CHICAGO, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Morningstar,
Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment
research, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the
annuity intelligence business of Advanced Sales and Marketing Corp.
(ASMC) based in Oakbrook Terrace,
Ill. Morningstar expects to complete the transaction in the
next few weeks. The purchase price is $14.1
million, subject to post-closing adjustments.
The Annuity Intelligence Report (AI Report), one of ASMC's two
product lines, is a web-based service that helps broker-dealers,
insurers, and the financial professionals they support better
understand and more effectively present variable annuity products
to their clients. The AI Report service leverages a proprietary
database of more than 1,000 variable annuities that includes
"plain-English" translations of complex but important information
found in prospectuses and other public filings. AI Report's
simplified format helps to better ensure that investors understand
what they are purchasing and that advisors are meeting suitability
review requirements and properly structuring annuity contracts. The
AI Report includes FINRA-reviewed single annuity and side-by-side
comparison reports as well as annuity flow data, a contract and
benefit selector tool, historical contract data, and optional
subaccount data.
The annuity intelligence business serves 170 firms, including
broker-dealers, banks, advisory firms, and insurance companies.
More than 150,000 financial advisors have access to the AI Report
through these firms.
ASMC also offers the MaxPlan wholesaler productivity system, a
business planning and territory management tool for mutual fund and
annuity distributors, which Morningstar is not acquiring.
"The Annuity Intelligence Report team has a deep knowledge of
variable annuities, and offers a leading service that helps
financial professionals provide better recommendations to their
clients while avoiding the errors and liabilities that are quite
common when selling and processing variable annuities," said
Chris Boruff, president of
Morningstar's software division. "By combining Morningstar's
strength in variable annuity subaccount data and modeling tools
with AI Report's product-level data, and proprietary methodologies,
we believe we're creating the best-of-breed offering for investors
and financial advisors."
"ASMC focuses on helping mutual fund companies, insurance
carriers, and broker-dealers become more productive," said
Karen (Falat) Larson, president and
founder of ASMC. "Morningstar's large presence in the advisor
channel and its history of investment research innovation will
enable the annuity intelligence business to bring new ideas to
market faster."
After the acquisition is completed, the annuity intelligence
business will become part of Morningstar's advisor software unit.
The company plans to keep the Annuity Intelligence Report product
name for the foreseeable future and will market it under the
Morningstar brand.
Kevin Loffredi, senior vice
president and co-founder of ASMC, will continue to manage the
annuity intelligence business. Morningstar expects to retain the
majority of the business's employees.
Karen Larson, president and
founder, and ASMC's chief executive officer, Perry Moore, will continue to run ASMC's
wholesaler productivity business under the new name MaxPlan
Solutions, Inc.
City Securities Corp. acted as financial advisor to ASMC on this
transaction.
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 360,000 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 21 countries.
About MaxPlan Solutions, Inc.
The remaining business under ASMC will change its name to
MaxPlan Solutions, Inc., a provider of strategic business planning
and territory management tools that serve both national sales
managers and wholesalers in the mutual fund and insurance
industry. For more information, contact MaxPlan Solutions,
Inc. at 800-597-8084 or visit http://www.maxplansolutions.com.
Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements as that
term is used in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. These statements are based on our current expectations about
future events or future financial performance. Forward-looking
statements by their nature address matters that are, to different
degrees, uncertain, and often contain words such as "may," "could,"
"expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe,"
"estimate," "predict," "potential," or "continue." These statements
involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause
the events we discussed not to occur or to differ significantly
from what we expected. For us, these risks and uncertainties
include, among others, general industry conditions and competition,
including current global financial uncertainty; the impact of
market volatility on revenue from asset-based fees; damage to our
reputation resulting from claims made about possible conflicts of
interest; liability for any losses that result from an actual or
claimed breach of our fiduciary duties; financial services industry
consolidation; a prolonged outage of our database and network
facilities; challenges faced by our non-U.S. operations; and the
availability of free or low-cost investment information. A more
complete description of these risks and uncertainties can be found
in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2009. If any of these
risks and uncertainties materialize, our actual future results may
vary significantly from what we expected. We do not undertake to
update our forward-looking statements as a result of new
information or future events.
©2010 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved.
MORN-C
Media Contacts:
|
|
Shawn Malayter, 312-696-6050
or shawn.malayter@morningstar.com
|
|
Margaret Kirch Cohen,
312-696-6383 or margaret.cohen@morningstar.com
|
|
|
|
Investors: Investors may submit
questions to investors@morningstar.com
or by fax to
312-696-6009.
|
|
|
SOURCE Morningstar, Inc.
Copyright . 21 PR Newswire