Morningstar reviews

Morningstar response from Dan Rohr, Head of Equity Research: I’d like to take a moment to address a few items from your post. It’s true that Morningstar Equity Research boasts more than its fair share of Booth/Kellogg alums, as well as CFA charterholders. I proudly count myself as one of the former and the latter. To suggest that Morningstar has conspired to mislead business school graduates and CFA charterholders into accepting unfulfilling and underpaid jobs is simply not true. The likely reason so many of these professionals choose to work at Morningstar is far simpler: an intellectually stimulating job with competitive pay at a genuinely mission-driven firm. It’s also true that, while many of our equity analysts (including me), have chosen to build their careers with Morningstar Equity Research, others’ interests take them elsewhere: both inside and outside Morningstar. Within Morningstar, several former equity analysts have pursued leadership roles in other business segments and some now hold executive-level positions, a sign of how much the firm values the skillset honed in Equity Research. Outside Morningstar, Equity Research alums aren’t hard to find. I have many former colleagues working for our competitors on the sell-side and for our clients on the buy-side. Others have struck out on their own and set up their own money management shops. Still others have embarked on careers outside the investment world, including executive and strategy roles in the industry they once covered as an analyst. To be sure, turnover is common in competitive industries such as ours and particularly so at firms stacked with talented and ambitious individuals. But our turnover rate is no higher than the industry norm. It’s true, as you noted, that the equity research industry is under pressure as passive strategies continue to claim share and asset management fees fall. But we’ve continued to grow despite those headwinds. Morningstar’s equity research business is now roughly two-thirds larger than it was five years ago. That’s a rare feat given the headwinds facing our industry and testament to the value we deliver to investors. We don’t believe we could have delivered that level of growth with a “churn and burn” approach to staffing. Finally, it’s true that, for anyone considering a job at Morningstar (or anywhere else, for that matter), it’s best to speak with current or former members of the team you’d be joining. For those reading this post and considering a role with Morningstar, feel free to reach out to me. We’re always looking for talented analysts to help us grow our business and do the right thing by investors.