CHICAGO, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar Investment Management LLC, a leading provider of discretionary investment management and advisory services and a subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), announced today that it has launched its new advisor managed accounts platform. The platform aims to make it easier for Registered Investment Advisors (RIA) firms and their advisors to offer a managed accounts solution to their retirement plan clients.

This solution is designed so that participants receive personalized advice based on model portfolios aligned with the RIA firm's investment expertise and philosophies. It can also help the RIA firm generate new business opportunities and allows advisors to offer personalized advice in a scalable manner. The platform will be integrated with multiple recordkeepers to help ensure greater coverage within an advisor's existing book of business.  

"We believe participants can achieve a better retirement outcome by receiving investment and savings advice that is personalized to their specific situation," said Brock Johnson, president of global retirement and workplace solutions at Morningstar Investment Management. "By giving advisors and RIA firms the platform and flexibility they need to support a managed accounts offering, we can help even more participants make more informed investing decisions to help achieve the outcomes they seek."

CAPTRUST Financial Advisors is the first RIA firm to use the new platform, and Schwab Retirement Plan Services will be the first recordkeeper integrated into the service.  

"Personalized, one-on-one investment advice makes a huge difference, and Morningstar Investment Management's advisor managed accounts platform gives us another way to help affect the outcome for even more participants," said Scott Matheson, CAPTRUST's Defined Contribution Practice Leader. "The fact that it is recordkeeper agnostic is important to us, too, since we deliver participant advice to retirement plans across dozens of recordkeepers."

Although the advisor managed accounts platform puts the RIA firm in charge of the underlying investment models and fund decisions, it leverages the technologies, user interface, and methodologies that power Morningstar Investment Management's traditional managed accounts offering. As of Dec. 31, 2018, that offering was used by more than 1.4 million participants, 247,650 plans, and had $58.2 billion in assets under advisement and management. At the heart of this solution is Morningstar Investment Management's patented process that determines each participant's investment portfolio assignment based on their risk capacity.

About Morningstar's Investment Management group 
Morningstar's Investment Management group is a leading provider of discretionary investment management and advisory services. Guided by seven investment principles, the group is committed to focusing on its mission to design portfolios that help investors reach their financial goals. The group's global investment management team works as one to apply its disciplined investment process to all strategies and portfolios, bringing together core capabilities in asset allocation, investment selection, and portfolio construction. This robust process integrates proprietary research and leading investment techniques. As of Dec. 31, 2018, Morningstar's Investment Management group was responsible for more than $193 billion* in assets under advisement and management across North America, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific.

In addition to advisory services, the group's investment professionals build and manage model portfolios for financial advisors in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa to create strategies that incorporate a wide variety of investment objectives.

*Includes assets under management and advisement for Morningstar Investment Management LLC, Morningstar Investment Services LLC, Morningstar Investment Management Europe Ltd., Morningstar Investment Management Australia Ltd., Ibbotson Associates Japan, Inc., Morningstar Investment Management South Africa (PTY) LTD, and Morningstar Associates, Inc. all of which are subsidiaries of Morningstar, Inc. Advisory services listed are provided by one or more of these entities, which are authorized in the appropriate jurisdiction to provide such services.

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 products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, retirement plan providers and sponsors, and institutional investors in the private capital markets. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with more than $193 billion in assets under advisement and management as of Dec. 31, 2018. The company has operations in 27 countries. For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on Twitter @MorningstarInc.

©2019 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved.

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SOURCE Morningstar, Inc.