Merrill produced $315 million more profit from its brokerage in the first half of 2010 than Morgan Stanley with 2,900 fewer financial advisors, according to company reports. Its pretax profit margin, 16.7 per cent for the same period, is more than double wealth management joint venture Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s 7.8 per cent.

“We’ve got the leadership position, but we can’t rest,” Krawcheck told the news service in an e-mail. “Staying focused on the clients, meeting the needs and demands that have come out of the downturn and leveraging the competitive advantages of Bank of America will keep us ahead.”

“The Smith Barney deal enabled Morgan Stanley to go from subscale to a leading position in wealth management overnight,” a Morgan Stanley spokesperson was quoted as saying. “There are great synergies with our institutional businesses, and we have a clear, multiyear plan to grow the profit margin as we integrate two large franchises.”

Merrill’s 15,142 brokers brought in an average of $836,000 on an annualized basis compared with $682,000 for Morgan Stanley’s 18,087 advisors.

Pretax margin at Morgan Stanley’s wealth-management unit fell to less than 10 per cent this year from 17 per cent in 2007, partly because the firm spent more to recruit brokers to replace those who left over concerns about the company’s future, the news service reports.

As previously reported by Family Wealth Report Robert W Baird & Co. recently poached nine wealth management pros from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. MSSB, meanwhile, recently signed on an advisory duo from Wells Fargo and a team from UBS Wealth Management Americas.