Morningstar Investor Review

Investing is a game of informed risk taking.

You have to pay close attention to the markets, price in changes in sentiment or economic conditions, and take in as much information and as many perspectives as you possibly can.

It’s impossible to predict the future, of course, but the investor’s job is to use everything at their disposal to narrow down the possibilities to a profitable few.

An investor needs impeccable instincts.

They need a wide, deep knowledge base encompassing a thousand different subjects.

Most of all, though, they need a constant stream of high-quality information to help them make the decisions that will bring them and their clients the largest returns possible.

There are dozens of services out there that purport to provide the best, most potentially profitable investing advice.

Some are free, while others charge an arm and a leg for the pleasure.

Every one of them has their own roster of elite investors and thought leaders that share their thoughts on everything from Treasuries to cryptocurrencies, and every last one of them claims to be the best.

As many investment advice and research firms there are, only a few have the kind of cachet to give them a legitimate claim to the crown.

One such firm was founded in May of 1984.

It Called Itself Morningstar

Joe Mansueto founded Morningstar alone in his apartment 38 years ago.

Today, it’s a billion-dollar enterprise with over 6,000 employees and provides in-depth research for over 620,000 different investments.

Morningstar is known as one of the top providers of investment research in the industry, and they show no signs of slowing.

This Morningstar Investor review will tell you about Morningstar’s flagship service, what it offers, and how much it costs.

What Morningstar Offers for Free

Morningstar’s website has a lot to offer for free users.

There are trackers for about any market and security you can think of, high-level financial news and market updates, general investing advice, insights from some of their analysts and advisors, and a selection of stories and insights for mutual funds, stocks, ETFs, bonds, and other categories of securities.

There’s a lot on offer on Morningstar.com, maybe even more than you’d expect from a free service.

It’s all pretty surface-level stuff, though; Morningstar’s real insights and advice are tucked behind a paywall.  

Morningstar Premium

Morningstar has a whole range of memberships broken into three categories: Professional Products, Managed Investment Products, and Individual Investor Products.

Their flagship product, Morningstar Investor, is aimed at providing the research and tools that individual investors need to make informed decisions and maximize their returns.

The plan offers a free seven-day trial for new users, an ongoing subscription for $34.95 per month, and an annual plan for $249 per year.

Budget-conscious investors willing to pony up $249 up front will save about 41% over a monthly plan, so it’s highly recommended if you have the money.

It also might not be a bad idea to take the free trial and maybe one or two months before committing to an annual membership, just to be sure it’s the right product for you.

What Morningstar Investor Has to Offer

Morningstar Investor offers a lot of value to active traders and value investors.

An Investor membership will get you full access to research and analysis from over 150 independent analysts, all of whom are industry veterans with proven track records on Wall Street.

The analysis encompasses a range of investment types and is geared toward being as actionable and up to date as possible.

Investor memberships also give you access to a frankly insane list of Morningstar ratings on all different kinds of securities, individual managers, socially and environmentally conscious investments, and pretty much anything else that you can think of.

Morningstar also makes their methodology available to subscribers, so you can go ahead and run the numbers yourself if you aren’t convinced of any given rating.

In addition to all the research and ratings, Morningstar Investor also comes with a full suite of portfolio management and analysis tools.

You can evaluate potential investments based on a comprehensive list of performance and valuation metrics, access pre-filtered investment lists that meet your preferred criteria, and tailor your portfolio to your exact specifications with just a few clicks.

Finally, Morningstar Investor enables you to evaluate your portfolio from any angle using their Portfolio X-Ray tool, which provides a set of user-friendly tools that make it easy to check a number of metrics like asset allocation and sector weightings.

You’ll even be given special analysis, commentary, and news that’s tailored to your specific portfolio.

Is Morningstar Investor Worth the Price?

The short answer seems to be: Yes. It is worth the price according to a whole slew of financial websites.

–          Wallet Hacks: Worth it

–          Well Kept Wallet: 4.3/5

–          Credit Donkey: 3.8/5

–          NerdWallet: Worth it

–          Investor Junkie: 8/10

–          Money Under 30: 9/10

–          Day Trade Review: 4/5

You get the picture. The consensus is that Morningstar Investor provides a ton of valuable research and analysis—more than enough to justify the price—and that it mostly loses points for its somewhat cumbersome tools and less than stellar mobile app.

Who Would Benefit the Most from Morningstar Investor?

Morningstar is aimed primarily at more active value investors.

You won’t find many technical analysis charts on Morningstar.com, so technical analysis wonks probably won’t want to spend the money.

Fundamental investors, on the other hand, will find a wealth of easily accessible and in-depth analysis on the fundamentals underpinning an absolutely crazy number of stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, and other securities.

Conclusion

Morningstar Investor is kind of pricey.

Even the reduced $249 price for an annual membership will be hard to justify for most casual investors, and even more experienced traders may want to find another service that caters to their particular brand of investing.

You won’t find much analysis on cryptocurrencies, technical analysis tools, or prescriptive advice if you go with Morningstar Investor.

If you want someone to tell you exactly how to invest you probably won’t find much to love about Morningstar Investor. In that case, you might want to look at a service like the Motley Fool instead.

But if you like the idea of getting all the fundamental information and in-depth analysis that you need to make informed decisions, however, Morningstar Investor may be just the ticket. 

After reading this Morningstar Investor review, what are your thoughts on the product? Let us know in the comment section!