Morgan Stanley Heads to Market With New Participant Education Program

Morgan Stanley advisers are working with a revamped and more robust participant financial education program that can be localized by its workplace and retirement specialists around the country and further served by its more than 15,000 financial advisers, according to the firm.

The financial services company and investment bank has built up its database and financial education resources to meet plan sponsor and participant needs “across the spectrum of workers,” says Jeremy France, head of Morgan Stanley’s institutional consulting solutions, who oversees its institutional consulting and retirement businesses.  

Jeremy France

“The C-Suite has been covered very well in the past, in part because advisers come to them, and they can also go out and get the resources on their own,” France says. “It’s the people starting out who are considering their first home or how to manage student debt versus the contribution rate for a 401(k) who need help. … In the past, there weren’t a lot of places individuals could go for that type of information.”

The financial education resources include a range of formats, such as digital newsletters, on-site seminars, one-on-one meetings via open office hours and webinars. Plan sponsors can choose which of these options to provide their participants, as well as whether to present the information broadly or to a targeted cohort, depending on the topic. That localized staffing is a key part of the offering from the national firm, according to France.

“We can meet the needs of employees across the spectrum on educational needs and then, if they are interested, follow up with them on their individual needs,” he says.

The focus area aligns with Morgan Stanley’s focus on the workplace. In its earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2023, released in January, CEO Ted Pick noted that its employer offerings make up a key pillar of the firm’s “three-channel” strategy, adding to adviser-led and self-directed client pools. Pick noted the firm sees this strategy helping it reach $10 trillion in total client assets—up from its current $6.6 trillion as of the end of 2023.

National Footprint

France was recently named to his expanded position after being head of Institutional Consulting, which includes Graystone Consulting and RIAs Cook Street and Hyas Group. He is focused on integrating the retirement team with the firm’s institutional consulting services.

The Graystone division now has about 60 offices across the U.S. Separately, the institutional consulting division has an additional 400 retirement plan director specialists, giving the firm a national footprint that prompted it to “invest more in educational resources,” France says. Total institutional assets under management at Morgan Stanley topped $614 billion at the end of 2023, with more than $300 billion in defined contribution assets.

France says the investment community has done a good job getting people into 401(k) plans and managing their money, but it has fallen down in providing a holistic financial experience. Financial education is no longer a nice-to-have, according to the executive, but part of a plan sponsor’s fiduciary duty.

“There are questions, like, ‘Do you borrow against your 401(k) for your first home?’ and the implications for that. Not judging whether that is good or bad, but just having the information available,” he says. “There weren’t a lot of places for individuals to get that information, even though, as a fiduciary, that is part of the role of providing participants with the services they need to get the right outcomes.”

Meanwhile, the firm can offer wealth management to individuals, should they want it, across its network of financial advisers. France stresses that these are made available, but not pushed.

“The goal is to be educating people for the long term,” France says. “Think about the spectrum that you meet with on an educational basis. You are really meeting the first-year employee all the way to the 35-plus-year soon-to-be-a-retiree. Each one of those needs is going to be uniquely different. It’s making certain that instead, you build your brand up by truly focusing on the education and the support of the plan, then let them make the decision of where and how they do it.”

Self-Directed

France also notes that services from E*Trade Financial Corp., a Morgan Stanley subsidiary, can be offered via the workplace for workers who want to engage in self-directed investing, including through individual retirement accounts.

One of the key pitches to plan sponsors on education, however, is a stronger, happier and more productive workforce, backed by research its Morgan Stanley at Work division has been producing on the subject, according to executive France.

“In all of the studies that we have done, we have found consistent financial education not only benefits the plan participants,” he says. “But it also builds stronger relationships with the employee, it lowers attrition, [and] enrollment rates become much higher when participants are truly educated on what that plan can do for them, which means they are less stressed about their financial positioning.”