Morgan Stanley Wealth Management is an American multinational

financial services Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companie ...

corporation specializing in retail brokerage. It is the wealth & asset management division of

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the f ...

. On January 13, 2009, Morgan Stanley and

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...

announced that Citigroup would sell 51% of Smith Barney to Morgan Stanley, creating Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, which was formerly a division of Citi Global Wealth Management. The combined brokerage house has 17,646 financial advisors and manages $2 trillion in client assets. Clients range from individual investors to small- and mid-sized businesses, as well as large corporations, non-profit organizations and family foundations. On September 25, 2012, Morgan Stanley announced that its U.S. wealth management business was renamed "Morgan Stanley Wealth Management". The broker-dealer designation for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management will remain "Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC".

History

Smith Barney & Co. was formed in 1938 through the merger of Charles D. Barney & Co. and Edward B. Smith & Co. Charles D. Barney & Co., a

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

based firm, was founded by

Charles D. Barney Charles Dennis Barney (July 9, 1844 – October 24, 1945) was an American stockbroker and founder of Charles D. Barney & Co., one of the predecessors of the brokerage and securities firm Smith Barney. Early life Barney was born in Sandusky, ...

in 1873 following the failure of its predecessor Jay Cooke & Company. Edward B. Smith & Co., founded in 1892 became a significant player in securities underwriting in 1934 when the firm absorbed the professionals from the securities business of Guaranty Trust Company, following the passage of the Glass Steagall Act. In 1975, Smith Barney merged with Harris, Upham & Co. to form Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., which, in 1977, was placed under SBHU Holdings, a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

. In 1982, SBHU Holdings was renamed Smith Barney Inc. During the 1980s, the company was known for its television commercials featuring actor

John Houseman John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a Romanian-born British-American actor and producer of theatre, film, and television. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with directo ...

, with the

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recogni ...

, "They make money the old-fashioned way. They ''earn'' it." After Houseman stepped down, the campaign continued with various actors, such as

Leo McKern Reginald "Leo" McKern, AO (16 March 1920 – 23 July 2002) was an Australian actor who appeared in numerous British, Australian and American television programmes and films, and in more than 200 stage roles. His notable roles include Cla ...

Joel Higgins Joel Franklin Higgins (born September 28, 1943) is an American actor and singer with a stage career spanning over 40 years. Life and career A graduate of Michigan State University where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta International Fraterni ...

and George C. Scott. In the late 1980s, the retail brokerage firm Smith Barney was owned by Sanford I. Weill's

Primerica Corporation Primerica, Inc. (NYSE: PRI) is a company that provides insurance, Investment management, investment and financial services to middle income families in the United States and Canada. Primerica is the parent company of National Benefit Life I ...

. Commercial Credit purchased Primerica in 1988, for $1.5 billion ($ today). In 1992, they paid $722 million ($ today) to buy a 27% share of Travelers Insurance and in 1993 acquired Shearson (which included the legacy business of

E.F. Hutton EF Hutton was an American stock brokerage firm founded in 1904 by Edward Francis Hutton and his brother, Franklyn Laws Hutton. Later, it was led by well known Wall Street trader Gerald M. Loeb. Under their leadership, EF Hutton became one of ...

) from

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

. By the end of 1993, the merged company was known as Travelers Group Inc. although the brokerage business continued to operate under the Smith Barney brand. In 1993, Weill bought stockbroker Shearson back from American Express for $1 billion ($ today), and merged it into Smith Barney. Weill offered

Joe Plumeri Joseph J. Plumeri II (born July 7, 1943) is vice chairman of the First Data Board of Directors. He was the chairman and CEO of Willis Group Holdings (Willis), a New York Stock Exchange-listed insurance broker, until July 2013. The company ha ...

the presidency of Smith Barney, and he became the President of the merged company that year. He only lasted a year, as he experienced conflicts with existing Smith Barney managers. In September 1997, Travelers acquired Salomon Inc. (parent company of

Salomon Brothers Inc. Salomon Brothers, Inc., was an American multinational bulge bracket investment bank headquartered in New York. It was one of the five largest investment banking enterprises in the United States and the most profitable firm on Wall Street durin ...

), for over $9 billion ($ today) in stock, and merged it with its own investment arm to create Salomon Smith Barney. In April 1998 Travelers Group announced an agreement to undertake a $76 billion ($ today) merger between Travelers and Citicorp, creating

, which at the time of the merger was the largest single financial services company in the world. At the time of the

September 11, 2001, attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

, it was the largest tenant in

7 World Trade Center 7 World Trade Center (7 WTC, WTC-7, or Tower 7) refers to two buildings that have existed at the same location within the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The original structure, part of the World Trade Center (1973� ...

, occupying 1,202,900 sq ft (111,750 m²) (64 percent of the building) which included floors 28–45.

Sale to Morgan Stanley

During the major financial crisis beginning in late 2008, Citigroup suffered large losses in its retained

collateralized debt obligation A collateralized debt obligation (CDO) is a type of structured asset-backed security (ABS). Originally developed as instruments for the corporate debt markets, after 2002 CDOs became vehicles for refinancing mortgage-backed securities (MBS).Le ...

exposure (loans that Citi underwrote but was not able to sell), and had to be

rescued "Rescued" is a song by American rock band Foo Fighters. Released on April 19, 2023, it is the first single by the band since the death of longtime drummer, Taylor Hawkins, and the first from their eleventh studio album, ''But Here We Are''. Releas ...

by the U.S. federal government. They decided to sell or close "non-core" businesses in order to raise money. On January 13, 2009,

and Citigroup announced the merger of Smith Barney with Morgan Stanley's Global Wealth Management Group, with Morgan Stanley paying $2.7 billion cash upfront to Citigroup for a 51% stake in the joint venture. The joint venture operates as Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Morgan Stanley itself was in a financially cash-strapped position like Citigroup during that time, but they were helped by the $9 billion that Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group had paid in 2008 for a 21% stake in Morgan Stanley. On June 1, 2009,

and

announced they closed early on the launch of their joint venture that combines Morgan Stanley's wealth management unit (including many former

Dean Witter Dean Witter Reynolds was an American stock brokerage and securities firm catering to a variety of clients. Prior to the company's acquisition, it was among the largest firms in the securities industry with over 9,000 account executives (ranking t ...

assets) with Citi's Smith Barney brokerage division. The new venture, called Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, was supposed to launch during the third quarter. The combined entity generates about $14 billion in net revenue, has 18,500 financial advisors, 1,000 locations worldwide and serves about 6.8 million households. Citigroup disclosed on September 17, 2009, they would sell their remaining shares in the group to partner Morgan Stanley.

Acquisition history

The following is an illustration of the company's major mergers and acquisitions and historical predecessors (this is not a comprehensive list):"Salomon Smith Barney" from Gambee, Robert.
Wall Street
'. W. W. Norton & Company, 1999. p. 73

References

External links

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management websiteSmith Barney
{{Authority control Investment management companies of the United States Citigroup Morgan Stanley American corporate subsidiaries Companies based in Manhattan Multinational joint-venture companies Investment companies based in New York City Multinational companies based in New York City Financial services companies established in 2009 2009 establishments in New York City American companies established in 2009 2009 mergers and acquisitions