Morgan Stanley Internship Experience

Morgan Stanley has earned a worldwide reputation for excellence in financial advice and market execution. Today, Morgan Stanley is employing over 51,000 members in about 27 countries connect people, ideas and capital to help their clients reach their financial needs and future goals. (http://www.morganstanley.com). Ever since the year 1997, Morgan Stanley has joined forces with two respected organizations. Morgan Stanley, which was established in New York in 1935 combined with Dean Witter, which was as big and well-known as Morgan Stanley. Dean Witter was established in 1924 in San Francisco. Due to the fact that they have become more powerful by combining each other's advantages in the financial world, they have made many historic records. Some of these include in "national and international expansion, in the use of technology, and in the development of new financial tools and techniques that have redefined the meaning of financial services for individual, institutional and investment banking clients" (http://www.morganstanley.com/about/inside/history.html?page=about).

According to the Morgan Stanley's website, it states that "Morgan Stanley is one of the world's largest diversified financial services companies, with a reputation for excellence in advice and execution on a global scale. Our Firm enjoys leading franchises in three attractive businesses: Global Securities, where Morgan Stanley serves individual and institutional investors and investment banking clients; Global Asset Management, with our highly rated Morgan Stanley and Van Kampen funds; and Global Credit Card Services, with our Discover Card, held by 40% of U.S. households, as well as a growing Morgan Stanley card business in the United Kingdom" (http://www.morganstanley.com/about/ir/index.html?page=inv). Because Morgan Stanley is business partners with one of the top credit card companies, more people are exposed to what Morgan Stanley has to offer to their clients. Dean Witter first office opened in 1924 in San Francisco. In 1935, Henry S Morgan, Harold Stanley and others leave J.P Morgan & Co. and Drexel & Co to form investment banking firm of Morgan Stanley & Co, Inc. The year of 1972 was when Morgan Stanley went public.

Their Mission Statement is "Whether serving private individuals or Fortune 500 companies, Morgan Stanley Investment Management's vision is the same: to consistently help meet and exceed our clients' expectations. To do so, we have assembled what we believe to be one of the most formidable investment management organizations in the world, one designed to deliver upon the promise of Morgan Stanley to be our clients' first choice for achieving their financial aspirations" (catalog). The mission statement gives them credibility that if the client trusts the employees of Morgan Stanley, they will try even harder than what the clients will expect from them. This also shows that this company has good work ethics. The work ethics section of the web site states that "At Morgan Stanley, our vision is to be the world's first choice for achieving financial aspirations. Realizing this vision requires that we draw upon our strengths -- connecting people, ideas, and capital -- to help our clients meet their goals. Its success depends on fostering a culture where our five core values of integrity, excellence, respect for individuals and cultures, entrepreneurial spirit and teamwork are encouraged and rewarded" (http://www.morganstanley.com/about/inside/governance/msg_ethics.html?page=about). The workers will have to be proud of the company that they represent for and satisfied to work to their full potential to exceed their clients' expectations

The organizational chart of Morgan Stanley is quiet simple and straight forward. The person with the most authority is the CEO. The President is under the CEO and the Vice President is under the President. Next are the Financial advisors and their secretaries. Most of the workers at Morgan Stanley including the branch that I have interned at are Financial Advisors. The table below shows all the branches that is part of the company.

(http://www.morganstanley.com/about/inside/orgchart.html?page=about)

There are a couple of jointly-operated facilities which include Van Kampen and Discovery Card.

The person that hired me and also who I spend most of the time with started working for Morgan Stanley in 2000. Before he got hired at Morgan Stanley, he worked in sales for 4 years and ran his own business for a year. In order to be effective in my position, a person strongly needs communication skills, marketing skills, sales skills, diligence, etc. The person does not necessarily have to have experience when he or she applies for this position. But sales and marketing experience is a plus. He has many personal rewards that he gains from the job. He enjoys the satisfaction of helping others and making differences in other people's lives. He is proud of where he is today because he sees making money as self- achievement. Even though his career has stabilized, he had many professional challenges that he had to overcome. One of the biggest challenges he had to overcome, which I still need a lot of practice and work, was finding and getting the clients to trust him with their finances. Of course this is very difficult since there is a surplus of money managers that are constantly looking for clients. He also had difficulty talking to strangers over the phone. Even through my experiences at the internship, I can say that cold-calling is discouraging and stressful. The chance of becoming a successful financial advisor/ money manager or just to survive your first year is only about 10%. Since he is one of the 10% that has succeeded, he sees himself working for Morgan Stanley for rest of his career.

There are many products that are provided by the organization. There are 8 main products that I will briefly cover. This information was given through the Morgan Stanley's main brochure. First, there is the Morgan Stanley Funds which offers over 60 mutual funds spanning domestic and international equity, taxable and tax-free income, specialty and money market funds across a variety of investment styles. The Morgan Stanley Institutional Funds signify a variety of equity, fixed-income, asset allocation and alternative asset class disciplines which stresses on global, regional, developed and emerging markets for corporate benefit programs, foundations, endowments and public retirement plans. The Van Kampen Funds offers more than 40 open-end mutual funds, as well as a qualified tuition program, retirement plan solutions, closed-end funds