Analysts have suggested the bank's wealth management unit will continue to thrive in the next quarter.

Morgan Stanley's ploy to manage more money for the ultra-rich is paying off, as the bank has posted its strongest net income since 2007 boosted by a 9 per cent rise in revenue at its wealth management unit. 

The bank's third quarter earnings topped analysts expectations as earnings per share hit 93 cents versus 81 cents projected by analysts polled by Reuters, given a leg-up by its wealth management arm which logged net revenue of $4.22 billion. Morgan Stanley's $5.5 billion in net income for the first nine months of the year was its best showing in a decade. 

"Our third quarter results reflected the stability our wealth management, investment banking and investment management businesses bring when our sales and trading business faces a subdued environment," Morgan Stanley chairman and chief executive James Gorman said in a statement.

Morgan Stanley is not the only big bank looking to reap fresh revenues by managing money for ultra-rich clients: rivals Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Barclays have all leaned their business models more toward wealth management as turning healthy profits amid an unabated slowdown in trading is proving increasingly difficult. 

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management's pre-tax profit margin rose to 26.5 per cent from 23 per cent in the third quarter of last year. 

The bank continued to rake in new assets, as fee-based client account assets swelled 4 per cent to a record-high of $1 trillion. 

Analysts have suggested that the bank's wealth management unit will continue to thrive in the fourth quarter. 

It's a “very good quarter despite the difficulties in the trading business and I think that says a lot about [Morgan Stanley's] resilience and measures in their business model today,” JMP Securities analyst Devin Ryan told CNBC.