RJ and Makay

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (MSSB) has hired Jeff Hack from J.P. Morgan Chase as its chief operating officer in one of several organizational changes announced by company president Gregory Fleming.

According to an internal memo, Hack will oversee MSSB's ongoing technology/operations integration activities. Morgan Stanley is in the midst of integrating its brokerage with that of Smith Barney, which has about 17,800 financial advisors, the most on Wall Street.

Financial advisors' earnings declined 11% last year, indicates a new poll by the College for Financial Planning. Among 345 Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certificants and recent graduates of the College's CFP program, average annual earnings were $190,922 last year compared with $215,345 in 2009 and $195,349 in 2008. Residual effects of the recession were responsible for last year's decline, the College suggests.

Although they made less money last year, 94% of respondents said they're happy with their career choice. The poll also found respondents are:

Despite all the gloomy news lately, financial advisors (FAs) remain steadfastly optimistic about the future, shows the latest quarterly research from Russell Investments. “The headlines seem to reinforce everything that's going wrong, but financial advisors who are more experienced are seeing a substantial amount of optimism,” says Kevin Bishopp, director of practice management at Russell's private client services business.

Russell's quarterly survey of about 800 FAs was conducted in late January and early February, so it doesn't reflect the unfolding disaster in Japan. But the political unrest that was sweeping across Africa and the Middle East when the survey was being done apparently wasn't enough to dim respondents' outlook.