that is when you are wrong. when you reach the Senior rank onwards, they will start to identify people to be groomed into potential managers. To sought an "account" on your own is almost guaranteed to become a manager since that is your job when you become one. Not having one means you need to wait and see if they could assign a new or existing one to you. This is a reason why only a limited number of people can become a manager each year since you need to be really good in bringing money for the firm instead of waiting for someone to put it on a plate for you. Thus most of the time people who stayed long would leave at S3 (AM) level since they are not capable of getting accounts under them and thus could not be promoted.