Morgan Stanley Wealth Management

A $2.2 billion Morgan Stanley team's move to independence shows how breakaways use shell companies to take advantage of the legal pact, and why more than 1,500 firms have signed on.

Eight advisers opened a new office for Merrill Lynch's Private Banking & Investment Group, which serves ultrawealthy clients.

The main objection seems that regulators just don't like the unseemly business of selling products to customers who might not want them.

Keith Rowling rejoined this elite group for a second year in a row.

A firm contest incentivized about 30 advisers to push lending products to clients and created conflicts of interest, according to officials.

The advisory group decided that operating as an RIA was a better option.

The planner, who oversaw $132 million in client assets while at the wirehouse, is starting out on his own with help from Raymond James, the firm said.

How specialty areas are helping this elite group of 20 advisers boost business.

From hiring sprees to accelerating software launches, companies are gearing up for the significant expenses and changes wrought by the new regulation.

The wirehouse's three newest recruits are all industry veterans.

The case is the latest related to alleged misconduct by a barred wirehouse broker who was also a nightclub owner.

The advisers, one of whom is a former football coach, are among the first to join the wirehouse since UBS unveiled sweeping changes to its comp plan.

The lawsuit highlights a friction that exists at financial-services firms that put employees into their own product.

ValueAct likes Morgan Stanley’s shift to asset-light, fee-based businesses such as wealth and investment management, and said CEO James Gorman has shifted the bank to “growing fee streams that do not require much equity capital to grow.”

Two veteran advisers opened a new office for the firm.

FINRA arbitrators hit the brokerage giants with the penalty for failing to catch a husband moving funds from his spouse's account.

"We are not going to have a separate robo adviser that would disintermediate our existing advisers," says CEO Paul Reilly.

Executives say it's about more than just robos.

Wealth management firms need to acquire their own robo platforms because digital startups represent a real threat with "a long runway for growth," the analyst says.

The new recruits are opening a new office for the independent firm.