Morgan Stanley Partnership Expands Access to Employee Stock Purchase Plans

Morgan Stanley at Work has integrated financial technology for expanded access to employee stock purchase plans.

Specifically, Morgan Stanley has partnered with Carver Edison to incorporate the fintech’s application programming interface—software enabling applications to exchange data and functionality easily and securely—for plan sponsor clients and retirement plan participants.

According to the firms, the collaboration with Carver Edison will provide Morgan Stanley at Work clients and retirement participants with the latest technology to simplify and streamline the administrative work required to manage ESPPs.

“Given our significant role in the FinTech and benefits space, we continuously look to forge relationships with innovative companies like Carver Edison to raise the bar when it comes to workplace wealth, offering game-changing technologies that translate into practical and useful solutions for our clients and their plan participants,” stated Scott Whatley, managing director and global head of equity Solutions at Morgan Stanley at Work, in a press release about the new partnership.

Whatley said the partnership aims to provide Morgan Stanley clients with greater access to ESPP data and to give retirement plan participants quicker access to discounted company shares, all without administrative delays. Employees using Carver Edison’s Cashless participation tool—allowing public companies to help employees maximize their ESPP contributions with limited payroll deductions—can access so-called financially inclusive ESPPs that can help otherwise underserved employees to own 50% to 150% more stock every six months.

According to the press release, Morgan Stanley partnered with Carver Edison to broaden ESSPs because of the belief that the products can bolster employees’ retirement preparedness by helping to build their net worth and supplement their cash flow. This is particularly important as prices for basic necessities such as groceries and gas continue to rise, the release says.

The Carver Edison API provides Morgan Stanley at Work clients and participants with an equity administration process that includes automatic transfers of account and purchase data for same-day share settlement. The shortened processing time for participants allows individuals to receive shares faster and at greater scale, according to the release.