Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq:MORN), a leading provider of independent
investment research, today launched a complete upgrade of
Morningstar® Advisor Workstation(SM), its research and investment
planning software platform used by roughly one out of every four
financial advisors in the United States.
Morningstar Advisor Workstation provides financial advisors with
investment planning, client presentation, portfolio analysis, and
investment research tools. It is licensed to and through
institutions such as broker/dealers, custodians, and clearing firms
as a web-based modular platform designed to work with a firm's
other back-office systems and applications. The new version
includes all of the elements of the original, but incorporates the
latest web technology with interface and usability improvements.
Based on years of user feedback, Morningstar has designed a new
user interface with more intuitive navigation, a home page, and
dozens of new features to increase usability, allowing advisors to
work smarter and manage their workflow more efficiently.
"We've listened to the industry, and we're investing in
significant technology upgrades, adding features to a refreshed
Advisor Workstation that better serves advisors' needs," said
Melinda Sgariglia, vice president of broker/dealer solutions at
Morningstar. "Also, our new design and infrastructure will enhance
our ability to make future developments to the platform."
Based on feedback from current clients and requests from
prospective clients, Morningstar has designed capabilities to help
advisors optimize their experience. One of the most requested new
features Morningstar added is the ability for Advisor Workstation
users to work collaboratively with their peers, either within a
group office or across multiple offices, via a new file sharing
feature. Through file sharing, any record or file in Advisor
Workstation that can be saved can also be shared with a colleague
who is a registered user, and advisors can customize the
permissions to each user and file.
The home page has a number of features to help advisors work
more efficiently, including the ability to personalize the page's
view to meet their needs. A quick-start feature allows
advisors to launch their most frequently-used tools with one click,
while a top securities list provides the latest, at-a-glance
performance statistics for securities used most frequently in the
practice. Advisors can now generate popular reports like Investment
Detail Reports and Quicktakes directly from the home page and they
can prominently display their most recently modified files for easy
access. A number of market-monitoring tools such as the
Morningstar Market Barometer, a tool that provides instant analysis
of market trends by Morningstar style index, can be displayed as
well.
Advisor Workstation is still built on a modular platform that
allows firms to configure to their specifications. The core
capabilities of Advisor Workstation's five existing modules have
not changed, but Morningstar has added many functionality and
usability improvements:
The Clients & Portfolios Module now allows advisors to
create portfolios with far fewer steps in a uniform, streamlined
workflow, and advisors can create a library of model portfolios.
Advisors can now zoom in on specific clients among their customer
base—searching by targeted criteria such as zip code or amount of
assets—and new on-screen portfolio views offer more visually
compelling analytics.
The Research Module now offers streamlined search logic to help
advisors find securities faster, the ability to view four times as
many on-screen results as in the current version of Advisor
Workstation, and a new "All Securities" universe that permits
searches and lists across investment types. New investment
universes will also be available, beginning immediately with
offshore funds. Hedge funds, preferred stocks and UITs will be
available as optional universes by early 2011.
The Hypotheticals Module, which creates real-world illustrations
of past security and portfolio performance, now features the
ability to generate reports at any step in the illustration
process, new reports focused on distributions and withdrawals, and
a "Rolling Returns" option to illustrate the impact of long-term
investing.
The new Planning Module, available early in the third quarter,
will feature improved asset allocation and efficient frontier
capabilities while the Defined Contribution Module, available in
the fourth quarter, features a streamlined workflow for building
plan lineups and reports.
Morningstar is also developing two new Advisor Workstation
modules that the company expects to be available as integrated
capabilities in early 2011. The Real-Time Module, powered by
Morningstar QuoteSpeed(TM), features real-time market data and news
from dozens of international and U.S. sources, covering all major
equity exchanges and indexes, as well as foreign exchange and
Treasury markets. Coverage will also include futures, options,
commodities, and precious metals. The Analyst Research Module will
deliver Morningstar's independent perspective, consistent
methodology, and actionable insight for stocks, funds, ETFs, and
IPOs. Advisors will also be able to access Morningstar analyst
reports, watch videos, view data pages with key financial and
historical information, and read insightful articles.
New Advisor Workstation clients will be launched on the 2.0
platform while existing clients will migrate to it over the next 18
months, based on a migration schedule Morningstar is establishing
with each client.
For more information, please visit
http://global.morningstar.com/workstation.
About Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent
investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.
The company offers an extensive line of Internet, software, and
print-based products and services for individuals, financial
advisors, and institutions. Morningstar provides data on
approximately 350,000 investment offerings, including stocks,
mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global
market data on more than 4 million equities, indexes, futures,
options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign
exchange and Treasury markets. The company has operations in 20
countries and minority ownership positions in companies based in
two other countries.
The Morningstar, Inc. logo is available at
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=7276
©2010 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved.
MORN - P
CONTACT: Morningstar, Inc.
Media Contact:
Shawn Malayter
312.696.6050
shawn.malayter@morningstar.com
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