank of America, Citigroup, David Komansky, James Gorman, John Mack, Morgan Stanley, Rick Stine, Sallie Krawcheck, Smith Barney
Posted by Rick Stine
on August 03, 2009
Financial Planners,
Wall Street /
Comments Off
James Gorman and Sallie Krawcheck have a couple of things in common. Both are heading up two of the largest retail brokerage operations in the country, now that Krawcheck was named today as head of the wealth management division of Bank of America. And the two businesses are pretty close in size – Gorman’s Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has about 18,000 financial advisers and about $1.3 trillion in client assets. Krawcheck’s WM business (a huge chunk of which is the old Merrill Lynch) has 15,000 financial advisers (again the old Merrill) and $1.16 trillion in client assets.
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Tags: Bank of America, James Gorman, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Rick Stine, Sallie Krawcheck
Sallie Krawcheck writes an interesting op-ed piece in today’s Financial Times that takes a close look at what worked and didn’t as part of the big overhaul in equity research departments a number of years ago. And she applies those lessons to the discussion of how credit ratings agencies business model needs to be changed in order to catch disasters, like the one called the credit crisis, before they happen.
One lesson – the pendulum often swings too far in one direction in reaction to a problem unnecessarily.
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Tags: Credit Ratings Agencies, Equity Research, Rick Stine, Sallie Krawcheck
