How Mount Ararat Financial Services is Transforming Wealth Management

Mount Ararat Financial Services proudly aims to focus on personalized, client-driven investment strategies. But when you have a multitude of clients with their own risk tolerances, preferences, and knowledge levels, how do you provide a unique experience while maintaining an environment of efficiency and continuous growth?

Mount Ararat Financial Services faced the challenge of ensuring their investment strategies aligned with their clients' unique values and preferences. Clients often have strong opinions about various factors—such as political, environmental, or social considerations—that influence their investment decisions. The firm needed a reliable tool to screen and research investments based on these diverse criteria, ensuring portfolios were tailored to meet individual client needs.

By leveraging Morningstar Direct’s robust data coverage and screening tools, David and his team can deliver highly personalized investment solutions. These capabilities allow the firm to generate reports and align portfolios with client preferences, whether they are driven by political, environmental, or other considerations, while also streamlining the research process to save time and enhance decision-making.

Over the past twelve years, Mount Ararat Financial Services CEO and Founder David Nanigian has developed financial expertise both in the classroom and for investor clients. Prior to starting his boutique private wealth advisory practice, David was an endowed professor of finance. And although academia is likely not the first use case that comes to mind when advisors consider financial services support platforms, Morningstar Direct played a key role in his faculty activities over the years at various institutions.

As an educator, David used Morningstar Direct to access comprehensive and reliable financial data for his research projects and assignments. He found that the application’s extensive database was valuable for academic purposes, but he also saw its potential as a powerful tool for his individual investor clients. He favors its user-friendly interface and in-depth analysis capabilities, portfolio attribution analysis, risk assessment tools, and customizable reporting.

Nowadays, David and his firm continue to use Morningstar Direct to create globally diversified portfolios of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds across the globe for their clients. “Morningstar Direct makes it easy to generate a report on funds' exposure to specific countries,” said David. “I simply go into local databases and then select the data points that indicate the percentage of a fund’s portfolio that is invested in other countries.”

The local databases are Mount Ararat Financial Services most-used feature.

Many clients are hesitant to invest in certain countries for a variety of ESG-related reasons, ranging from political repression to human rights issues. Morningstar Direct simplifies David’s ability to identify whether a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund’s country exposure is consistent with his clients’ values and beliefs. The ability to demonstrate this respect for their beliefs enables David to better develop strong relationships and build trust with his target clients.

“Looking ahead, I envision greater usage of Morningstar Direct in developing presentations for clients,” said David. “As my firm grows, I will likely hire an intern. One of the key job responsibilities of the intern will be to learn Morningstar Direct. Morningstar Direct will therefore play a key role in facilitating the professional growth and development of the intern.”

Beyond the usefulness of Direct itself, David acknowledged the excellent support of the Direct Customer Success team. Of the many resources available through Morningstar, from research to webinars, David can’t stress enough how current and future Direct users should leverage the resources of the Direct Customer Success team.

No matter how you screen investments or tailor portfolios to align with your clients' unique values, Morningstar Direct provides the data and tools you need to make informed decisions. With its robust data coverage and intuitive reporting features, you can streamline your processes, enhance efficiency, and build trust by aligning your strategies with what matters most to your clients.

Morningstar Direct is your partner in delivering exceptional value and strengthening client relationships. Start your journey today and see how Morningstar Direct can transform the way you manage wealth.

David Nanigian and Mount Ararat Financial Services have not received any cash or non-cash compensation from Morningstar, directly or indirectly, in exchange for this client success story.