Morgan Stanley’s new CEO Pick has wealth management in his veins
In his first earnings call with analysts, new Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick declared his financial advisor bona fides, saying that his family’s roots in the wealth management business balanced his background in investment banking and trading.
Pick, 55, is in for a challenge this year as he takes control of Morgan Stanley from James Gorman, who last year said he was stepping down as chief executive but would remain as executive chairmanin 2024. Gorman has been widely praised on Wall Street, particularly for engineering the purchase of Smith Barney over time starting in 2009, and for placing a greater emphasis on wealth management at the firm.
“The wealth business is actually in my blood,” Pick said during the conference call Tuesday morning. “My dad and my father-in-law were both brokers once upon a time, and I grew up studying that business as a kid.
“And I think it is absolutely that which has differentiated Morgan Stanley during this 15-year period,” he said. “The ability to integrate Smith Barney and build out something that’s truly special is – has been existentially, but also thematically exactly what the firm has needed.”
“I think that if wealth management is in the CEO’s blood and he wants to prove that to financial advisors, it’s going to take time to get that kind of trust,” said Casey Knight, executive vice president of ESP Financial Search. “Until then, advisors at Morgan Stanley will be either cautiously optimistic or cautiously pessimistic about the future there.”
Pick added that he had visited a branch office in Manhattan and was spending time with staff who are driving the work at the firm.
Wealth management will be “the engine for further Morgan Stanley growth,” he said.
Pick joined Morgan Stanley in
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