Morgan Stanley Smith Barney announced today that it has expanded its retirement plan services offering to include detailed fee and service benchmarking for defined contribution plans.  This new capability, powered by Fiduciary Benchmarks, will enable Morgan Stanley Smith Barney's Corporate Retirement Directors (CRDs) to provide valuable insight to plan sponsors about their plan's fees and services.  CRDs are Financial Advisors who focus on serving retirement plan sponsors.

Edward O'Connor, Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Retirement Services, said, "Plan sponsors have an obligation to ensure that the fees they pay service providers are reasonable.  Comparing and evaluating plan fees and services to those of other similar plans - is one way to help plan fiduciaries determine what is "reasonable."  While this may seem like a daunting task for plan sponsors, our CRDs can help them identify and understand specific plan fees, leverage Fiduciary Benchmark's data and benchmarking capabilities to conduct an apples-to-apples comparison, and ultimately evaluate the effectiveness of their plan from both a quantitative as well as a qualitative perspective." 

The demand for fee benchmarking services has been on the rise since the release of the interim final 408(b)(2) regulation on July 16, 2010, requiring the disclosure of fees and services related to retirement plans.  Making these services available in today's regulatory environment is consistent with the Firm's continued focus on the retirement industry and everyday commitment to providing clients with the highest level of service possible.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, a global leader in wealth management, provides access to a wide range of products and services to individuals, businesses and institutions, including brokerage and investment advisory services, financial and wealth planning, credit and lending, cash management, annuities and insurance, retirement and trust services.
 
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services.  The Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals from more than 1,200 offices in 42 countries.  For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, its affiliates and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney's Financial Advisors do not provide tax or legal advice, are not "fiduciaries" (under ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code or otherwise) with respect to the services or activities described herein except as otherwise agreed to in writing by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC. This material was not intended or written to be used for the purpose of avoiding tax penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer. Individuals are urged to consult their tax or legal advisors before establishing a retirement plan and to understand the tax, ERISA and related consequences of any investments made under such plan.

c. 2011 Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC.  Member SIPC. 

Media Relations Contact: Christy Pollak, 914.225.6827