Purcell is truly laughing all the way from the bank, to the bank, with an awesome golden parachute following his resignation from the firm. Greenspan's earnings of $200,000 are simply petty cash. Morgan Stanley even plans to pay $250,000 in charitable donations a year, in Purcell's name! 

The board of Morgan Stanley has approved an award to Purcell, who resigned following months of controversy about the direction of the firm, of an exit package worth an estimated $113.7 million.

The disclosure on Thursday in a regulatory filing, came days after the report that Purcell's successor John Mack agreed a contract worth at least $25 million a year - or as much as the average of four of his high-paid Wall Street investment banking peers.

Purcell's golden parachute contains a cornucopia of goodies. 

Despite the fall in earnings in the second quarter of the year, Purcell gets a departure bonus worth $42.7 million. The cash payment, which was not in his original contract, is based on a formula that adjusts the bonus up or down depending on the difference between Morgan Stanley's fiscal 2005 and 2004 pre-tax profit. Morgan Stanley's pre-tax profit is down about 6 percent this year.

Purcell gets $34.7 million of restricted stock and an estimated $20.1 million in stock options, based on Thursday's closing share price of $53.34 and he gets retirement benefits with a lump-sum value around $11 million.

In addition to medical benefits, $250,000 in lieu of other benefits and an office and administrative and secretarial expenses every year for the rest of his life, Morgan Stanley will make $250,000 in charitable donations a year in his name. Purcell will be spared writing his own charity cheques.

The exit agreement also has a non-competition clause that seeks to dissuade the 61-year old Purcell from joining one of 12 large financial services companies. However, the contract does not prevent him from taking a job at a hedge fund, consulting firm or private equity firm.

A Morgan Stanley spokesman has been quoted as saying that the agreement is "fair, appropriate to the circumstances and consistent with past practice."

The Morgan Stanley board which had slavishly supported Purcell during months of turmoil, has also agreed to new employment contracts with two top executives, including Stephen Crawford, who along with Zoe Cruz, were key supporters of Purcell during the campaign for his ouster as head of the firm, by former executives and shareholders.

A company spokesman said the agreements "resulted from discussions the board undertook following the announcement of Mr. Purcell's decision to retire, in order to ensure management stability through the CEO search process and transition."

Purcell ensured a payback for loyalty and Crawford, who was appointed co-president of Morgan Stanley after a management shake-up last March, agreed to a contract guaranteeing him at least $16 million a year for each of the next two fiscal years. If he is terminated for good reason at any time, or if he simply decides to resign from now to August 3rd, he will receive $32 million.

The New York Times says that Paul Hodgson, a senior compensation analyst at the Corporate Library, described Morgan Stanley's contract negotiations with incoming CEO John Mack as an "ice cream war" between children, where one wants as much as the other. "Except that, in this case," he said, "somebody seems to have got the whole ice cream factory.

"This is surely not the way mature executives and mature boards should behave," he added.

Hodgson's views of the Purcell bonanza have not been publicly aired but if Mack ended with the "whole ice cream factory," Purcell gets Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, a platinum meal ticket for life and contributions to charity paid by his former employer!