A Global Guide to Strategic-Beta Exchange-Traded Products

Since we introduced our guide to strategic-beta ETPs in 2014, the space has evolved dramatically, resulting in the need for refined taxonomy and attributes that fully reflect the products’ nuances. With this enhanced lens in place, investors are able to explore the products and distinguish specific groups. This year’s guide puts the new approach into practice to provide comprehensive insights into the state of the strategic-beta ETP environment.

Morningstar Research | May, 2020

Global Sustainable Fund Flows Report

In light of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Morningstar researchers examined how ESG funds held up in the market downturn. This report looks at recent activity in the global sustainable funds universe and details regional flows, assets and launches for the first quarter of 2020.

Morningstar Research | May, 2020

U.S. Fee Study - 2020

Fees hit record lows again in 2019. Our report unpacks the trends behind the numbers.

Morningstar Research | May, 2020

529 College-Savings Plan Landscape - 2020

Between ongoing tuition inflation, fee variation, new legislation, and a stressed economic environment, today’s college savers face a confluence of challenges. In our annual report, we explore how the overall universe of 529 plans is addressing these challenges and how individual plans are distinguishing themselves.

Morningstar Research | May, 2020

The Power of Dialogue - Asset Manager Reporting on Climate-Risk Engagements

Engagement is a key way that investors address sustainable investing concerns about the companies they invest in. What can asset manager reporting on climate-risk engagements tell investors about a firm’s approach to stewardship? To find out, our research team surveyed climate-related engagement disclosures by 20 large asset managers in Europe and the U.S.

Morningstar Research | Apr, 2020

U.S. Markets Observer - Q2 2020

Get new and timely macroeconomic and market data you can use with clients to discuss trends, set appropriate risk and return expectations, and explain investor behavior in this quarterly collection of charts and analysis.

Morningstar Research | Apr, 2020

U.S. Markets Observer - Q4 2019

Get new and timely macroeconomic and market data you can use with clients to discuss trends, set appropriate risk and return expectations, and explain investor behavior in this quarterly collection of charts and analysis.

Morningstar Research | Dec, 2019

Morningstar Prospects - December 2019

Get new and timely macroeconomic and market data you can use with clients to discuss trends, set appropriate risk and return expectations, and explain investor behavior in this quarterly collection of charts and analysis.

Morningstar Research | Dec, 2019

Mind The Gap - Global - 2019

Our research shows that investor return gaps, caused by errors in timing of subscriptions and withdrawals, are decreasing across markets. Specifically, Australian investors benefit the most from the gap. The global Mind the Gap report digs into investor return gaps in key markets around the globe and analyzes the factors contributing to each region’s trends.

Morningstar Research | Nov, 2019

Mind The Gap - 2019

Prior studies of core menu size in defined contribution plans found that smaller menus improve employee participation rates by reducing choice overload. However, the widespread adoption of automatic enrollment and default investments requires revisiting this research to determine its continued relevancy. This paper explores the relationship between core menu size and participant-investment decisions.

Morningstar Research | Nov 12, 2019

Bigger Is Better: Defined Contribution Menu Choices With Plan Defaults

Morningstar’s latest annual investor returns study has found that the gap between official total returns and those actually experienced by investors across all mutual funds has shrunk to 26 basis points over the 10 years that ended March 2018.

Morningstar Research | Nov, 2019

The Impact of Managed Accounts on Participant Savings and Investment Decisions

A managed accounts service can help guide employees on how much save, how to invest their savings, and when to retire. In this paper, we explore the impact managed accounts can have on participants’ savings and investing habits based on whether they’re on track to meet their retirement goals and whether they built their own portfolios (or picked from portfolios already built) before entering a managed accounts service.

Morningstar Research | Jan 22, 2019

The Health Savings Account Landscape–2019

In this report, we evaluate 11 of the largest HSA providers to help provide clarity to investors about this often opaque and evolving space.

Leo Acheson | October 1, 2019

Morningstar Direct U.S. Asset Flows Update–August 2019

Conduct competitive analysis, develop new products, and market managed investments using our comprehensive estimated asset flow and updated market share data.

Kevin McDevitt | September 18, 2019

Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer–August 2019

The Morningstar Active/Passive Barometer is a semiannual report that measures the performance of U.S. active managers against their passive peers within their respective categories.

Ben Johnson | September 12, 2019

Fund Family 150 Highlights–August 2019

The Morningstar Fund Family 150 is a semiannual publication that gives you access to the same analytical rigor our own analysts use to keep tabs on the 150 largest fund families in the United States.

Morningstar Research Services | August 30, 2019

Morningstar Direct U.S. Asset Flows Update–July 2019

Conduct competitive analysis, develop new products, and market managed investments using our comprehensive estimated asset flow and updated market share data.

Kevin McDevitt | August 14, 2019

Morningstar Prospects List–June 2019

Get the scoop on our list of up-and-coming or under-the-radar strategies that Morningstar Manager Research thinks may be worthy of full coverage in the future.

Chris Franz | July 22, 2019

Morningstar Direct U.S. Asset Flows Update–June 2019

Conduct competitive analysis, develop new products, and market managed investments using our comprehensive estimated asset flow and updated market share data.

Kevin McDevitt | July 16, 2019

ETF Managed Portfolios Landscape - Q2 - 2018

Our ETF Managed Portfolios Landscape Report breaks down the strategies impacting this space, how these strategies are performing against the benchmark, and how specific firms fit into these trends.

Ben Johnson | June 18, 2019

2019 Target-Date Fund Landscape

Target-date funds saw significant increases in 2018, lifting assets in mutual funds and collective investment trusts to more than $1.7 trillion. In this paper, we uncover how components like investment process, fund managers, and firm performance impact target-date strategies.

Jeff Holt | May 09, 2019

Morningstar Markets Observer–Q1 2019 Data

Get timely macroeconomic and market data you can use with clients to discuss trends, set appropriate risk and return expectations, and explain investor behavior in this quarterly collection of charts and analysis.

Brian Deignan | Apr 30, 2019

Annual U.S. Fund Fee Study–2019

In Morningstar’s latest U.S. Fund Fee Study, our analysts unpack the investor and industry trends contributing to these market developments and provide a detailed look into various elements of the fee landscape.

Ben Johnson | Apr 30, 2019

Morningstar Sustainability Atlas

Examine the sustainability profiles of Morningstar’s 46 equity market indexes using company-level environmental, social, and governance scores.

Valerio Baselli | Apr 15, 2019

Gender and Diversity Funds: Intentional or Not?

We examine certain funds that have a primary focus on gender diversity and the conviction behind these funds. What we found suggests that there are varying degrees of intentionality.

Madison Sargis, Jackie Cook | Apr 01, 2019

Global Automotive Observer

We expect global light-vehicle demand to moderate in 2019, but this may decline if Europe and the U.K. fall into recession due to a no-deal Brexit or an international trade war arises. Morningstar's latest Automotive Observer offers a detailed look at the global automotive industry’s 2019 forecast.

Richard Hilgert | Mar 13, 2019

Market-Driven Scenario Analysis for Investment Research

We recently launched the Market-Driven Scenario Analysis tool to help investors, advisors, and analysts assess the impact that a market shock to the S&P 500, oil prices, or the price of an individual stock would have on portfolio returns, factor exposures, and volatilities.

Chau Pham, Michael O'Leary | Mar 13, 2019

A Global Guide to Strategic-Beta Exchange-Traded Products

Since we introduced our guide to strategic-beta ETPs in 2014, the space has evolved dramatically, resulting in the need for refined taxonomy and attributes that fully reflect the products’ nuances. This year’s guide puts the new approach into practice to provide the most comprehensive insights into the state of the strategic-beta ETP environment.

Alex Bryan | Mar 12, 2019

Fund Family 150 Highlights–Q4 2019

The Morningstar Fund Family 150 is a semiannual publication that gives you access to the same analytical rigor our own analysts use to keep tabs on the 150 largest fund families in the United States.

Morningstar Research Services | Feb 22, 2019

A New Perspective on Geographical Diversification: Revenue Exposure by Region

Morningstar’s new Revenue Exposure by Region tool can lead to improved outcomes for investors by providing detailed insights into the global makeup of equity indexes and portfolios. This paper is a first step in helping investors understand and incorporate geographic revenue sources into portfolio construction.

Morningstar Manager Research | Feb 19, 2019

Sustainable Funds U.S. Landscape Report

In our annual Landscape Report, Morningstar’s ESG research team examines the growth, performance, and changing nature of this emerging fund group.

Jon Hale | Feb 11, 2019

The Proxy Process: Raising the Investor Voice to Address New Risks

As the 2019 U.S. proxy season approaches, there’s a new wave of interest in proxy voting and stewardship. We look at how shareholder resolutions offer insightful perspective on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks.

Morningstar Manager Research | Feb 08, 2019

Quantitative Analytics Quarterly: A New Way to Identify Competitors

In this report, we introduce Morningstar Equity Comparables, a new data point that indicates the level of similarity between companies using a machine-based learning approach.

Taylor Hess | Feb 07, 2019

Morningstar’s European Active/Passive Barometer–February 2019

The Morningstar European Active/Passive Barometer is a semiannual report that measures the performance of European active managers against their passive peers within their respective categories.

Dimitar Boyadzhiev | Feb 07, 2019

Morningstar’s Active/Passive Barometer–February 2019

The Morningstar Active/Passive Barometer is a semiannual report that measures the performance of U.S. active managers against their passive peers within their respective categories.

Ben Johnson, Adam McCullough | Feb 07, 2019

2018 Global Fund Flows Report

Our annual report analyzes the flows that investors placed in global open-end funds and exchange-traded products. We look at what these trends reveal about investor preferences and behavior.

Kevin McDevitt | Feb 06, 2019

Preparing for a Low Carbon Economy

The Morningstar® Low Carbon Risk Index Family^SM provides diversified exposure to equities across regions, emphasizing companies that are aligned with the transition to the low-carbon economy. The indexes go beyond carbon footprinting, which reflects current emissions and represents just a starting point in an analysis of carbon risk.

Jon Hale, Dan Lefkovitz | Jan 30, 2019

Morningstar U.S. Prospects–December 2018

Discover up-and-coming or under-the-radar strategies in a quarterly list that our manager research analysts think may be worthy of full coverage in the future.

Christopher Franz | Jan 22, 2019

Morningstar Direct European Asset Flows Update–November 2018

Conduct competitive analysis, develop new products, and market managed investments using our comprehensive estimated asset flow and updated market share data.

Valerio Baselli and Ali Masarwah | Dec 20, 2018

Securities Lending: An Examination of the Risks and Rewards

Securities-lending programs' contribution to performance and potential to differentiate increasingly commoditized funds have come into sharper focus. In this paper, we explain why we believe the benefits of securities lending to fundholders outweigh the risks.

Adam McCullough | Dec 12, 2018

Brexit: A Morningstar View

This report on Brexit compiles key insights from Morningstar. We examine the impact of possible Brexit outcomes on investors and what investors should do now.

Emma Wall | Dec 10, 2018

Your KID’s First-Term Report

This paper examines the requirements of Key Information Documents (KIDs) and makes focused recommendations on how they could be improved.

Andy Pettit | Nov 22, 2018

The Health Savings Account Landscape–2018

Investors have few resources available to help them compare the hundreds of health savings account providers that exist. To provide a comprehensive resource about HSAs for investors, we evaluated 10 of the largest HSA providers.

Leo Acheson | Nov 12, 2018

Quantitative Analytics Quarterly: 3 Ways to Skin a Scenario

Scenario analysis is an essential tool for managing long-term expectations and exploring shorter-term volatility. We run a market event through our scenario analysis tools to examine the impact of user-defined constraints on portfolio returns.

Chau Pham, Michael O'Leary | Oct 25, 2018

The Effects of the Retail Distribution Review on Fund Fees in the UK

We look at the impact the RDR has had on open-end fund fees against the backdrop of the rise of passive investing, using a sample of funds that encompass the most commonly sought market exposures, from the viewpoint of a UK investor.

Jackie Beard | Oct 15, 2018

A Framework for Evaluating Strategic-Beta Bond Funds

Evaluate approaches to the portfolio construction processes for strategic-beta fixed-income funds using our framework.

Alex Bryan, Jose Garcia-Zarate | Oct 03, 2018

How Long Can a Factor-Based Portfolio Underperform?

We apply the concept of Longest Underperformance Period to factor-based portfolios and show that even factor-based portfolios that outperform over the long haul can have shockingly long stretches of underperformance.

Maciej Kowara, Paul Kaplan | Sep 17, 2018

How Does Sustainability Impact Investor Decisions?

Our quantitative research team attempts to decompose investor preferences for sustainable funds by examining the relationship between monthly fund flows and three Morningstar fund-level characteristics.

Madison Sargis, Dan Kleeman | Aug 17, 2018

Robo-Advisor Upgrade! Installing a Program for Profitability: Digital Advice Raises Profits for Investment Services Industry

Robo-advisors are developing new strategies to overcome faults with their original business model. We assess robo-advisors in light of evolving business models and conclude that select-robo advisors have a viable path to profitability.

Michael Wong | Jul 05, 2018

Mind the Gap 2018, U.S.

Morningstar’s latest annual investor returns study has found that the gap between official total returns and those actually experienced by investors across all mutual funds has shrunk to 26 basis points over the 10 years that ended March 2018.

Russel Kinnel | Jun 12, 2018

Quantitative Analytics Quarterly: What Factors Drive Investment Flows?

Over the past three years, investors preferred more established funds at a higher rate than the previous period studied. Our report also shows that performance is less of a driver of flows than three years ago.

Madison Sargis, Lee Davidson | May 22, 2018

Finding Bond Funds That Can Beat Their Benchmarks After Fees

Typical active fixed-income fund managers struggle to beat the fund’s benchmark after fees. We look at historical excess returns distributions for funds in 25 Morningstar fixed-income categories to learn what drives underperformance.

Mara Dobrescu, Matias Möttölä | May 08, 2018

Measuring Transition Risk in Fund Portfolios: The Morningstar Portfolio Carbon Risk Score

Understanding the risks posed by climate change can help investors make better decisions. The Morningstar® Portfolio Carbon Risk Score^TM is a new metric that investors can use to evaluate carbon risk at the portfolio level. The scores can be used to compare funds with each other and with their benchmarks.

Jon Hale | May 01, 2018

Annual U.S. Fund Fee Study–2018

Our manager research analysts evaluate the cost of U.S. mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Morningstar's database and identify the latest fund fee trends in this annual study.

Patricia Oey | Apr 26, 2018

How Long Can a Good Fund Underperform Its Benchmark?

Funds that outperformed their benchmarks had also trailed that benchmark for an average of nine to 12 years sometime during that period, according to our study.

Maciej Kowara, Paul Kaplan | Mar 20, 2018

Fund Managers by Gender: Through the Performance Lens

Morningstar began formally studying fund managers by gender in 2015 after observing anecdotally that women are underrepresented in the fund industry. We looked at fund managers' performance by gender to see if the results help explain why there are so few fund managers who are women.

Madison Sargis, Kathryn Wing | Mar 08, 2018

Stop Guessing: Using Participant Data to Select the Optimal QDIA

We present a framework for using participant data to help determine which type of qualified default investment alternative, or QDIA, may be most appropriate for a plan.

Tom Idzorek, David Blanchett | Jan 30, 2018

Passive Fund Providers Take an Active Approach to Investment Stewardship

To better understand the investment stewardship activities of index managers, we surveyed the largest providers of index funds and exchange-traded funds across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Hortense Bioy, Alex Bryan | Dec 06, 2017

Morningstar Global Fund Investor Experience Study 2017

We created the Morningstar’s Global Fund Investor Experience to encourage a dialogue about best practices for mutual funds from the perspective of fund shareholders. This year we cover 25 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Anthony Serhan | Oct 09, 2017

The Aftermath of Fund Management Change

How does the typical fund fare after a management change, and how do investors react? Our research explores what impact management change has, if any, in a fund’s future performance.

Madison Sargis, Kai Chang | Jul 24, 2017

The Default Investment Decision: Weighing Cost and Personalization

When it comes to selecting a plan default investment, there are a number of factors to consider. Managed accounts typically come at a higher cost than target-date funds, but have the potential to deliver a higher level of personalization.

David Blanchett | Jun 07, 2017

The Fall of Funds: Why Some Funds Fail

Full fund closures can have significant negative consequences for investors. To better understand fund closures and their potential impact, we explored the factors leading to fund liquidations and mergers.

Madison Sargis, Lee Davidson | May 31, 2017

Fund Managers by Gender: The Global Landscape

Since 2015, we’ve studied where women have made progress or stepped backward within the fund industry. In this paper, we examined 26,000+ funds registered in 56 countries to learn what women are managing in financial markets globally.

Madison Sargis, Laura Pavlenko Lutton | Nov 28, 2016

Building Better Core Menus in the Age of Default Investments

With the mass adoption of default investment solutions in retirement plans, the type of investor that uses the core retirement plan menu has changed. Many participants are defaulted into solutions such as target-date funds and managed accounts.

David Blanchett, Daniel Bruns | Nov 28, 2016

The Glide Path Selection Problem: A Quantitative Approach to Assessing Glide Path Fit for DC Participants

The target-date decision has lacked consideration for glide path design, resulting in potential mismatch between the equity glide path used by the plan sponsor and the optimal glide path for the specific demographics of the plan participants.

Daniel Bruns, Lucian Marinescu | Mar 10, 2016