Morgan Stanley
Financials
64
out of 100. Number 85 of 512, counting from the worst.
Where Morgan Stanley does well
- Renewals 4 of 20. Few problems found.
- The privacy notice explicitly says 'For nonaffiliates to market to you: No — We don't share,' meaning MS does not sell your data to outside marketers.
- Opt-out IS offered for two sensitive sharings: affiliate use of your creditworthiness and affiliates marketing to you, via a toll-free number (1-866-227-2256).
- The arbitration clause carries the FINRA-mandated class-action carve-out: no one may enforce pre-dispute arbitration against a person who has initiated or is part of a putative class action until certification is denied or the class is decertified — a protection other sectors lack.
- New customers get a 30-day window before sharing begins, and the Terms of Use carry a prominent SIPC asset-protection disclosure.
Clients agree upfront to mandatory private arbitration; they waive the right to sue Morgan Stanley in court or before a jury, and even arbitration awards are 'generally final and binding' with very limited court reversal.
The fine print
6 clauses and findings from the draft archive, dated 1 October 2026. The plain English comes first; the small print is the company's own words. None of these has been checked yet.
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Clients agree upfront to mandatory private arbitration; they waive the right to sue Morgan Stanley in court or before a jury, and even arbitration awards are 'generally final and binding' with very limited court reversal.
'When you click "Accept & Register," you are agreeing to this pre-dispute arbitration agreement' ... 'The parties to the Covered Agreements are giving up the right to sue each other in court, including the right to a trial by jury, except as provided by the rules of the arbitration forum in which a claim is filed'
Terms and Conditions For Morgan Stanley StockPlan Connect and Solium Shareworks
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Simply using the public website strips away your jury-trial right and slashes the statute of limitations to just one year — far shorter than standard multi-year limits.
'Sole and exclusive jurisdiction for any action or proceeding arising out of or related to these Terms of Use shall be in an appropriate state or federal court located in the County of New York, State of New York and the parties unconditionally waive their respective rights to a jury trial. Any cause of action you may have with respect to your use of this web site must be commenced within one (1) year after the claim or cause of action arises.'
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Morgan Stanley shares your personal data with affiliates to market to you, and jointly markets with outside financial companies — and federal law gives you no right to stop the joint-marketing sharing at all.
'For joint marketing with other financial companies: Does Morgan Stanley share? Yes — Can you limit this sharing? No.' 'For our affiliates to market to you: Yes — Yes* (opt-out available).' 'For our marketing purposes — to offer our products and services to you: Yes — No.'
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The data sharing doesn't stop when you close your accounts — your information keeps circulating to affiliates and partners indefinitely.
'If you are a new customer, we can begin sharing your information 30 days from the date we sent this notice. When you are no longer our customer, we continue to share your information as described in this notice.'
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No stated deletion right or maximum retention period — data can be kept indefinitely for 'legal and regulatory requirements' and extended for any litigation.
'We retain personal information in accordance with our information management policies... Personal information is retained as long as necessary to meet legal and regulatory requirements. Retention may be extended if we are required to preserve personal information in connection with litigation, investigations, and proceedings.'
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MS can rewrite its own terms without telling you, and your mere continued use counts as acceptance — plus it can yank or alter any advertised product or service at will.
'Morgan Stanley reserves the right to change these Terms of Use which you are responsible for regularly reviewing and your continued use of this web site constitutes agreement to all such changes.' ... 'Morgan Stanley may discontinue or change any product or service described in or offered on this web site at any time.'
How these were found
Terms of Use read in full live via browser_open on morganstanley.com/terms (Oct 1, 2026). All other findings come from search-result snippets served from the official morganstanley.com domain (StockPlan Connect Terms & Conditions arbitration page, Feb 2026 GLBA U.S. Customer Privacy Notice, U.S. Privacy Policy and Notice, Electronic Services Agreement 07/2020) and morganstanleyclientserv.com; browser_open timed out for the Privacy Pledge and StockPlan pages so those pages were not opened directly — quotes are verbatim snippets from those official-domain results, no third-party mirrors used. Documents date from 2016-2026; the GLBA privacy notice is 'Rev. February 2026'. No opt-out mechanism for the pre-dispute arbitration clause was found in the accessible materials.
These notes come from the original draft and are not independent verification.