The battle on Wall Street for top-producing stockbrokers is benefiting wealthy clients as fees and commissions come under pressure, the Wall Street Journal said.

In an effort to keep valued retail-brokerage customers from following their financial advisors out the door, Smith Barney and other firms are offering some clients discounted commissions on trades or waiving account-management fees, according to the WSJ.

Data due out later this month from Merrill Lynch/Capgemini is expected to show that the investable assets of the world’s high net worth and ultra-HNW individuals has fallen sharply, a development that will put pressure on wealth management firms to trim fees to retain customers.

The WSJ report said that while the details vary by firm and customer, some clients are being told they won't pay any fees for two years if they stick with the firm, according to people familiar with the situation.

At Morgan Stanley, which is expected to complete as soon as today its deal to buy controlling interest in a joint venture with Citi’s Smith Barney brokerage unit, fees have been waived for hundreds of brokerage clients, saving them in some cases $15,000 apiece.

Such moves are an aggressive jab at rivals such as UBS which are paying millions to land big-time brokers. Matching the no-fee pledge deepens the hiring firms' financial hole.

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are planning to pay brokers up to $3 billion to keep them from being poached from their new joint venture, the WSJ added.