Goldman's name demands respect, obviously. But how has Morgan Stanley not achieved the same level of status? Does Morgan unanimously rank second due, only, to its PWM red-head stepchild?
Morgan Stanley Bank spots trends well beyond its competitors and funnels any of those scraps through its PWM via leftover new issues and flavors of the week (i.e. Clean Energy / non-rocket-launcher-producing Jihad SOEs). People have become disillusioned by the MS post-'07 "story"/business model. It is truly laughable to think of MS as being an I-bank perfectly balanced by its PWM business. Retail clients turn to MS for their investment accounts because it costs the same as E*Trade- oh, and you can tell your friend that your broker works at Morgan. James Gorman understood this when he saw how easily he could (and did) upend UBS with the acquisition of Smith Barney in '09.
Bottom line: MS shouldn't be second-rated by its very subsidiary MSWM.