Morgan Stanley today announced a strategic alliance between Shareworks by Morgan Stanley (Shareworks) and Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation. The alliance will provide market leading stock plan administrative services to executives and employees of Japanese companies.
Shareworks is a leading global stock plan administration platform that provides software and administration services to more than 3,900 corporate clients with 2.7 million participants in more than 150 countries, transacting in over 50 currencies.
This alliance in Japan will further accelerate the delivery of Morgan Stanley’s comprehensive end-to-end suite of workplace financial solutions, by providing compensation plan services that will maintain and strengthen the competitiveness of Japanese companies by meeting the needs of their employees. Morgan Stanley at Work, a suite of workplace financial solutions which help organizations maximize employee financial benefits, will also have the opportunity to provide Financial Wellness services to U.S. participants of Japanese companies in recognition of the fact that financial stress is a leading concern of employees.
“Our strategic alliance with Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation is a significant opportunity for Shareworks as the number of Japanese companies adding equity plans is growing about 35% annually,” said Jed Finn, Head of Corporate & Institutional Solutions and COO of Wealth Management. “The alliance will also position us to provide financial wellness, retirement and wealth management services to the U.S. participants of Japanese companies.”
Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation is one of Japan’s largest trust banks and a core member of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. which has had a strategic alliance with Morgan Stanley since 2009.
This alliance is the latest example of Morgan Stanley’s commitment to become a leader in providing financial solutions to companies and their employees.
Morgan Stanley acquired Solium Capital Inc. in May 2019 and the company was rebranded Shareworks by Morgan Stanley. Shareworks is a part of the Morgan Stanley at Work suite of financial solutions which also includes Retirement and Financial Wellness. Morgan Stanley at Work combines cutting-edge planning and risk management software, Morgan Stanley intellectual capital and financial education delivered through multiple channels to enable employees to build a holistic plan to achieve their financial goals. Shareworks currently has offices in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Since acquisition, Morgan Stanley at Work has added more than 525 new corporate clients, including, Uber, Xero, Diageo, and Coca Cola European Partners.3
The recently announced Morgan Stanley acquisition of E*TRADE (which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions) will further expand Morgan Stanley’s leadership in Workplace Wealth with over 4.6 million stock plan participants collectively, approximately 4,730 corporate plans and over $580 billion in combined stock plan balances.
In May, Morgan Stanley announced its plan to launch Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Canada, a full-service wealth management offering to complement the existing Shareworks by Morgan Stanley stock plan administrative services it provides to executives and employees who reside in Canada (subject to regulatory approval).
