Morningstar to Offer New Retirement Service Platform

According to a news release, the new Retirement Manager will offer asset allocation guidance, mutual fund recommendations, professionally managed retirement accounts, and research and education. If an employer uses the complete Morningstar Retirement Manager, employees can utilize the service’s advice or delegate their portfolio management to Morningstar. Morningstar, a provider of retirement services to plan providers and employers, acquired mPower in July 2003.

In addition to this service, Morningstar will offer guidance, advice, and managed account service for individuals already in retirement, according to the announcement. This service will provide asset-management guidance to retirees.

Featured in the Retirement Manager, according to the news release, are:

• a Morningstar rating from one to five stars for the retirement portfolio to help investors gauge the effectiveness of their overall approach compared with Morningstar’s proposed strategy.The components of the investor’s strategy, including risks, investments, savings, and the ability to reach his or her goals, are each assigned distinct star ratings, which are combined to create an overall star rating for the entire retirement strategy.
• a new managed savings option that proposes a specific savings strategy and explains the benefits of automatic gradual increases to retirement savings
• simplified decisionmaking that makes easier the advice process for all types of investors, whether they prefer to delegate management or self-manage their accounts
• flexible Web navigation that offers users the ability to take immediate action to obtain Morningstar’s recommendations or, if they want more information before making a decision, they can explore an in-depth retirement strategy, fund information, and investment-related articles.
• extensive Morningstar research and education within each element of the investor’s personalized retirement investment strategy.

“When we acquired mPower last year, we immediately went to work to integrate our platforms to combine the best research, technology, and design from both of our service offerings,” said John Rekenthaler, president of Morningstar Associates, in a press release.   “The result is a powerful new retirement planning service that will help investors reach their goals, whether they want to implement Morningstar’s retirement strategies themselves or have Morningstar’s investment professionals do the work for them.”