Trends Report

What Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Must Do Now

The Combined Firm Needs Better Electronic Channels For Advisors And Clients And Needs To Abandon The "House Brand" Financial Supermarket Model

January 30th, 2009
Bill Doyle, null
Bill Doyle
With contributors:
Peter Wannemacher , Courtney Tincher

Summary

To succeed with today's investors, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney will need more than an advisor army; it must do a better job for clients. Today's clients — and their advisors — need better electronic channels than either firm offers today. And the new institution will need to do a better job of demonstrating that it has its clients' best interests at heart. That means abandoning the "house brand" supermarket model that characterized the wirehouses for years.

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