Morgan Stanley is reducing its global workforce by 3%.
The reductions are expected to impact roughly 2,500 positions out of the about 83,000 the firm reported at the end of 2025, a person familiar with the situation confirmed to Business Insider, adding that they will take place in early March. The Wall Street Journal first reported Morgan Stanley’s cuts on Wednesday afternoon.
The cuts will be global and span the firm’s three primary business units: Institutional Securities, Wealth Management, and Investment Management. The rationale for the reduction is a combination of shifting business priorities, a revised global location strategy, and individual performance reviews, the person added, saying that the action is set to affect both front-office, revenue-generating roles and back-office support positions.
Notably, the person said that, while the firm’s respected wealth management division is affected, the cuts in that business line are focused on corporate “home office” roles. Financial advisors in field offices are not affected by this round of layoffs, the person continued.
The move follows a similar round of cuts last spring, when the bank reportedly trimmed approximately 2,000 roles. However, the current reductions come at a more optimistic moment for the firm’s bottom line. In its most recent earnings report, Morgan Stanley posted record full-year 2025 revenues of $70.6 billion, with investment banking revenues surging 47% in the final quarter of the year.
The layoffs come as the broader financial industry prepares for an anticipated windfall in corporate dealmaking, and some rivals are touting how they’re bulking up — not pulling back — on head count to meet the moment. Still, while Morgan Stanley is reducing head count in specific areas, the person with knowledge of the bank’s thinking said, it’s still planning for long-term growth and intends to add resources in some sectors while trimming in others.
As a registered dietitian, Lena Beal first learned about nutrition from her own family.
“My great-grandparents were farmers, so they grew nearly everything they ate, made their own preserves, the whole thing,” Beal, a cardiovascular dietitian at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, told Business Insider.
Her roots inspired her profession. “It was generational wisdom,” she said. “The foods that give us the most nutrients, the most pleasure, they’re the most sustainable and practical.” In her own life, she focuses on a minimally processed, plant-packed diet, incorporating chicken, fish and eggs on occasion.
Still, it doesn’t mean there isn’t room for flexibility.
Once a week, Beal eats what she calls “joy foods”: things she enjoys, like sweets and alcohol, which are best consumed in moderation. A Christian, Beal links joy foods to her Sabbath, or day of rest.
Eating her joy foods on Sundays is her version of the 80/20 diet, helping her stay on track with eating mostly heart-healthy foods — with the occasional treats. “That way, I can enjoy them intentionally, but without feeling like I’m constantly negotiating with myself,” she said.
Beal shared what she eats in a week to get enough protein — and what a typical Sunday of fun looks like.
She leans on plant-based protein sources
Beal includes lots of beans and legumes to get extra protein.
vaaseenaa/Getty Images
Given her focus on cardiovascular health, Beal said she has always focused on heart-healthy foods to keep her fueled throughout the day.
“It’s subliminal,” she said. “Those things are extremely important to me: making sure I have hearty, fiber-rich, high-omega-3 foods with those macronutrients.”
On a typical day, her meals look like this:
A high-protein, fiber-rich breakfast such as oatmeal with nuts and fruit
Lunch, her biggest meal of the day, is usually a hearty salad, grain bowl, or soup. She focuses on plant-based protein sources like legumes, dried beans, and chickpeas, but will sometimes include chopped egg or a piece of fish.
Snacks such as mixed nuts, granola bars, or fresh berries with yogurt
A light, mostly plant-based dinner such as steamed cabbage with brown rice and black-eyed peas
She focuses a lot on protein because she works out at least 3 to 4 days a week, including resistance training, brisk walking, and yoga. She said her target is reaching 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week, the recommended goal for most people.
Her diet helps her stay on track. “Because my eating pattern is relatively consistent, it supports strength, energy, and flexibility,” she said.
Cutting down on red meat
Beal was never interested in intentionally following a strict vegan or vegetarian diet. Instead, her diet evolved over the past eight years to naturally involve less red meat.
“I wasn’t a heavy red meat-eater in the first place.” she said. “I no longer enjoyed it. It was heavy for me.” Having it once a week was easier for her because it didn’t feel like much of a sacrifice.
On occasion, she’ll eat leaner animal-based protein sources like chicken or turkey during the week, which have less saturated fat.
Joy meals include mimosas and French toast
One of Beal’s favorite joy meals is French toast.
Grace Cary/Getty Images
When Sunday rolls around, she doesn’t exactly go all out on sugar or cocktails, either. She still aims to stick to her normal habits, like eating a light dinner, because it ties into better sleep.
“I don’t go too far out of bounds,” she said. Treating herself might look like French toast, a mimosa, or fish in a richer cream sauce than she would pick during the week.
It’s been the easiest way to keep a balance in her life. Beal, who’s taught weight management classes in the past, said that words like “diet” or “cheat foods” can bring up a lot of negative feelings for people.
“I shy away from that language,” she said. “I call them ‘joy foods’ because they absolutely fit if you leave room for them intentionally.”
She focuses on flexibility
Beal takes a few supplements — vitamin D and iron — based on recommendations her doctor made, given her age and medical history.
Otherwise, she gets all her nutrients from her diet, which she feels is easy to maintain because she eats whole foods she loves during the week, while being flexible enough to enjoy a sweet treat or glass of wine, too.
“Healthy eating works best when it leaves room for living,” Beal said. “It ought to feel like when you get up from a meal that you have good feelings, whether it’s nostalgic, whether it satiates you. That’s what food is.”
Authorities have found that some funding to combat homelessness in California has instead ended up in Greece.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has accused Alexander Soofer, manager of LA-based housing organization Abundant Blessing, of “a years-long scheme to defraud the City and County of Los Angeles and other public entities providing funding for homeless housing.”
According to a complaint filed on Friday, while paying his staff “minimal wages” and feeding residents at his housing sites “ramen noodles, canned beans, and breakfast bars,” Sooferpocketed at least $10 million “through bank accounts associated with other businesses in his and his wife’s names” for personal expenses after “fraudulently obtaining” $23 million in public funding.
Federal officials said that between 2018 and 2025, Soofer’s organization received more than $5 million directly from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and over $17 million through other nonprofits.
Investigators found Soofer’s misuse of funds includes $47,000 in luxury home purchases from stores like Restoration Hardware, $15,000 at Hermès, $15,000 at Chanel, $1,000 for cosmetic dermatology, and $4,500 for a four-night stay at the Wynn Las Vegas.
Authorities said they have yet to determine what Soofer bought at Chanel, but listed his purchases at Hermès as including a $1,250 pair of men’s Paris calf-skin loafers, a $910 pair of women’s Chypre sandals, a $455 Chevaux en Symetrie tie, and a $2,450 men’s trotting jacket.
The same Hermes trotting vest that the authorities listed in the photo section of the complaint.
Screenshot
In addition to luxury brands, the complaint said there is at least one property under his name associated with the misappropriated funds. That property in question is located in Greece and relates to “a $475,000 check issued from an Abundant Blessings bank account.”
The case against Soofer feeds into concerns that California’s efforts to combat homelessness may be ineffective and inconsistent despite large spending. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, as of 2024, the state had over 187,000 homeless people, representing about 24% of the nation’s total.
State Auditor Grant Parks wrote in a 2024 report to Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers that, when his department analyzed five housing programs that received approximately $13.7 billion in combined funding, only two were “likely cost-effective.”
Parks also added in the report that, between fiscal years 2018-2023, California cities lacked reliable data to track cost efficiency and outcomes needed to fully understand why the problem didn’t improve, despite the billions spent by more than 30 housing programs.
The attorney’s office of the Central District of California referred Business Insider to the press release and did not comment further. An attorney for Soofer and the Governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the grocery store, people tried to make sense of my family — how these Black, Hispanic, and white children all belonged to the same woman.
The insatiably curious strangers would stop my mother to comment on her “beautiful family,” hoping she’d explain us. She never did.
I love that she never felt she owed anyone an explanation for her children.
It started with just three of us — my biological brother, sister, and me — your average American, blue-collar family. But when my parents decided to foster kids, our world expanded.
From then on, our sibling count fluctuated. Usually, we had between four and six kids in our home. Over the years, my parents adopted five of my foster siblings, bringing our total to eight.
Growing up as the oldest in a family built through foster care and adoption shaped me in ways I didn’t understand, but I feel them everywhere now.
Not fitting in taught me empathy
We didn’t fit the box of a “nice little American family.” My younger siblings might’ve been too young to notice people’s stares, but I wasn’t. I saw the disapproving looks when my 2-year-old foster sister dumped a carton of eggs onto the grocery store floor or melted down in the cereal aisle.
It was humbling to feel different. To feel like you were “that family.” The one that stood out for the wrong reasons.
In hindsight, it taught me empathy at an early age. To this day, I try to be aware when others feel they aren’t fitting in or measuring up to some impossible standard. I want people to feel like they can be their imperfect selves around me.
I learned that just because something hurts doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing
People often told my mother, “Oh, I could never foster. I’d get too attached. My heart would break if they went home. “
My mother hated these comments. Her heart shattered every time we got a call that one of our siblings was leaving. She loved those children like her own — and then they were gone, often returning to situations that didn’t feel stable. She was powerless to stop it and grieved hard.
People don’t want to foster because it’ll be painful when the children leave, but my mother taught me that you let your heart hurt if it means you can help the hurting.
In a big family, we learned to pull our weight
I vaguely remember doing chores before my foster siblings arrived — but I vividly remember chores after. Suddenly, my mom was overwhelmed, and helping became non-negotiable. At 11, I was in charge of my 1- and 2-year-old sisters’ bedtime routine. By 12, I was the family dishwasher, and by 17, the laundress. And, of course, I babysat.
Every day was a lesson in teamwork and helping out. Not just for me, but for my siblings, too. Many of us who grew up in that house went on to pursue entrepreneurship. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
If there’s something good, better get it before it’s gone
Scarcity mindset is real when you grow up with so many siblings. Act fast, or there won’t be anything left. Even now as an adult, I have to remind myself not to overfill my plate or worry about something running out. It took me a long time to learn to savor things and not worry about the sense of “not enough.”
Still, that mindset made me scrappy, which has come in handy over the years. When I was young and first married, we needed extra money. I began buying and selling furniture on Craigslist and renting out our home on Airbnb. My book club once voted me “most likely to survive the Hunger Games.”
The demands of parenting didn’t surprise me
My friends used to talk dreamily about their future families. I didn’t. I knew what snot-nosed temper tantrums looked like. For a long time, I wasn’t even sure I wanted kids.
Eventually, I changed my mind and became a mother. Sometimes, helicopter parents ask me how I’m so chill with my kids. Coming from a big family, I’m not worried about a little chaos. Balls and tricycles in the house? Sure. Stomp around in the mud and puddles? Go right ahead. Running around in a diaper? You do you.
In a big family, there’s always room for one more at the table
I love our loud, boisterous family gatherings — my seven siblings, their spouses, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins. It’s wonderful chaos.
Whenever I ask to bring a lonely neighbor or another family along, my mom always says the same thing: “Of course! I’ll make sure we have enough chairs.”
That’s my favorite part of belonging to a big family — when you have so many, what’s a few more?
