Morningstar expands investment services

Morningstar Investment Services, Inc., (MIS) today introduced a suite of new strategies to Morningstar Managed Portfolios, a fee-based discretionary investment management program offered exclusively through financial advisors. The strategies, which include active/passive, momentum ETF, and global tactical ETF portfolios, tap innovative methodologies developed by Ibbotson Associates, a world leader in asset allocation. MIS and Ibbotson are registered investment advisors within Morningstar's Investment Management division.

“We're thrilled to make the Ibbotson portfolios available to the more than 30,000 independent financial advisors who have access to the Morningstar Managed Portfolios platform,” said Jeffrey Ptak, president and chief investment officer of MIS. “Advisors have increasingly sought low-cost, active investing solutions that employ exchange-traded funds. We think they'll find plenty to like in the Ibbotson portfolios, which further broaden our lineup while putting Ibbotson's institutional capabilities within their clients' reach.”

Some asset classes, like small-cap and emerging markets equities, can present better opportunities for active managers than others, such as government bonds and large-cap equities. The five Ibbotson Active/Passive Portfolios use ETFs or indexed mutual funds in areas that are less ripe for active managers, and actively managed funds in realms where a talented portfolio manager is more likely to add value after taking risk into account. Broadly diversified and low cost, these portfolios are designed to bring investors the strength of both approaches

Momentum investing is a well-documented investing style that takes advantage of trends in investment returns. The five Momentum ETF Portfolios seek to exploit these patterns by systematically under- or over-weighting asset classes based on proprietary momentum signals developed by Ibbotson. The portfolios confer the benefits of low-cost, broadly diversified investing, but also rapidly adjust to evolving market conditions.