Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (NYSE: MS) continues to consolidate. Expect some 120 "overlap" branches to be closed soon. That will bring the number of retail office outlets to about 750, compared with 870 domestic locations as of March 31 and 958 on June 30, 2009, according to Bloomberg.

While the number of outlets will shrink, the number of advisors at the firm will not change much, at around 18,000. Growth will come from enhanced productivity and perhaps overseas growth, which the firm is counting on, though it will not likely strike a big deal for an overseas firm. And the trend away from old-style brokerage services and toward more encompassing wealth management services will continue. As of now, about a fourth of the venture's advisers already employ this approach, "where financial advisers direct client assets to in-house and third-party money managers rather than make investing decisions themselves," notes Reuters. That will likely go higher. 

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