How FERI Powers Manager Research and Selection With Direct

For almost 40 years, FERI has been a leading multi-asset investment firm serving the German-speaking markets. FERI, which stands for Financial and Economic Research International, is well-known for blending first-class wealth and asset management services with innovative research.

For Michael Müller, director at FERI, his group is focused on all things relevant to manager research, from new manager selection to reviewing existing managers. How do the group do this? With performance reporting data available in Morningstar Direct.

“I’ve had a Direct account since 2008,” Müller notes. “It’s safe to say I’m very familiar with the application. I use it at least two or three times a week, and I’ve seen it grow and evolve over the years.

I joined FERI back in 2018. We use a quantitative screening process to discover and vet fund managers. We’ll look at data points like time series or performance series from the managers that I’ll then take and share with the wider group. We set up the screening in Direct, export the high-quality data into an Excel file, and then sort and filter based on the criteria we want to interrogate. We also explore how managers manage a portfolio, which is a big part of our quantitative analysis.

In my experience, I’ve found using Direct to be very efficient, which my colleagues and I value. Morningstar is an industry leader in fund data and solutions, so it’s integral to our manager research and selection operations—thanks to Direct, it is significantly easier for us to select managers." 

While Müller and his colleagues are pros when it comes to performance data, not all clients are as confident or concerned with the intricate details. How does Müller navigate this? With tailored presentations that speak directly to his clients' needs. For this, he turns to Morningstar Direct’s Presentation Studio.

“I remember using Presentation Studio back in 2009,” Müller reflects. “In the time since it has advanced rapidly. I can batch reports, export them, get all the graphs I need—there’s a thousand different possibilities when it comes to showing things. It’s consistent, accurate, and saves a lot of time when it comes to monthly reporting. 

When I present to clients, they’re typically most interested in performance reporting. So, the relative value or development of a fund or strategy versus the benchmark. But we also cover other aspects, like risk and the portfolio itself. When we screen or search different managers, we look at all types, from equity to fixed income.

If I’m working with an experienced investor with a lot of detailed knowledge, then my reports are quite intricate. We’ll go through the more complex datasets, like upside/downside capture ratio and so on. For less experienced clients, I’ll show the most important information, like a risk return diagram. It’s essential that my reports are pitched at the right level. 

Overall, my experience with Morningstar has been very positive. Whether it’s the data quality, platform functionality, or level of customer service, all these things enable us to carry out our manager research more efficiently.”

Michael Müller has not received any cash or non-cash compensation from Morningstar, directly or indirectly, in exchange for this client success story.