Named Manager Selection Services (MSS), the new unit is part of Morningstar Investment Management, which has more than $195m (£136m, €157m) in assets under advisement and management.
A Morningstar spokesperson says MSS delivers three services that are designed to deliver better outcomes to clients, help them reduce costs and comply with increasingly tough regulatory and governance pressures.
The MSS team will leverage Morningstar’s fund research and the analytical capabilities of its 116 manager research analysts and 107 investment management professionals worldwide, the spokesperson said.
Three offerings
Select Lists is the first offering, which is a collection of “best in class” lists of Morningstar rated funds across all main asset classes.
“The funds are collated by the Manager Selection Services team to give broad-based exposure to Morningstar rated funds,” the spokesperson said.
The second offering is Migration Services, which conducts “holistic analysis” of existing fund lists and provides recommendations with the aim of improving long-term investor outcomes.
Lastly, the Model Portfolio Service gives access to global, multi-asset portfolios created using Morningstar’s asset allocation and manager selection expertise.
“These model portfolios cover a range of risk categories and can be mapped directly to bespoke risk tolerance questionnaires or to Morningstar’s own robust risk tools,” the spokesperson said.
Post-Mifid II
Gavin Corr, director of MSS for Morningstar Investment Management Europe, said in a post-Mifid II world, financial institutions and advisers are increasingly looking to outsource fund selection and model portfolio management to third parties.
This is due to the increasing regulatory scrutiny, growing costs of having in-house investment capability and the relentless pressure on margins due to fee compression, Corr said.
“Leveraging the depth of our expertise around the globe, Manager Selection Services aims to alleviate those institutions and advisers of some of the pressures in fund selection and asset allocation, allowing them to enhance the service to their clients.”
