Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman chose the right time to leave

James Gorman guide Morgan Stanley through years of extremely low interest rates and booming stock markets. His successor, Ted Choosemay have to come up with new ideas for a new era.

Gorman, who will step down at the end of the year after nearly 14 years as chief executive, bet big on wealth and asset management by absorbing all of Smith Barney and then buying E*Trade and Eaton Vance. He certainly had the right strategy in the eyes of the market: since the start of 2010, when he became CEO, the company’s annualized total return of 8.6% is second only to JPMorgan Chase among U.S. global banks, according to FactSet data. And in terms of valuation, Morgan Stanley has often been the leader of the pack, generally trading at a higher price-to-book ratio than even JPMorgan since the start of last year.