Goldstone said the trend has been ongoing for some time and Morgan Stanley might be one of the last firms to engage in such a merger.
As for the Morgan Stanley action itself, Goldstone questioned how or if, the firm will be able to transfer all of the services it had before to the E*Trade from Morgan Stanley platform.
“Morgan's Access Investing stood out from its peers in that there were a variety of thematic portfolios, like a genomics-focused portfolio or an inflation-conscious-themed portfolio,” he said. “It will be interesting to see whether E*Trade adopts these themed portfolios post-integration.”
Turner said that Morgan Stanley is still evaluating which portfolios will transfer over to the Core Portfolios platform, but pointed out that the E*Trade from Morgan Stanley’s robo-advisor currently offers customization through its socially responsible and smart beta portfolios.
The firm is also considering several enhancements to the E*Trade platform including more financial planning elements. Specifically, it is eyeing including more goal-based strategies such as saving for college or retirement. Using these goals as a guide, the system would then develop a plan of how best to achieve it.
“Depending on what that outcome is, it can help establish your time horizon and your risk profile,” Turner said. “So, there is some sophistication there.”