“The environment has shifted probably a little bit toward shareholders,” Conn said. “I’m not sure that there’s specifically shareholder pressure to cut compensation, but there is shareholder pressure to raise returns.”
Bankers such as Dean and his two Morgan Stanley colleagues who started Dean Bradley Osborne LLC this year say they got out just in time. He said he sees the misery on Wall Street when friends at big firms tell him how lucky he is to have left.
It’s not luck, said Dean, 49, who has hired three other former Morgan Stanley bankers. It’s about understanding that the best jobs in finance may not be at the banks anymore.
“I was just talking with my wife about this last night,” Dean said. “I look back on this year, and this is the happiest year I’ve had in 20 years. It’s just starting fresh. Being able to do it the way we know it should be done is so liberating that I actually look forward to coming to work. I can’t say the last five years at Morgan Stanley I felt the same way.”