For the first time Goldman Sachs has ended the year with more money-management fees than its rival Morgan Stanley. According to Bloomberg News, GS finished fiscal 2005 with $2.96 billion in fees, compared with $2.91 billion for Morgan Stanley. That small difference, however, doesn't reflect a major chasm developing between these two firms and others like them, says Bloomberg News, noting that growth rate at the likes of Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and JPMorgan Chase was twice that of Morgan Stanley's last year. Many of the faster-growing firms, it says, are building up their asset-management coffers by relying more on alternative investments and less on mutual funds, which Morgan Stanley still does. France's Credit Agricole, for example, credits 60% of its growth in the last six years or so to absolute-return products. "The asset managers who have remained classical investors have seen limited growth," Bruno Crastes, Credit Agricole's CEO told Bloomberg News.