2026 Morningstar Investment Conference: From SpaceX to Safeguarding Retirement

Blackstone president Jon Gray and Morningstar CEO Kunal Kapoor tackled the rapidly evolving world of private markets. Retirement-planning experts Michael Finke and Dana Anspach sat down with Morningstar’s Christine Benz to troubleshoot retirement savings risks. Foreign-policy luminary Walter Russell Mead unpacked how complex global politics impact investors today.

That’s a sampling of the thought leaders featured at this year’s Morningstar Investment Conference at Chicago’s Navy Pier. As always, the roster also included some of the best fund managers in the industry.

Among them: Will Danoff, legendary manager of Fidelity Contrafund FCNTX, who will retire this year with one of the longest, strongest records ever. How did he do it? Danoff sat down with Morningstar manager research’s Robby Greengold to talk about Danoff’s investment process, lessons he’s learned, and his successful long-term investment in Meta Platforms META. Morningstar’s Amy Arnott, who first covered Contrafund as manager research analyst in the 1990s, draws conclusions from Danoff’s exceptional career.

The conference packed a lot of insights into two busy days. Morningstar manager research’s Dan Culloton pulled together the predominant themes. He concluded: “Attendees seemed warily optimistic—happy the markets and their portfolios have, so far, surfed a variety of shocks and threats, hopeful they can stay afloat, but beginning to wonder how long clement conditions will last.”

Check out the video interviews below with some of the in-house and outside experts who spoke this year. Join the conversation on X by following @MorningstarInc and use the hashtag #MICUS. Subscribe to Morningstar’s YouTube channel to find related content.

The Mega-IPO Pipeline

The week before SpaceX SPCX went public, Morningstar’s equity analyst team released a notably down-to-earth assessment of the company’s worth. Now trading well above its fair value estimate, the stock has a 1-star Morningstar Rating.

The private market promises the chance to get in on names like SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI before the public market boosts them to new heights. Morningstar had been following SpaceX long before its IPO through our subsidiary, PitchBook. At this year’s MIC, PitchBook research analysts presented a session on factoring venture capital exposure into your portfolio.

In last week’s episode of the Investing Insights podcast, PitchBook senior director Paul Condra explored whether this year’s headline IPOs are worth the attention of everyday investors.

That was one of seven private market sessions at the MIC this year, including Jason Kephart’s “Private Markets, Public Scrutiny: Meet the Managers Bringing Private Markets to Main Street.” Leaders from BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and Vanguard talked about the risks and rewards of bringing private market strategies to individual investors, including liquidity concerns, valuation questions, and the potential for enhanced returns. The main takeaway: private equity and credit should be approached in the same way as publicly traded stocks and bonds, with a focus on risks, fees, and overall portfolio outcomes.

Fixed-Income Frontiers

Private credit quality has weakened in 2026, with defaults and downgrades accelerating, a trend linked to AI concerns that have slammed software stocks, a favorite of private credit lenders.

A keynote session moderated by Morningstar manager research’s Brian Moriarty dug into the significant differences between private and public credit. Sonali Pier—recipient of a Morningstar Award for Investing Excellence for her work at Pimco Diversified Income PDIIX—was joined by counterparts at Blackstone and Cliffwater to assess the suitability of these assets for different investor types and what role private debt might play in a portfolio.

Investors who prefer to limit themselves to public credit aren’t limited to US bonds. Amid a changing global order and a weakening US dollar, analyst Saraja Samant led a panel discussion of fixed-income opportunities outside the US. As Morningstar’s Vikram Barhat reports, these top global fund managers find emerging-markets debt particularly attractive.

Ahead of the MIC, Samant spoke with panelist Anujeet Sareen of Brandywine Global about why US bond investors should look abroad.

In a recent interview with Morningstar, Sonal Desai, global chief investment officer for fixed income at Franklin Templeton, shared where she sees opportunities across select non-US bond markets.

Stock-Picking Across the Spectrum

Three topnotch dividend investors—Michael Barclay of Columbia Dividend Income GSFTX, Andrew Brandon of JPMorgan Equity Income HLIEX, and Ramona Persaud of Fidelity Equity-Income FEQIX—joined Morningstar manager research’s Todd Trubey to discuss today’s dividend landscape. (Persaud is also featured in a roundtable led by Trubey in the Q2 issue of Morningstar magazine.)

In “Global Investing for a New World Order,” equity managers from Capital Group, Causeway, and J.P. Morgan shared their strategies for navigating current political and economic shock waves. One attractive opportunity: the European defense sector, owing to a surge in defense spending.

“Beneath the Behemoths” featured managers from leading small-cap shops. Just like their big-cap brethren, small-cap stocks have seen narrowly concentrated gains, noted Miles Lewis, lead manager of Royce Small-Cap Total Return RYTRX. Lewis and fellow panelists Mike Valentine of Wasatch Core Growth WGROX and Scott Brayman of Champlain Small Company Fund CIPNX highlighted some of their favorite picks. (For more from Brayman, check out this interview from the Q4 2025 issue of Morningstar magazine.)

Meanwhile, Morningstar’s Dan Lefkovitz explored “Why Most Stocks Aren’t Worth Owning” with Hendrik Bessembinder of Arizona State University. There are, of course, ways to improve the odds of picking a stock worth owning. Morningstar equity analysts explained why moats and dividends are a strong combination, as regional director of equity research Damien Conover recently explained.

Any strategy requires ongoing due diligence—that’s one reason attendees return to the MIC year after year. In “What Scares Morningstar Research Analysts?” a panel of Morningstar manager research leaders shared the red flags that make them pause, probe further, or rule out a fund entirely. Director Andrew Daniels gave us an overview.

Many attendees joined a live taping of Investing Insights, where Morningstar specialists Bryan Armour and Dan Sotiroff explained why exchange-traded funds and collective investment trusts are challenging mutual funds.

In the final keynote of the conference, Morningstar manager research’s Bridget Hughes talked with David Booth, pioneer of index and factor investing, on his “Five Decades in the Markets.” Hughes’ conversation with the founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors will appear in the upcoming Q3 issue of Morningstar magazine.

This year’s MIC was vital for financial advisors “given the massive technological shifts and macroeconomic crossroads we are facing as investors,” says Sheryl Rowling. Rowling highlighted sessions on artificial intelligence and geopolitical uncertainty on the agenda.

Watch Morningstar’s investment conference site for details on MIC 2027.