Financial advisors work with individual investors to help them reach their financial goals. This customer group includes independent advisors at registered investment advisor (RIA) firms, advisors affiliated with independent broker-dealers, dually registered advisors, and “captive” advisors who are employees of a broker-dealer (including wirehouses, regional broker-dealers, and banks).

Our main products for financial advisors are Morningstar Advisor Workstation, Morningstar Office, and Morningstar Managed Portfolios.

Asset management firms manufacture financial products and manage and distribute investment portfolios. We work with a wide variety of asset management firms globally, ranging from large, global firms to firms with small fund lineups and operations in a single market or region. The asset management customer group includes individuals involved in sales, marketing, product development, and distribution, as well as investment management (often referred to as the “buy side”), which includes portfolio management, research, and securities analysis.

The key products we offer for asset management firms include Morningstar Direct for Asset Management, Morningstar Data, and Morningstar Indexes. For the buy side, key products include Morningstar Research, Morningstar Credit Ratings, Morningstar Data, and Morningstar Direct.

In the U.S., 401(k) retirement plans and other defined contribution (DC) plan types, such as 403(b)s and the Thrift Savings Plan, are becoming the dominant plan type offered by employers.

Our retirement solutions primarily reach individual investors through employers (plan sponsors) that offer DC plans for their employees. We can work directly with plan sponsors to help them design a suitable retirement program, but more typically, we deliver our retirement solutions through retirement plan providers that package our advice and investment lineups with administrative and record-keeping services. We recently expanded into the broker/dealer market by developing a solution called Morningstar Plan Advantage that helps advisors grow their retirement plan book of business.

Our main product offerings for the workplace/retirement customer group include managed retirement accounts, fiduciary services, and custom models.

We offer products for individual investors who invest to build wealth and save for other goals, such as retirement or college tuition. Because many individual investors trust Morningstar’s research and tools, our extensive reach with individual investors also helps drive demand in our other customer groups.

Our main product for individual investors is Morningstar.com, which includes both paid Premium Memberships and free content available to registered users and visitors. We also reach individual investors through a series of investment newsletters, iPad and mobile applications, and through licensing our content to other websites.

Through PitchBook, we reach approximately 3,700 investment and research firms and their service providers, including venture capital and private equity firms, corporate development teams, investment banks, limited partners, lenders, law firms, and accounting firms.

PitchBook covers the full lifecycle of venture capital, private equity, and M&A, including the limited partners, investment funds, and service providers involved. Our main product for this customer group is the PitchBook Platform, an all-in-one research and analysis workstation that gives clients the ability to access data, discover new connections, and conduct research on potential investment opportunities.