Why Morgan Stanley Smith Barney are thieving, corrupt bastards...

In !998, my father, who was a teacher for 28 years, started a ROTH IRA for me. He started it with around 1000 dollars, and told me that I should do my best to add money to it every year. Being the 27 year old that I was, living in New York City and living more or less paycheck to paycheck, I contributed absolutely nothing. And here is where the story gets interesting. The Fund that had was bought and traded a few times over the years, until I ended up getting statements from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Or as I like to call them, a bunch of morally corrupt douchebags. I've had a lot on my mind. Between work and family and life, I gave my statements a passing glance here and there, but since this was a RETIREMENT account, a Roth IRA, I figured it would sit there fine until such a time as I was in a place to start really contributing. Now I know that the market has been screwed over the past 15 years, but when I looked at a recent balance on this account back in February, I noticed that the Total Value was now considerably less - about HALF of what my Dad originally put in the account. THis seemed odd. I mean, even my limited financial knowledge brought me to the conclusion that something didn't smell right. And then I found it. MORGAN STANLEY SMITH BARNEY charges a monthly Low Balance Household Fee - which used to be 35 dollars a month, and now has gone up to 50. That's right. Even though they have your money, and even though they have been (apparently) horribly inept at making it grow, they punish you if you have less than 25,000 dollars in your account. I may be simple - but to me, this seems like a fee for not being wealthy. And that is just plain f*ed up. If I left my account alone, what would happen is that eventually, since the money never grows, the fees (for doing absolutely nothing) would eventually take my entire meager balance. I would just like to go on record as saying that it is practices like this that make the average american think that Wall Street and companies like this are cold, calculating jackasses. All it would have taken was a single phone call from someone there saying, maybe you are better served moving your retirement fund elsewhere? Or even better, maybe when I called the number on my statement to ask someone about the situation, if I hadn't been left on hold for over an hour before my call was magically cut off. Shame on you Morgan Stanley. Shame on your for stealing my father's hard earned money. My apologies if the amount isn't enough for you to actually warrant as important enough not to steal. I hope your company goes belly up, and all of the people responsible for policies like this lose their shirts. Maybe then they will have an iota of conscience. That's how I see it. PS. The two gentleman who I talked to on the phone today were both incredibly helpful. And now I am closing my account and moving it elsewhere.