Morningstar, Inc. has created a new wealth management segment, combining several divisions to provide a more comprehensive set of solutions for advisors and investors.
The Wealth Management Solutions group unites capabilities across Morningstar's divisions, including Morningstar's Investment Management group, portfolio management software Morningstar Office, investment data aggregator ByAllAccounts, and Morningstar.com.
“The advice industry is continuing to evolve, and technology is becoming more and more important and so, we feel bringing these pieces together and then investing in technology and services will deliver more value to advisors going forward,” said Daniel Needham, who has been appointed president of the new business.
Needham, who has served as president and chief investment officer of Morningstar's Investment Management group since 2015, said this new initiative is about bringing “Morningstar’s unique insights and investors’ first solutions into the advice workflow and the investor journey so that we can empower investor success.”
“We really value our partnership with financial advisors and independent RIAs," he said. "It’s really about working to help more of those advisors bring our best thinking and our best solutions into their practices so that they can help their clients."
The company also plans to integrate Praemium, the Australian company it agreed to purchase in December, into the group, pending regulatory approval, which Needham noted could happen in the second or third quarter. Praemium, which has operations in the U.K., the island of Jersey, Hong Kong, and Dubai, will be focused on similar capabilities as those in the U.S., Needham said, adding that there’s also capabilities that the U.S. team will be able to leverage in the U.S. markets.
As part of its wealth management expansion to advisors, Morningstar also has hired eight industry veterans to its Wealth Management Solutions leadership team.
Needham noted that Morningstar Investment Services plans to launch a direct indexing capability on its Turnkey Asset Management Platform later this year for advisors.