Morgan Stanley Bolsters Tools for Retirement Plan Advisors - Financial Advisor IQ

The Corporate Retirement Portal eliminates the need for advisors to log in to multiple recordkeeping systems to piece together a picture of their retirement plan client base.
September 9, 2022
Morgan Stanley on Wednesday announced a new platform that it says will streamline advisors’ management of workplace retirement plans.
The new Corporate Retirement Portal within the firm’s Morgan Stanley at Work unit will replace third-party tools advisors previously used to manage retirement accounts. The system, which was built in-house, lets advisors see information about the plans they advise without having to hop from recordkeeper to recordkeeper to piece together a full picture, the firm says.
“Implementing our Corporate Retirement Portal on the Plan Advisor’s desktop will help further drive efficiencies, help recordkeepers scale their business and enhance the plan sponsor and participant experience on our retirement platform,” Anthony Bunnell, head of retirement for Morgan Stanley at Work, said in a statement announcing the new system.
By pulling information previously stored in separate programs into one place, communication between advisors and plan sponsors will be simpler and more efficient, the firm said. The portal also complies with recent U.S. Department of Labor cybersecurity guidelines regarding data encryption and secure data transfer, the firm adds.
Morgan Stanley has touted workplace plans as a major source of overall growth. During a February 2021 presentation at the Credit Suisse Financial Services Forum, Morgan Stanley’s current executive vice president and chief operating officer, Jonathan Pruzan, estimated that 50% of workplan participants open companion brokerage accounts at the firm. He added that the firm expected that share to increase to 90% within the ensuing 18 to 20 months.
The Corporate Retirement Portal’s implementation closely follows another enhancement of the Morgan Stanley at Work platform: the firm’s June acquisition of deferred compensation plan provider American Financial Systems. In an announcement accompanying the acquisition, Jed Finn, head of corporate and institutional solutions and chief operating officer of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, called workplace plans “a key story to watch over the next five years in the wealth management industry.” Finn termed the workplace market “the single most important source of wealth creation.”

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