Pros
Firm has a great history and motto - "first class business in a first class way." Relative to the rest of the Street, there is some truth to this. While all major I-banks have lost their way since turning public, the most recent round of preposterously corrupt behavior with absurdly massive fines to match, admissions of criminality, customer abuses, etc., notwithstanding, MS nonetheless has been less tainted than most - often paying fines for example in the hundreds of millions rather than billions. The investment banking advisory business has always been, and remains, first rate, and this is a credit to the firm. PWM in particular once had a proud story before the commoditization of wealth management services, back when the former Private Client group was 300 strong and the only financial advisory group at the Firm. Two M&A delas later (Dean Witter; Smith Barney) that culture is decades past, and PWM long since ceased having any real differentiated value proposition on the investment side. Nonetheless, the hedge fund advisory group is very strong, and this is a key asset class. Supporting professionals providing the soft services - T&E, philanthropy, etc., - generally range from solid, to excellent.
Cons
The Firm is incredibly slow and/or incapable of solving longstanding deficiencies that really give the lie to the group's claim to be a top quality outsourced family office solution. Banking services were terrible when i left, after years of flailing post financial crisis, and the integration of PWM's legacy reporting (on the institutional B/D) w/ the retail old MSDW platform was a decade + running nightmare - and from keeping in touch w/ former clients, it is still a disaster from PWM standpoint, basically a lowest common denominator standpoint.
