Morningstar Advisor - October/November 2009 - 79

In the Loop New at Morningstar Morningstar Associates Europe Expands Portfolio Selections for Advisors On Sept. 1, Morningstar Associates Europe announced that it added five fund portfolios to its Portfolio Selections service for independent financial advisors and their clients. The portfolios offer financial advisors a risk-adjusted suite of funds that can meet a range of investment strategies for clients, such as very conservative, conservative, moderate, moderately aggressive, and aggressive. “Changing regulatory conditions are requiring independent financial advisors to have a sound basis and process for their investment advice [models],” said Joe Grause, director of international investment consulting for Morningstar Associates Europe. “Portfolio Selections helps IFAs create well-diversified portfolios for their clients, whilst supporting their regulatory obligations to adhere to well-defined investment selection practices.” Morningstar Associates Europe‘s Portfolio Selections is available through Morningstar Advisor Workstation or may be licensed to IFA networks and fund platforms. Morningstar Launches National Retirement Plan Service Directory addition to compiling information about public and private plans, we also culled information about providers that serve these plans. Our new directory is the first application of the work we’ve done on our pension, endowment, Morningstar to Provide Global Hedge Fund Data to Wall Street Journal Online in Europe, Asia On July 29, Morningstar announced that it now provides global hedge fund data to the European and Asian editions of The Wall Street Journal Online (WSJ.com). The agreement brings hedge fund data to WSJ.com users in Europe and Asia for the first time, and it enables a variety of search options to track and compare the performance and management of approximately 8,000 hedge funds and funds of hedge funds worldwide. and foundation database,” said Steve Deutsch, director of the Morningstar pension, endowment, and foundation database. A special research function allows users to review one-page reports on service providers. Each profile contains a summary of a firm’s services, client assets, top clients, and geographical concentration. Users can search the profiles by entering such criteria as provider name, plan name, region, state, or ZIP code. They can also sort providers by client assets or number of clients served. Deutsch added, “The multitude of companies serving public and private pension plans constitute a diverse and segmented market. This makes it challenging for plan sponsors to find impartial, comprehensive, and consolidated information in one database on important factors like the number of plans a provider serves or the size of the client base by assets. Our goal is to provide plan administrators and consultants with an objective resource for making better-informed decisions that will ultimately benefit plan participants.” To access the Retirement Plan Service Directory, register at http://rps.morningstar.com. Bevin Desmond, president of Morningstar’s international and institutional software divisions, said, “Key data on hedge funds can be hard to access, but our collaboration with WSJ.com allows users to research and analyze investments in this significant, yet often opaque asset class.” In February 2008, Morningstar began providing investor tools and international investment funds data to WSJ.com, including daily price and performance data for the fund listings service published in the European and Asian print editions of The Wall Street Journal. Morningstar’s hedge fund data is available in the Market Data Center of WSJ.com’s Europe and Asia editions. Only accredited investors, as defined in Rule 501 of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933, will be able to access the data, which is available at www.europe.wsj.com and www.asia.wsj.com. Morningstar recently launched a nationwide directory of retirement plan service providers. The Web-based Morningstar Retirement Plan Service Directory allows users to quickly screen across Form 5500 filings that plan sponsors make with the Department of Labor to find aggregate data about service provider assets, fees, and number of plans served. The directory includes expansive information on more than 5,000 investment managers, consultants, record-keepers, and actuaries, to name a few. “We began building a pension, endowment, and foundation database in the fall of 2008. In MorningstarAdvisor.com 79
http://www.WSJ.com http://www.WSJ.com http://www.WSJ.com http://www.WSJ.com http://www.europe.wsj.com http://www.asia.wsj.com http://rps.morningstar.com http://www.MorningstarAdvisor.com
Morningstar Advisor - October/November 2009

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