Morgan unit last in customer satisfaction

Morgan Stanley’s retail brokerage unit ranked dead last in customer satisfaction for the second year in a row, according to a survey by research firm J.D. Power and Associates, according to Crain's New York Business. The poor standing suggests that retail chief James Gorman still has lots of work to do fixing the chronically underperforming division -- Morgan Stanley’s second-largest. Since joining the firm last year from number-four ranked Merrill Lynch, Mr. Gorman has shaken up the brokerage unit’s management, sacked nearly 1,000 under-performing brokers, and increased the menu of products offered. In fact, few of Wall Street’s largest brokerage firms fared well in the J.D. Power survey, which polled 5,000 investors and asked them to rate such factors as the quality of their broker, account set-up, investment offerings, and investment performance. Merrill Lynch & Co., in fact, was the only Manhattan-based firm to score above industry average in customer satisfaction. Citigroup Inc.’s Smith Barney, as well as UBS—two of the biggest retail operators—ranked below industry average. Edward Jones, a St. Louis-based brokerage firm, ranked top in the survey for the third consecutive year and another St. Louis-based company, A.G. Edwards & Sons, ranked second. A.G. Edwards is poised to be acquired by Wachovia, which placed fifth in the survey that ranked 11 brokerage houses.