CHICAGO, Feb. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar, Inc.
(Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment
research, announced today an agreement with Interactive Data
Corporation, a leading provider of independent fixed income
evaluations and reference data, to supply individual bond
information to Morningstar's advisor software products. The bond
universe will be available next month in Morningstar® Advisor
Workstation(SM), the research and investment planning software
platform used by roughly one out of every four financial advisors
in the United States, and in April
in Morningstar Office(SM), a
portfolio management solution for independent advisors.
Morningstar will now feature reports and research on more than
1.3 million individual bonds, including corporate, government and
municipal issues. It represents the first time an advisor software
platform has offered comprehensive bond data alongside underlying
holdings-based analytics for multi-security portfolios.
"For the longest time, individual bond data was the missing
piece of the puzzle in advisor software solutions," said
Melinda Sgariglia, vice president of
broker/dealer solutions for Morningstar. "With Interactive Data's
coverage of the bond universe, advisors using Advisor Workstation
or Morningstar Office can now
incorporate bonds into their client portfolio reports to gain a
full, holistic view of an investor's holdings."
"We are pleased to be able to provide a wide range of fixed
income data and evaluations to Morningstar for integration into
their advisor software products," said Jean
Aiken, vice president, business development group for
Interactive Data. "The availability of our depth of descriptive
market data and independent evaluations on Morningstar's platform
provides advisors with advanced capabilities for analyzing
portfolio information."
Advisors will be able to use Morningstar's investment database
to search, screen, and sort bond information and create Investment
Detail Reports™ on individual bonds, which will contain up to 10
years of performance history so that advisors can evaluate how the
bond issue has weathered a variety of market conditions. Advisors
can also use the report's bond issue details and risk exposure to
evaluate the bond's role within a portfolio and compare against
other bond issues.
Once the bond data is available, when advisors import their
client portfolios from third-party integration partners into
Advisor Workstation or Morningstar
Office, the software will automatically recognize the fixed
income securities in those portfolios, saving time and resources by
eliminating the need to manually map the security or assign a
less-accurate proxy.
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 bond universe will
be initially available through the Clients & Portfolios and
Research modules, with availability in the Hypotheticals and
Planning modules later in 2011.
Morningstar Office is a global
practice and portfolio management platform for independent
financial advisors and wealth managers. This single, all-inclusive
platform is designed to support the core aspects of an advisor's
practice. It features portfolio management and performance
reporting, advanced research capabilities, sophisticated investment
planning, and intuitive customer relationship management (CRM)
tools for batch reporting and secure communications using the
platform's Client Web Portal and document vault. Morningstar Office users also have the option to
outsource all of their account management and reconciliation with
Morningstar® Back Office Services(SM).
For more information, please visit
http://global.morningstar.com/bonds.
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 370,000 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 26 countries.
About Interactive Data Corporation
Interactive Data Corporation is a trusted leader in financial
information. Thousands of financial institutions and active
traders, as well as hundreds of software and service providers,
subscribe to the company's fixed income evaluations, reference
data, real-time market data, trading infrastructure services, fixed
income analytics, desktop solutions, and web-based solutions.
Interactive Data's offerings support clients around the world with
mission-critical functions, including portfolio valuation,
regulatory compliance, risk management, electronic trading, and
wealth management. Interactive Data is headquartered in
Bedford, Mass. and has more than
2,400 employees in offices worldwide. Pricing, evaluations and
reference data are provided in the U.S. through Interactive Data
Pricing and Reference Data, Inc. and internationally through
Interactive Data (Europe) Ltd. and
Interactive Data (Australia) Pty
Ltd.
For more information, please visit www.interactivedata.com
©2011 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved.
MORN-P
Media Contact:
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Shawn Malayter,
312.696.6050, shawn.malayter@morningstar.com
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Brian Willinsky,
781.687.8291, brian.willinsky@interactivedata.com
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SOURCE Morningstar, Inc.