Morgan Stanley Continues To Streamline Brokerage Regions, Cuts Four Management Positions

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has scaled back the number of total regions to 12 down from 16, and eliminated four management positions as well.

The new structure was confirmed by a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman on Monday after it was first reported by Dow Jones. The move follows the firm's reduction of its regions from 19 to 16 in December. Managers in the four eliminated positions will be assigned to management positions in the field, the Morgan Stanley spokeswoman said.

The move also creates four new regions, set to be led by three divisional directors. The new regions include the Northeast division, led by Rick Skae; the Midwest/Southern Division, led by Bill McMahon; and Western Division, led by Doug Kentfield.

Morgan Stanley Chairman and Chief Executive James Gorman touted a 12% increase in pre-tax margin for the global wealth management division in the firm's second quarter earnings release earlier this month, as well as the integration of most of the firm's technology systems. At the same time, Morgan Stanley has been coping with advisor attrition, with its total number of advisors falling by 259 to 16,934.

Morgan Stanley saw its global wealth management division's net income rise to $225 million in the second quarter from $193 million in the first quarter, the firm said in its quarterly earnings report on July 19. At the same time, the firm reported that the wealth division's revenue fell to $3.3 billion in the second quarter from $3.4 billion in the first quarter.