Subject: File No. S7-25-99
From: Julie Lawrence

September 8, 2004

These are directly from the websites of:
From Merrill Lynch website: Working side-by-side with you, your Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor sees your life in total. Helps all the pieces work together. Helps the whole become something greater. Find a Financial Advisor and learn how to make Total Merrill work for you.

From Morgan Stanley website: Careful planning is key to achieving your financial goals. Whatever your goals may be from sending children to college and retiring comfortably to passing your hard-earned estate assets on to loved ones our Financial Advisors will evaluate your situation and help you determine which strategies are right for you.

You could pick any of a dozen retail brokerage sites or commercials and come to the same conclusion.

Level the playing field. These brokers are claiming to be advisors, even calling themselves advisors and yet are asking to be exempted from registration.