[quote=aldo63]A large producer and another broker in baltimore left for wachovia last week. he said he knew more people in the wachovia office than his old office. [/quote]

Funny, his old office looked pretty stable;

what is the problem in the office? Manager or firm?

[quote=whats up]what is the problem in the office? Manager or firm?[/quote]

Nothing is wrong with the firm.  Each office has its own personality though, so its not surprising to see people leave from time to time.  On the other hand, we have some offices that are recruiting from the competition like crazy.

[quote=mikebutler222]

[quote=aldo63]A large producer and another broker in baltimore left for wachovia last week. he said he knew more people in the wachovia office than his old office. [/quote]

Funny, his old office looked pretty stable;

[/quote]

Oh my God Mike....I now know just how full of sh*t you are.  I looked up my old office and it is missing almost half of the Advisors!!! 

[quote=dude]

Oh my God Mike....I now know just how full of sh*t you are.  I looked up my old office and it is missing almost half of the Advisors!!! 

[/quote]

Dude, I haven't a clue what you're talking about. Aldo the disgraced said the guy said knew more people at Wachovia than his MS office, so I simply cut an paste from that office link. Seems there are plenty of folks there that have been there a long time. What was your point, as I seemed to have missed it.

[quote=mikebutler222][quote=dude]

Oh my God Mike....I now know just how full of sh*t you are.  I looked up my old office and it is missing almost half of the Advisors!!! 

[/quote]

Dude, I haven't a clue what you're talking about. Aldo the disgraced said the guy said knew more people at Wachovia than his MS office, so I simply cut an paste from that office link. Seems there are plenty of folks there that have been there a long time. What was your point, as I seemed to have missed it.

[quote=joedabrkr] [quote=mikebutler222][quote=dude]

Oh my God Mike....I now know just how full of sh*t you are.  I looked up my old office and it is missing almost half of the Advisors!!! 

[/quote]

Dude, I haven't a clue what you're talking about. Aldo the disgraced said the guy said knew more people at Wachovia than his MS office, so I simply cut an paste from that office link. Seems there are plenty of folks there that have been there a long time. What was your point, as I seemed to have missed it.

[/quote]

Mike your logic is flawed.  What that page does not show is all the advisors who are (may not) not still there. That post isn't evidence of much other than the folks who ARE still there have largely been there for a while.
[/quote]

Well, joe, my point was that there are plenty of people there who have been there a significant amount of time. Therefore I find the he-said-he-knew-more-people-at-Wachovia-than-his-own-office dubious, at best. It sounds too much like last week's drive by about an office closing, people getting no warning and the cops being called.

BTW, notice how there's never any evidence, no names, etc? Not to say that people don't move, they move all the time and for many reasons. If someone big moved there would be, no doubt, evidence of it somewhere and a name. They're not leaving because the sky is falling, Mack and Gorman are actually pretty popular in the ranks.

I hate to disappoint, but there just isn't chaos here. Things have improved dramatically and moral is high (especially after the positive changes to the comp plan). No place is perfect, and wirehouses, like every other channel have pros and cons, but the endless “they’ve about to have another round of cuts” and “they’re about to be sold” and “they’re closing offices everywhere” stuff is just silly.<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

From Citi’s latest on MS

“..The retail brokerage turnaround is rapidly gaining momentum...It’s interesting to think it was only about a year ago that there was a fair amount of skepticism that resulted in some views that MS should sell this business as it was beyond repair. After our meeting with James Gorman, we’re convinced that not only is the business being turned around more quickly than expected, but also that this business has the potential to be a very powerful source of growth within the Morgan Stanley franchise. In our view, MS has the potential to

be the most productive full-service franchise in the business (measured by revenue per advisor). A core component of Mr. Gorman’s strategy is to leverage the unique strength in Morgan Stanley’s other businesses including the institutional franchise, the global relationship base and the asset management business.”

Wow Mike sound like a manager talking, if you were so smart you would have realized that although they raised comp by 1%, they lowered your deferred comp by 1-1.5%. Sounds like a wash. Oooops forgot about the discount Sharing. Oooops forgot about the raising of commissions and then the discount sharing. Sounds life after they raise fee's for clients, they also squeezed the brokers. Oh i forgot all firms have discount sharing? (smith barney?)

[quote=Elvis]

Wow Mike sound like a manager talking, .. [/quote]

I suppose anyone not screaming (as you have) MORE LAYOFFS!!!, CUTS IN COMP!!!! sounds like a manager to you.

[quote=Elvis]...if you were so smart you would have realized that although they raised comp by 1%, they lowered your deferred comp by 1-1.5%. Sounds like a wash.[/quote]

Pure and complete fiction. They did nothing of the sort, (in fact they created an entire new, 2nd deffered comp plan) and they increased larger transactional trades by 3 bps. This move was not "revenue neutral". I have no idea where you get this stuff....

[quote=Elvis] Oooops forgot about the discount Sharing. Oooops forgot about the raising of commissions and then the discount sharing. [/quote]

More fiction. The fact is, unless you're spending your day doing small transactions you've seen a significant increase even AFTER any discounts you give. Before you didn’t “share” discounts, but you were paid as Tier II business. Now you’re paid Tier I on trades over $500 regardless of discounts. BTW, what’s with discounts as a regular feature of business to begin with? I can see doing it for significant clients (those that aren’t flat fee to begin with) but as a normal course of business thing? No way.

[quote=Elvis]

Sounds life after they raise fee's for clients, they also squeezed the brokers. Oh i forgot all firms have discount sharing? (smith barney?)

[/quote]

They did raise client fees, but brokers were anything but "squeezed". You're still just sore because there were no layoffs, comps went up, the stock price is climbing and the firm is recruiting well.

For the life of me I can't understand why anyone would stay where they're unhappy, or how someone could succeed in this business when they're so unrelentingly negative. Then again, maybe those people stay where they are because no one else will hire them because they’re not succeeding because they’re unrelentingly negative….

Wachovia and Shearson Lehman Hutton Amex Solomon Citigroup Smith Barney seem to get the lion’s share of MS FA’s that make the leap to another wirehouse. I’m sure that if you think about individual offices of either Wachovia or SB, many have at least half a dozen former MS FA’s, and the production/AUM that went with them.  ML & and UBS less so. Wachovia & SB seem closer to MS in culture. Ironically, when Wachovia recruited the Structured Products group away from MS, it was seen by some as the last nail in Purcell’s coffin. Some coffin!! I can think of many MS FA’s who are still unsure of what the exact impact of the grid changes will be, once the discount sharing and household changes are factored in. At first blush, the grid changes appeared to be a pay raise, but the devil is in the details. The promised software to compute the impact based on last year’s production was never forthcoming. Wonder why?         &n bsp;

mikebutler222, please look at pay out for 1 million plus. down from 7.5 % to 6%.

No layoff that is good. We only have 6600 real brokers. God forbid we go down to 5000. Also did you hear that we are now expecing to train 1000 new FA's? Milking the same story Mike. I am not against the firm, but i dont believe everything is rosy either. You sound like a YES man everything the firm does is great.(probably thought so when Phil was CEO) Granted things are better,but Pleasssse if you are anytype of real broker you would realize that the meat and potatoe trades are between 100-400. Charging 150 to buy 100 IBM is sick!

[quote=BondJamesBond]Wachovia and Shearson Lehman Hutton Amex Solomon Citigroup Smith Barney ;[/quote]

And MS seems to be having their best recruiting successes from those very same firms... yawn.

BTW, why is it you disappear everytime I ask about your shilling for Wachovia?

[quote=Elvis]

We only have 6600 real brokers. [/quote]

It's over 8,000. Are you ever accurate?

[quote=Elvis]Also did you hear that we are now expecing to train 1000 new FA's? [/quote]

No doubt the same accurate rumor mill you're always getting your facts from...

[quote=Elvis]Milking the same story Mike. I am not against the firm, but i dont believe everything is rosy either. [/quote]

Nothing is ever all rosy. OTOH, your constant whining, the unending negative predictions....

[quote=Elvis]You sound like a YES man everything the firm does is great.[/quote]

That must be how everyone not part of your "the world is ending" crew must sound...

[quote=Elvis] Pleasssse if you are anytype of real broker you would realize that the meat and potatoe trades are between 100-400. Charging 150 to buy 100 IBM is sick![/quote]

If that's your "meat and potatoes" I now understand why you're negative, why you can't move and why you're never going to succeed.

Best of luck to you, btw, I hear BAC is hiring, check into them...

[quote=Elvis]

mikebutler222, please look at pay out for 1 million plus. down from 7.5 % to 6%.

No layoff that is good. We only have 6600 real brokers. God forbid we go down to 5000. Also did you hear that we are now expecing to train 1000 new FA's? Milking the same story Mike. I am not against the firm, but i dont believe everything is rosy either. You sound like a YES man everything the firm does is great.(probably thought so when Phil was CEO) Granted things are better,but Pleasssse if you are anytype of real broker you would realize that the meat and potatoe trades are between 100-400. Charging 150 to buy 100 IBM is sick!

JoeDa, clean out your box, man!

uhhh... ICK!

Too much information!

Mr. A

Mikebutler, please look at your ranking within the firm. You are currently ranked out 6600 retail brokers. Let me educate you. Go to ideas, then comp, then summary. Look on top of the YTD and you are ranked against your piers. the 8000 you claim includes private wealth brokers and whatever is left of the trainees. Think before you critcize. i guess you are not as smart as you think you are.