Morningstar 2011/2012 - (Page 44)
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Fund, Stock, and Credit Research
Thought Leadership at Morningstar Great ideas thrive at Morningstar. For more than 25 years, we’ve been pushing the boundaries by doing new research and developing innovative methodologies that address the current problems investors face.
Where many research firms stop, we’re just getting started—applying our discoveries to the heart of practical, real-world investment solutions. Our global staff of researchers and analysts is constantly at work on new ideas that help shape and inform the investment industry. Articles based on our research and published in the Financial Analysts Journal have earned the authors eight prestigious Graham and Dodd awards. We’re also a regular source of research and commentary for many major media outlets. No matter how challenging the topic, our goal has always been simple: to help individual investors—and the advisors and institutions that serve them—make informed investment decisions. Redefining risk and reward. At a time when many investors are uncertain about their financial futures and market volatility is becoming the norm, we’ve been hard at work to understand how the markets move and how best to respond. Most recently, Dr. Paul D. Kaplan, CFA, European quantitative research director, published Frontiers of Modern Asset Allocation, a new book that addresses many of these topics head-on. Building on 15 years of pivotal studies on equities, bonds, alternative investments, market volatility, and asset allocation, the book tackles the key issues investors face when putting asset allocation concepts into practice. Kaplan not only explains the theories and corrects common misconceptions— he introduces a powerful new framework for portfolio construction in the 21st century. Revealing the sources of return. In addition to broad economic principles, we’ve been closely studying the influence portfolio managers have on investment returns. With access to up-to-date full holdings data, we now trace the sources of investment success, sort and rank managers by sector allocation and security selection, and evaluate on a mass scale which decisions have the greatest effect on a portfolio’s performance. Institutions can use our software to tailor the analysis for private portfolios as well as those in Morningstar’s database. Clear, concise reports and graphics distill this information to help advisors and individuals better understand their investment opportunities. Investing in the future. In an age when you’re often only as good as your latest idea, our research teams work tirelessly to find breakthroughs that can have a lasting impact on investment practice. Whether that’s developing universal metrics and tools or new approaches to asset allocation, our objective is to make the investment process more transparent for investors and help them reach their financial goals. K
Recent Research Initiatives at Morningstar
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21st Century Asset Allocation
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100% 80 60 40
Attribution Analysis
Target-Date Research
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Globalized Fixed-Income Structure
Allocation Value EQ Growth EQ Equity Index Small Cap EQ Intl Equity Low Dur Bond Med Dur Bond Ext Dur Bond Global Bond TIPS Real Est Sec Cash 11 Other
European Style Indexes
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Among other essays, Paul Kaplan presents a new efficient frontier that better represents the trade-off between reward and risk in his “Markowitz 2.0” model.
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50 40 30 20 We’re now delivering Years Until Retirement attribution analysis, such as the decomposition of active return into sector allocation and stock selection effects, in our products.
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0 –10 Several papers reveal–20 the realities of target-date funds, covering topics like the instability of glide paths. Read more at: global.morningstar.com/ Research
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6 globalized our fixed-income sector structure for a more robust description of a fixed-income portfolio’s strategy and investments.
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We’ve introduced a family of pan-European style indexes to support style-based portfolio construction in response to the increasing economic integration in Europe.
http://global.morningstar.com/Research
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Morningstar 2011/2012
Morningstar 2011/2012
Table of Contents
Commonwealth Financial Network
The Hartford
ING
Transamerica
Institutional Software
Custom Software and Services
Investment Data, Market Data, and Indexes
Fund, Stock, and Credit Research
Advisory, Retirement, and Portfolio Management Services
Independent Advisor Software and Services
Financial Communications
Investor Websites and Publications
Morningstar 2011/2012
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