Medalist Rating (Overall)

The Morningstar Medalist Rating for funds is a forward-looking, qualitative rating. It helps investors find funds most likely to outperform their peers over a full market cycle. Morningstar expresses the rating on a five-tier scale running from Gold to Negative.

The Morningstar Medalist Rating for funds can include but is not limited to open-end funds, closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds, and separately managed accounts domiciled throughout the world. The Medalist Rating does not express a view on a given asset class or peer group; rather, it seeks to evaluate each strategy and associated vehicle within the context of an appropriate benchmark and peer group.

Morningstar assigns Morningstar Medalist Ratings at the vehicle level to accurately capture the impact of fee differences on expected net-of-fee alpha between different types of vehicles, including different share classes of the same fund. Morningstar’s research and academic studies have repeatedly shown that a vehicle’s ability to outperform erodes as fees become higher.

For actively managed funds, Morningstar assigns Gold, Silver, and Bronze ratings to vehicles expected to add value, or positive alpha, over the long term when compared with a relevant Morningstar Category index after accounting for fees and risk. For passive strategies, Morningstar assigns Gold, Silver, and Bronze ratings to vehicles expected to deliver alpha that exceeds the lesser of the category median net alpha, or zero, over the long term. (Morningstar defines “long term” as periods of at least five years.)