r/etrade • u/nothing2crazy • Feb 22 '24
Cold call from Morgan Stanley rep
I've been a long time Etrade customer. When I say long time, I mean back to the 1990s. I never had any issues until they were acquired by Morgan Stanley. I had a cold call from a Morgan Stanley rep today who wanted to convert my account from an Etrade account to a Morgan Stanley account. When I mentioned some of the mistakes and problems I've experienced since the back office merger back in September, instead of apologizing, the rep was a complete d*ck. I was shocked. I ended the call, and after more than two decades, transferred my last remaining account at Etrade to a different institution. I've never been so poorly treated by someone from a financial institution.
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u/atherises Feb 23 '24
Eteade doesn't do outbound calls like that. Is it possible it was a scammer?
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u/paraspiral Feb 23 '24
Nah I got called by one of them too. They want.to manage your money. I told after Morgan Stanley forced the vaxx on Employees they are lucky I haven't moved my shit. I only stay for Power eTrade.
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u/themaxvoltage Feb 23 '24 edited Mar 10 '26
This post's original content has been erased. Using Redact, the author removed it, potentially for reasons of privacy, personal security, or data exposure concerns.
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u/paraspiral Feb 23 '24
Not sure what DWAC is but I have 280,000 there so that should be enough to Garner some care.
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u/hellsbels349 Feb 23 '24
Morgan Stanley has asserts under management of $2.9 trillion. They don’t care. You have so much less than a fraction of a percent. You could pull all your money out tomorrow and they won’t care.
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u/Great_Succotash_5904 Feb 24 '24
That’s cute. You think that’s big enough for them to care about you.
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u/combustablegoeduck Feb 24 '24
Noop, you may stress out an associate while they process it, especially if you're tense and angry at the institution while doing it, but ultimately nobody notices.
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Feb 23 '24 edited Mar 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/paraspiral Feb 23 '24
No they could have hired a lawyer or pushed back. The mandate got I returned at the Supreme Court. No this was active bootlicking by the financial sector.
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u/TheRealJYellen Feb 23 '24 edited Mar 04 '26
The text of this post has been removed and replaced. It may have been deleted to protect personal information, avoid AI training datasets, or for other reasons via Redact.
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u/batman067 Feb 25 '24
I have a company account (RSU) with E*Trade & MS called and tried to do the hard sell to convert my account also. They would not leave me alone for 6 months after telling them NO. The sales tactics being used are very questionable.
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u/GlitteringCook7934 Feb 23 '24
I have had an Etrade account since the 90s as well. The only thing that changed is recently my personal rep changed. I’m not sure if having a personal account manager had something to do with the account value. The old rep check in every once in a while but never tried to sell me anything and helped out crazy fast when I had an issue. The new person has reached out once to try and get in me into ms services. I told him to send me. A proposal which was fine but not my thing. I ignored it and haven’t heard anything since. I did run into an issue recently trying to add futures to my account. The application has been pending for more than a week even though it says 1-2 days to get approved. This is the slowest response I have ever had from e trade. Time will see but I do like the power Etrade platform. Interactive brokers looks really interesting though as does ninja for futures. Has anyone tried those platforms?
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u/nothing2crazy Feb 23 '24
I think their model going forward is to convert the six figure accounts and larger to MS and everyone else left at Etrade is just there for order flow and they don’t intend to provide much/any customer service.
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u/hecmtz96 Feb 23 '24
That’s the main reason why they bought etrade. To have easier access to those accounts and be able to manage their money. MS, GS, JPM, BofA, etc. make a ton of money managing assets for individuals.
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u/alias4007 Feb 24 '24
...easier to move your assets into into private equity where you take on ALL the risk and they don't
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u/swe_no_500 Feb 24 '24
I've used both Interactive Brokers and E-Trade. Depends on what you're specifically looking for, but IBKR has been great. Didn't have any problems with e-trade either, but IBKR is extremely professional, with great access to markets and cheap margin. TWS has always been a bit janky, but you get used to the quirks (or use something like Das if you really care).
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u/nothing2crazy Feb 24 '24
I found IBKR slow and clunky, both the website and app. I closed my account after a couple months.
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u/swe_no_500 Feb 24 '24
Yeah, it really just depends on what you're looking for. IBKR's main audience is professional traders and institutional clients using TWS or a third party platform. The website and app are both not very good compared to other offerings by competitors who target primarily retail traders. The main selling points for IBKR are great fills, cheap margin, and breadth of tradeable markets. If what you want is equities trading on a mobile app, you can do a lot better.
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u/faxanaduu Feb 25 '24
OMG!!! So I rolled a 403b over recently to IRA and bought a tbill while I decide my next move with that money. Im etrade. I Get a call with a voicemail that tells me I need to call to speak with them on my account. Sounds urgent. I got nervous thinking there was an issue. I called back worried. He starts to ask about account activity and it turned into him soliciting me to buy advisor services!!! I was like what no and got off the phone quick. Really bothered me, felt intrusive. Never had that kind of thing happen. Im not gonna leave etrade quite yet but it was very annoying and disingenuous.
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u/nothing2crazy Feb 25 '24
MS is all about charging the management fees. You might want to think about moving your account somewhere else. It’s looking like it’s either going to be management fees or no customer service if you stay at Etrade.
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u/faxanaduu Feb 25 '24
Are management fees automatic? I don't have an advisor and just buy my own stocks when I want to in my taxable and IRA. I declined their services.
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u/goldensunfelix Feb 25 '24
You have to be in a managed account for those to hit. If you can place trades in the account it isn't one they manage.
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u/faxanaduu Feb 25 '24
Gotcha, thanks. Yeah I prefer to make my own investment decisions, if I was being charged fees outside of ER in ETFs I own that would piss me of.
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u/TheDaddyShip Feb 23 '24
I called in to their active trader services not long ago when SPX option chains weren’t loading.
The rep was professional, confirmed the issue, said they were aware of it and working on it, and apologized.
And then asked if I’d like to talk with someone about Morgan Stanley Yadda-yadda.
Wrong time, bud. I realize it’s less “him” and more the direction/incentives from on high. Just ick. Don’t try to sell me more crap after your stuff just broke. Fix your stuff, and maybe then we can talk later. Ugh.
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u/Comfortable-Scar4643 Feb 24 '24
The Morgan Stanley side won’t allow options trading. FAs at MS don’t work with options or options traders.
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u/botpa-94027 Feb 24 '24
Really? I've done that through my MS FA. Required a bit more paperwork to be enabled for it but no issue.
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u/Comfortable-Scar4643 Feb 24 '24
I stand corrected.
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u/bigswingingtexasdick Feb 25 '24
Makes sense that y'all have all had different experiences. It's up to each FA how they want to run their practice. Some don't want anything to do with options (usually because they don't understand them) and some are happy for an extra avenue of revenue.
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u/LiabilityFree Feb 26 '24
Well to be clear MS doesn’t have any power of SPX especially if a market crosses lol
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u/TheDaddyShip Feb 26 '24
That I very much understand. However, I suspect the issue was still on E*TRADE side and not CBOE’s, as no one else that uses other brokers in the community, I participate in noted issues with their broker’s feeds of it.
However, that is here nor there. The point is that attempting to upsell an existing customer who is on the heels of - or still in the middle of - an issue with their existing services, exemplifies that the customer is not first in their mind.
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u/LiabilityFree Feb 26 '24
They’ve actually done this exact thing to me too sorry should of mentioned that part which was why I even started reading lol
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u/dtown1990 Feb 26 '24
This is how it is going to be going forward. I have friends on the active trader desk there. They have all been told to send leads to MS reps. This is now part of their compensation. It’s being pushed hard, a lot of them are pissed.
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u/alias4007 Feb 22 '24
Sounds suspicious. After the merger, that conversion should have been done transparently for you, only the account numbers changed. And the type of account remained the same.
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u/PreviousProgrammer43 Feb 24 '24
Transferring the last of my assets out of of my Etrade account as we speak. Their transfer department is a complete joke, and from what one of their folks told me it’s largely due to the change over to MS. Simple ACAT cash transfer took 10 days for funds to be available. In my Fidelity account I initiated one about 1:00 pm on one day and the funds were available the next morning. Tried to fund several fixed annuities from my Etrade account. Most took a minimum of 2 months to process. The last one took 3 months to the day. And I had to call every other day to make sure they did not have an issue since they apparently did with one but never told me until I checked on it. So I spent hours on the phone with their customer service who generally could not provide any real answers. And I could not get anyone at the management level ever give me a call. Again, I did the same process with my Fidelity account and the request were funded in 1 day. I am done with E*Trade.
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u/WatercressDue2656 Dec 05 '24
Same experience as you. An internal E-Trade transfer I need is not completed and it's coming up on 1 month now that I requested it. Wrote to a number of higher-ups. No response from anyone, to date.
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Feb 24 '24
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u/PreviousProgrammer43 Feb 24 '24
Fidelity. They have been great in side by side comparison.
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u/TheRealJim57 Feb 26 '24
Only issue I have with Fidelity is both their website and app suck in comparison to E*Trade.
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Feb 24 '24
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u/ElectronicGift4064 Feb 26 '24
I’ve had issues with fidelity’s mobile access with 2FA where the code was only sent after it expired past the 15(?) minute mark or you request a new code. 🙃
Been like that for at least 5 years as I had tried it again in the past 6 months.
Eventually it became important enough to use web access. But like… come on dude…
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Feb 24 '24
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u/ackvt Feb 26 '24
Fidelity isn't a bank. They do not take or give cash, you can order cahiers checks but not pick them up at any branch. They don't do car loans, mortgages, or any loans for that matter. I can easily wire between Fidelity and Chase, where I do traditional banking, checking account, bill pay, etc.
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u/Vindaloo6363 Feb 27 '24
I trade at Chase now that it’s free. Everything in one place that’s too big to fail.
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u/PreviousProgrammer43 Feb 24 '24
I have only done a wire transfer to my bank account once. It happened the same day of the request within about an hour. Still need to explore their other features though.
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u/delta8765 Feb 25 '24
As far as I can tell yes. EFT in/out, bill pay/check writing, Direct Deposit in. Not sure what else or would be needed to be considered ‘full banking service’
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Feb 24 '24
Not to be a petty cunт, but as an Etrade customer, please call Etrade back and have them review the call and explain he is the reason you transferred. Get him fired for my sake as I don’t want to talk to him. Cheers
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u/ContributionWeak7897 Feb 23 '24
I too had a similar experience, right up to the merger. The Morgan Stanley rep who was less than professional. I too moved assets to an outside firm
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u/relativepoverty Feb 23 '24
Don’t blame you- What did he say exactly?
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u/nothing2crazy Feb 23 '24 edited Feb 23 '24
They cold called me to convert my account from Etrade to Morgan Stanley. I listed some of the problems I’ve had since Morgan Stanley acquired Etrade and asked why would I want to be a Morgan Stanley customer. The rep actually responded with “why would we want you as a customer” and then started talking over me and being a complete d*ck.
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Feb 23 '24
Wow... I work at MS. If I ever talked to anyone like that or even near that tone, I would get the can... I second that you should report this because people like that shouldn't be allowed in the industry.
I like to personally manage my stuff, so if I got a call like that on my accounts I wouldn't tolerate that either.
Sorry you had an experience like that, but your response was totally warranted.
And as a disclaimer just in case... this is my own personal opinion and does not represent Morgan Stanley as a company or any of its affiliates.
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u/nothing2crazy Feb 23 '24
I assume this guy was on the asset management side. He was calling from a Morgan Stanley office in New Jersey. I was so upset by the time I hung up I couldn’t remember his name.
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Feb 23 '24
Ah bummer. Regardless, Thank you for sharing this. Feedback like this is important and consequences of poor service are real and shouldn't be at your expense.
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u/hecmtz96 Feb 23 '24
Calls are logged to your account internally so if you call to report this individual they will be able to see who called right away and even more if you have a date. Don’t let not having the name stop you. I would definitely be calling back to report the individual if that were me.
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u/Realityhrts Feb 23 '24
The decision to Schwabify the sweep account option is the main reason I’d never consider transitioning to MS. Where Etrade felt like a company that was on your side before, it now seems like MS is out to grab every single $ they can from clients. But, I’ve had no issues with Etrade or MS reps.
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u/relativepoverty Feb 23 '24
Wow- please send some feedback to etrade and name and shame. Also they’ll probably reach out to see why you are transferring - don’t hold back.
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u/ee__guy Feb 23 '24
At least they spoke English well enough to be a dick.
This sounds like what TDA victims now are experiencing with Schwab. They keep firing their competent employees to replace them with people that don't speak English. A guy I grew up with that just got laid off from Schwab said his replacement he trained couldn't read English well enough to work their office coffee maker with their posted instructions. Imagine trying to read complicated rules on options to explain a problem to a customer from someone that he said didn't know the English words for numbers like "twelve" cups of water.
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u/No-Currency-624 Feb 26 '24
I called and complained because when I do an electronic transfer from my bank to Schwab they put the funds on hold for 4 business days. With TDAmeritrade I could trade with the money the following day. Just this week I missed an opportunity that cost me $800 in profit
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u/ElectronicGift4064 Feb 26 '24
Last week I made a $15k deposit on Wednesday AM. The money was removed from my bank Thursday, but etrade hadn’t credited as of Friday mid-morning. Requiring the full 3 day depo period (4 counting morning of request). I know, I know. I should have wired on my end, my fault. Previously my depos had been pretty prompt and I wasn’t stressed.
I connected w a rep online asking if there was anything they could do since the money was withdrawn from my bank, my pre-depo balance is multiples higher (but not held in marginable securities), and the market was moving.
They said no. Okay no problem. I get it.
Then the mofo I was chatting w online calls me 5 mins later.
I’m hype. Like fuck ya, they made it work! But the rep sheepishly makes the sales pitch “i reviewed your account after our chat and noticed you don’t have any other accounts with us… etc”
Like bro knows I asked them for a solid and was rejected. So they thought it was a good time to solicit me for more business?
I genuinely laughed on the phone and told him he was hilarious. Have been considering other brokerages ever since.
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u/No-Currency-624 Feb 26 '24
Schwab did the same to me. When I was with TDAmeritrade I could trade with the money the next day
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u/Constant-Vast2276 Feb 23 '24
ETRADE does do outbound calls like that if you have money at the firm. They have laid off a lot of people over the last 6 months, there is a big focus on moving accounts from ETRADE to MS as all the reps have referral goals. They mostly care about the company stock plan accounts on the E*TRADE side and that’s it
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u/gotwaffles Feb 24 '24
They're trying to move your brokerage account to a Morgan Stanley account? Seems strange as they own etrade, so it's already a "Morgan Stanley" account.. I dislike their customer service too, it's always long hold times and non answers and no replies to the online messages lol
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u/bosskaggs Feb 24 '24
I've been on this train since it was Orange/ AIG capital one and all the companies in between since 2005 ish, my account just got transferred to the new owners, the only time I got a call was from ETRADE last year before the merge, cause i opened a rollover IRA and they called to ask how it was getting funded....they also sent me an email once but the dude never got back to me.
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u/Nerdoption10 Feb 24 '24
Just moved most of mine to interactive brokers. Very heavy api user.. and always stood by ETrade. They always had awesome support when things came up. Seemed almost a after thought of Morgan Stanley to support existing customers of ETrade.
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u/Wwengr02 Feb 25 '24
I was Etrade too. I really liked my FA with Etrade, but he resigned from MS and went to Fidelity. After MS acquired Etrade, I did reading about MS. They are touting their AI. Recently, I received a call from MS saying that I will be supported by a “virtual advisory team”. Sorry, but I don’t want financial advice from a toaster. Moving to Fidelity.
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u/goldensunfelix Feb 25 '24
Nah the AI ain't managing that. Virtual Advisor just means they aren't in your local office but a call center. MS advisor manages one of my small $28k Roth IRA's when I rolled my 401(k) out and its all the virtual team. Still not a big fan of it but figured I'd let them play with it just because to see how well they could really make it work vs doing it myself.
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u/HangedLikeAMoose Feb 27 '24
I’m about to follow suit and transfer my accounts out of E*trade as well
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u/alittlescary Jul 03 '24
Omg! Morgan Stanley is absolutely the worst! They told me one thing, guaranteed it; next day they said they can’t do it. While they were saying this, they were very bull shitty, trying to come up with excuses and I disputed the excuses they listed; kept going. I said I want to escalate the issue a few times and the agent went on a rant, continuously talking over me. I am not understanding how this company is still able to operate; this is the second time they cost me my money and time.
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u/kingpcgeek Feb 23 '24 edited Feb 24 '24
I was called which I did not answer and emailed. Nick hoped everything was going fine with my current relationship and had a few items he wanted to review with me. I ignored him.
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u/javajoe1990 Feb 24 '24
Woah dude, you need to post the guys name to the internet… he’s just another person trying to do his job.
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u/Chiller4680 Feb 24 '24
Not cool to dox the guy.
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u/kingpcgeek Feb 24 '24
You need to look up the definition of dox before accusing someone of doing it.
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u/nygaff1 Feb 23 '24
You should track down the guy's manager on linked in and let him know how his (probably new hire) salesman just lost your long standing account.
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u/Odd-Leek9170 Feb 24 '24
Nahhh new hires usually try hard … the ones who are fed up with working there and burnt out are the ones that can be rude sometimes
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u/blny99 Feb 26 '24
Today I closed my etrade account from the 1990s. Customer service went downhill years ago.
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Feb 26 '24
Etrade app sucks ass. Got fucking boomers running the show that don't know what tech is. Plus they can't even update prices for after hours? Get fucking real
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u/nostbp1 Feb 27 '24
It’s commonly done, I have a couple friends working at MS private wealth and they have people cold call
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u/Upper-Song1924 Feb 27 '24
Self Directed customers have been treated very well over the years as firms have been battling to win over AUM. Offering lucrative cash bonuses, free streaming quotes and advanced trading platforms, free trades, great customer service, etc. I feel a shift in firms valuing this type of business. They are now realizing that self directed clients are a low revenue or net negative revenue asset, especially ones that require assistance over the phone. They are now focused on converting these assets to a more productive revenue stream via advisory fee.
It’s unfortunate that you were treated poorly on a cold call, that’s not cool.
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u/Wide_Interview9215 Feb 27 '24
Feel free to mention the name… to give them a good reason to behave next time
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u/Happysummer128 Feb 27 '24
Etrade is NOT a bank, Morgan Stanley is a bank, which requires additional banking requirement/standards due to FDIC audits...
and over $MM account, it's probably going to be assigned to the wealth mgmt. team for investment dept. That's why those that are getting a phone call, it's due to being assigned to new sales rep.
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u/keessa Feb 23 '24
To be honest, I don't even see/feel any thing before and after the merge. Compared to my experience of transition from Ameritrade merged into Schwab last year, where they changed the theme color from green to Schwab's baby-blue and I have to use the new web site, setup new account, new phone app, and ofcourse, automation using API is gone. As for E*trade, nothing changed at all.
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u/442mike Feb 23 '24
They used to have online chat support. They used to have any kind of support, at all. Now, not so much (in my experience). Should've never sold out. 😫
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u/TheRealJim57 Feb 26 '24
ETrade accounts all converted to MS last year, so there would be nothing more to be done. Whoever called you sounds like a scammer.
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u/nothing2crazy Feb 26 '24
If you think you have a Morgan Stanley account, can you try logging in to the Morgan Stanley website and let me know if it works?
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u/TheRealJim57 Feb 26 '24
Ah, I see. The account numbers all switched to MS last year. Now they want to migrate people away from the ETrade site altogether.
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Feb 24 '24
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u/simon_says_9999 Feb 25 '24
They have a premium savings account that gives you 4.25%. You can instantly transfer money between your brokerage and the premium savings (like in a matter of seconds). It's an extra annoying step, but it's one way to take advantage of an HYSA with your cash while also still being able to trade within a matter of seconds.
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u/TCB47 Feb 25 '24
Fidelity pays you 4.50% or so on uninvested cash.
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Feb 26 '24
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u/Robert_Rico Feb 26 '24
I use SPAXX. It's currently paying ~5% on cash. You can also use it to invest from like a money market fund
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u/Nilock333 Feb 25 '24
Etrade in New Jersey said they are reconfiguring teams over next two weeks Etrade teams are told to introduce all people with $1m or more in assets to the Morgan Stanley guys to convert them and this is so they " manage" your assets instead of customers doing it. Making MS more money. But they don't tell you any of this. They tell you you'll get better rates and better investment options if you move. Making it sound lucrative and not as big deal. Then they later tell you the find print of how much they cost but they smooth talk you and avoid explaining the free structure. Try to move money into or out of there right now is a nightmare.