EyeQ Tech review EyeQ Tech EyeQ Tech tuyển dụng review công ty eyeq tech eyeq tech giờ ra sao EyeQ Tech review EyeQ Tech EyeQ Tech tuyển dụng crab meat crab meat crab meat importing crabs live crabs export mud crabs vietnamese crab exporter vietnamese crabs vietnamese seafood vietnamese seafood export vietnams crab vietnams crab vietnams export vietnams export
Business

Wall Street’s high rollers think new ways to bring bigger profits

By
John Aidan Byrne
Published March 12, 2016, 7:45 p.m. ET

Wall Street brokers are dropping like flies.

As their Midtown captains slash costs and crack the whip for higher profits, many of Wall Street’s top go-getting brokers are near physical and mental collapse, multiple sources told The Post.

The big “wirehouses,” led by Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, are also fending off challenges on several fronts, including:

  •  Declines in customer asset values over the past 12 months because of market conditions;
  • New “fiduciary” rules that could sharply raise the cost of handling customers’ retirement accounts.

To combat dwindling assets under management from cratering portfolios, the wirehouses have moved fast, launching aggressive attempts to grow bigger margins and more profit from their financial advisers and wealth management businesses, sources say, by wringing out “excesses” on the expense side.

A source notes that brokers will see cutbacks in areas that advisers at Morgan Stanley once took for granted — administrative support, office space, expenses, marketing and entertainment.

The wirehouses’ game plan, say analysts, is a massive asset gathering, with a focus on America’s wealthiest investors and relentless cost-efficiency.

Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley each have about $2 trillion or so in assets under management in the “wealth management” area. Wells Fargo has about $1.4 trillion, and UBS Wealth has just over $1 trillion in invested assets. All are eyeing different strategies, from tweaking broker compensation to adjusting minimum customer account sizes.

Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman, in the wake of a profit-challenged quarter, recently told analysts the firm’s wealth management machine will drive profit margins from 20 percent to 25 percent over the next two years.

In December, Merrill, with some 14,500 advisers, set higher production goals, bumping them up by $50,000 for advisers who bring in less than $1.5 million in fees and commissions.

One person familiar with Merrill and Morgan Stanley says that both are willing to take the necessary steps. No cuts are off-limits, from eliminating office administration support to restricting the use of the photocopying machine.

“It’s all about gathering and preserving assets in this tough climate and saving money elsewhere to sustain profitability,” said this person.

Meanwhile, wirehouse brokers fear a new Labor Department regulation aimed at reducing conflict of interest in how advisers handle their clients’ retirement accounts will hit the books soon.

The banks expect the new rule to tie up brokers in expensive red tape. “This could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for many advisers,” said Alois Pirker, a brokerage industry analyst at Aite Group.

None of the wirehouses in this story had a comment.