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New version of Advisor Workstation available from Morningstar

Investment research provider Morningstar Inc. launched Advisor Workstation 2.0 on Tuesday. According to the company it is…

Investment research provider Morningstar Inc. launched Advisor Workstation 2.0 on Tuesday. According to the company it is the most far-reaching upgrade to the system in nine years.
Two new modules have been added: Real-Time (a market data module) and the Analyst Research Center. This is in addition to the five existing modules (Clients and Portfolios, Research, Planning, Hypotheticals, and Defined Contribution).
Workstation continues to be a web-based modular platform that is designed to work with a firm’s other back-office systems and applications. The new user interface is more intuitive, faster and should better mesh with the workflow of most advisers and the changes have mostly been made based on user input.
For example, with one click a quick-start feature lets advisers launch their most frequently-used tools. By default that module is up at the top left of an advisers screen, but as with all the modules it can be dragged and dropped for their own convenience.
Old timers will like that the left-hand navigation menu has been retained.
Brokers will probably like the new top securities list which provides them with updated statistics for their most frequently-used securities.
Advisor Workstation is not to be confused with Morningstar Office (formerly known as Advisor Workstation Office Edition) that is most often used by independent investment advisers.
Most advisers accessing Advisor Workstation are provided it through the platform of their broker-dealers, custodians, or clearing firms — it has been licensed by more than 120 firms and is on the screens of more than 148,000 individual advisers by Morningstar’s count.
New Morningstar customers will be added to the 2.0 version of Advisor Workstation while existing clients will migrate to it over the next 18 months based on a schedule they have worked out with Morningstar. So advisers wanting immediate access should contact their broker-dealers or custodians to see where they stand.
Melinda Sgariglia, vice president of broker-dealer solutions at Morningstar, walked me through a demo of the system last week during a visit to New York.
Among the things that most impressed me was how fluidly an adviser can navigate through the Clients and Portfolios Module. Morningstar has made it easier for advisers to sort their client records and drill down into a particular client’s record. Advisers also have more search parameters available to them than before including searching by amount of assets or even zip code. Advisers should find it simpler to edit and even create from scratch a library of model portfolios.
There have been a lot of changes to the Advisor Workstation Research Module too, including addition of a new “All Securities” universe that permits searches and lists across investment types. They said that new investment “universes” will be coming soon including offshore funds first and next year will follow hedge funds, preferred stocks and UITs.
The new Real-Time market data module comes bundled with Morningstar’s security data which includes more than 160 international and domestic sources. This includes commodities, futures, options and precious metals. There is also intra-day and historical price and volume charting as well as news, analyst updates, filings, and press releases.
Over 1800 stock analyst reports fill the new Analyst Research Center module. Advisers will find weekly research highlights, quarterly market outlook, “Tortoise and Hare” Portfolios, along with historical information on more than 9,000 stocks. There are also videos, conference calls, and “Morning Notes.”
A new Planning Module is scheduled for delivery to the platform in the third quarter. It is supposed to have improved asset allocation and efficient frontier capabilities.
Another new feature to this version is a collaboration component on the platform which allows for file sharing between colleagues as well as clients (it has permissioning and security features) is one of the new features Morningstar added as the result of adviser requests. It allows for assigning of read-only and read/write access to files as well. While a file is in use it is locked to prevent concurrent access. Morningstar plans to add supervisory capabilities as well as what it is calling “compliance views” in the future.
For much more detail visit Morningstar’s Advisor Workstation website.