Morningstar Inc. announced today it has acquired ByAllAccounts, which aggregates data for financial advisors and many others, for $28 million.

ByAllAccounts, based in Woburn, Mass., collects and consolidates financial account data and delivers it to virtually any platform. It has a network of more than 2,100 clients, 4,300 custodians and 40 platform and service providers. Clients include independent financial advisors, asset managers, wealth managers/family offices, trust companies and broker-dealers. Currently, more than $730 billion in assets move daily through the ByAllAccounts aggregation engine.

Joe Mansueto, chairman and chief executive officer of Chicago-based Morningstar, said the company expects the acquisition, in particular, will allow it to provide better ways to support advisors' workflow.

"The ability to efficiently provide a holistic view of an investor’s total financial portfolio is now a requirement for wealth managers — not a ‘nice to have’ capability. ByAllAccounts is a trusted name with a reputation for high-quality and sophisticated aggregation technology that eliminates manual data entry and mitigates human error," Mansueto said in a release.
 
ByAllAccounts has about 60 employees. James Carney, president and CEO, will continue to lead the business. “Becoming part of Morningstar will broaden our distribution and give us access to its breadth of capabilities, including its vast investment data expertise," Carney said. "As investment vehicles become increasingly global in nature, Morningstar’s international operations will also allow us to respond to the growing need for data aggregation outside the United States.”