Morgan Stanley Smith Barney

I’ve been with Morgan Stanley for over 12 years, and just recently left the company to go with a personal financial adviser who is not tied to a brokerage. Here’s the simple truth:
1. It doesn’t matter whether you have a lot of money with MSDW or not. It’s all about the commissions to them. Every quarter you’ll get a call from your financial adviser that it’s time for you to «re-​balance your portfolio.» This is brokerage talk for «I need to make some additional commissions this month.» Their advice is esoteric. There’s no real strategy, just a series of trades (and commissions).
2. If you want to understand what you’re getting charged for these services, good luck. All the fees that you pay are so deeply hidden in their paperwork that you’re more likely to get mauled by a grizzly and a polar bear in the same day, then you are to figure out what they’re charging you. There’s so many fees and commissions that it’s impossible to keep them straight.
3. Portfolio Performance tracking? I don’t think so. This should be the simplest thing in the world. I put in money, I want to know how well that money performs over time. There’s no easy way to track the performance of the account.
4. Customer service. Nothing tells you more about a company then when you leave them. Once my «Financial Adviser» understood that I was moving on, his whole fake personality about «caring for your financial well-​being» washed away. As we’re transferring money out, we’ve had to close out on some transactions and get some paperwork. He’s been a jerk on the phone, and a jerk on email. This is supposed to be a top-​notch financial company. So much for any professionalism.