Don't Count Wire Houses Out

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney had a good first quarter, Investment News reports. A few stats:

Number of MSSB brokers: 17,800

Annualized revenue per broker: $767,000

Value of accounts handled by average broker: $97 million

Total held in brokerage accounts at MSSB: $1.72 trillion

Client assets held in fee-based accounts: $501 billion
(a 21% increase over the previous quarter)