Morningstar Forms Strategic Alliance with SS&C’s Black Diamond Wealth Platform

Morningstar Forms Strategic Alliance with SS&C’s Black Diamond Wealth Platform

Morningstar Media Contact:
Stephanie Lerdall, +1 312 696-6037 or newsroom@morningstar.com
Sam Gentile, Prosek, +1 646 818-9195 or pro-SSC@prosek.com

Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN) and SS&C Technologies, Inc. today announced an agreement that will make SS&C's Black Diamond® Wealth Platform the first wealth platform to integrate with the newly launched Direct Advisory Suite from Morningstar. The alliance pairs rich investment data and research, portfolio construction and holdings-based analysis, and client engagement capabilities from Direct Advisory Suite with award-winning technology for portfolio accounting, client communications, compliance, trading and rebalancing, data aggregation, and performance reporting in Black Diamond.

“This alliance makes Black Diamond the first platform of its kind to integrate Morningstar’s rich research and data capabilities advisors have relied on for decades,” said Steve Leivent, co-head of SS&C's Wealth & Investment Technologies. “The Black Diamond Wealth Platform will offer seamless integration of Morningstar’s industry-leading data and analytics with client workflows.”

Direct Advisory Suite, the latest application built on the Direct Platform from Morningstar, combines extensive research, investment planning, and reporting capabilities with a sleek, intuitive interface. Designed to streamline workflows and enhance productivity, Direct Advisory Suite is the next phase of Advisor Workstation, used by more than 175,000 advisors. The suite offers extensive research tools to compare investment opportunities, advanced portfolio analytics with customizable charting and comparison tools, and a user experience that includes AI-powered assistance to support confident client engagement. Advisors from the approximately 2,700 wealth management firms on the Black Diamond Wealth Platform will have the option to include direct access to these capabilities in the platform experience.

“Black Diamond has been driving innovation in the wealth platform space, and we are excited about the connected experience we can deliver to advisors together,” said Kunal Kapoor, chief executive officer of Morningstar. “Advisors are central to our mission of empowering investor success. We have a long history of serving them directly with content, technology, and investment products or indirectly through strategic alliances with businesses like Black Diamond that excel in their own areas of expertise.”

Alongside this news, Morningstar plans to retire Morningstar Office. The company has worked closely with Black Diamond to design a smooth transition with a highly customized migration process, saving users time and resources. Advisors who choose to transition to Black Diamond will continue to have access to the data and research they value from Morningstar. Additionally, Black Diamond users can leverage:

A feature-rich and interactive Client Experience portal and mobile app, including optional firm branding for a tailored experience.
Full business intelligence and reporting insights at the firm- and advisor-level
A next-generation Rebalancer application with a suite of turnkey investment management services and tools
Comprehensive, industry-leading compliance workflows
Powerful, self-service data mining functionality

“We look forward to welcoming Morningstar Office clients to the Black Diamond Wealth Platform, where we believe they will benefit from our standard-setting portfolio management features alongside access to Morningstar’s newest research and analytics capabilities,” Leivent said.

About Morningstar, Inc.

Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment insights in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The Company offers an extensive line of products and solutions that serve a wide range of market participants, including individual and institutional investors in public and private capital markets, financial advisors and wealth managers, asset managers, retirement plan providers and sponsors, and issuers of fixed-income securities. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, debt securities, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with approximately $328 billion in AUMA as of Sept. 30, 2024. The Company operates through wholly-owned subsidiaries in 32 countries. For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MorningstarInc.

About SS&C Technologies

SS&C is a global provider of services and software for the financial services and healthcare industries. Founded in 1986, SS&C is headquartered in Windsor, Connecticut, and has offices around the world. More than 22,000 financial services and healthcare organizations, from the world's largest companies to small and mid-market firms, rely on SS&C for expertise, scale, and technology. Additional information about SS&C (Nasdaq: SSNC) is available at www.ssctech.com. Follow SS&C on X, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is used in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on our current expectations about future events or future performance. Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain, and often contain words such as “ consider,” “future,” “maintain,” “may,” “expect,” “potential,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “will,” "can, "or the negative thereof, and similar expressions. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the events we discuss not to occur or to differ significantly from what we expect. For us, these risks and uncertainties include, among other things, failure to achieve the anticipated benefits of the strategic alliance, transition clients and retire the Office product on a timely basis, or at all. A more complete description of these risks and uncertainties can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our most recent Reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. If any of these risks and uncertainties materialize, our actual future results and other future events may vary significantly from what we expect. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. You are, however, advised to review any further disclosures we make on related subjects, and about new or additional risks, uncertainties and assumptions in our filings with the SEC on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K.

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