I too only kept around $5K on my Access Investing account since opening it ~3 years ago. Got a letter from MS today about this account:
Your investment advisory account(s) ... has changed to a brokerage account(s). This status change was triggered by one of the following:
- ... (removed the list of various reasons that I think are not relevant)
- The account(s) is no longer eligible to participate.
As a result of this change, the following apply (unless this account is enrolled in a new advisory program):
- Applicable account and service fees (instead of ongoing advisory fees), may apply going forward.
- Applicable brokerage commissions will apply for transactions.
- You are now responsible for making the investment decisions, with guidance provided by your Morgan Stanley team, as Morgan Stanley is no longer acting as an investment adviser with respect to the investments in this account(s).
- If this account is a discretionary account(s), the discretionary authority and limited power of attorney that you granted to Morgan Stanley has been revoked.
Please note, the holdings in this account(s) did not change (unless you instructed us otherwise), with the exception of certain mutual fund share classes. Also, the Morgan Stanley team members that service this account(s) will remain the same.
Not sure what exactly it all means, but it seems MS finally decided to do something about these Access Investing accounts. Hopefully the new version of the account still satisfies the "Morgan Stanley investment relationship" for Amex Plat, but it's not clear to me yet. Nothing's changed so far when I go to my online account - everything looks the same as before. Didn't find any way to manage existing investments on the account either - but it could be that it has to be done over the phone as almost everything else with MS...