Morgan Stanley is fine-tuning its international wealth management strategy in the US, including advisor training and support, and taking into account jurisdictional opportunities and challenges.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in the US is refocusing its international business by targeting individuals with at least $500,000 in assets and letting go of clients in countries where rules for offshore accounts make working with them costly.

According to a fact sheet provided by the firm and seen by Family Wealth Report, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management plans to grow its international franchise in 60 jurisdictions - primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean, and some countries in EMEA and Asia-Pacific. (International business is defined by the firm as clients living outside the US with accounts in US offices.)

Going forward, clients will be served by a team of around 400 international client advisors, based in 12 core US-based offices. Accounts will be closed in jurisdictions which are not “commercially viable,” Morgan Stanley said, or which have restrictive rules governing offshore accounts, while small accounts below $500,000 will be served through an international call center.

The firm added in its fact sheet that eligibility criteria will be established for international client advisors as of early 2016. This will include minimum revenue production, number of non-resident client households and/or concentration of total revenue from non-resident client households.

Advisors will however receive training and support services such as offshore product specialists. Those who are not international client advisors will have to establish a joint production arrangement with another international client advisor to run an international account, or transfer their international accounts.

The move comes not long after Merrill Lynch earlier this month said it is concentrating on serving the wealth management needs of clients outside of the US in select markets as part of a new global strategy. Merrill Lynch told this publication that the sale its non-US wealth management offices to Switzerland's Julius Baer in 2012 led to a reassessment of its international licenses, ultimately supporting its decisions around how it might work with international clients going forward (see more here).

Other industry players have actually wound down operations in regions such as Latin America. In 2013, Barclays Wealth & Investment Management sold its Miami, FL- and New York-based LatAm and Caribbean businesses to Santander Private Banking, for example. Meanwhile, global regulations such as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act have caused many banks to think harder about what is the most profitable client segment to cultivate. 

Morgan Stanley noted that its changes only apply to its international wealth management business in the US, and not to its wealth businesses in Asia and Australia. The firm exited or sold parts of its onshore wealth management operations in Switzerland, the UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, the UAE and India between 2013 and 2014.