Editing Morningstar, Inc. (section)

=== Major Customer Groups ===
Given Morningstar's strategy and core capabilities discussed above, the company focuses on six primary customer groups:

# Advisors (including independent financial advisors and those affiliated with Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), broker/dealers or other intermediaries);
# Asset management (including fund companies, insurance companies, and other companies that build and manage portfolios of securities for their clients);
# Fixed-income security issuers and arrangers;
# Private market/venture capital investors;
# Workplace/retirement (including retirement plan providers, advisors, and sponsors); and
# Individual investors

==== ''Advisors'' ====
Financial advisors work with individual investors to help them reach their financial goals. This customer group includes independent advisors at RIA firms, advisors affiliated with independent broker/dealers, dually registered advisors, and “captive” advisors who are employees of a broker/dealer. These broker/dealers include wirehouses, regional broker/dealers, and banks. The advisor landscape is broad in both the U.S. and in other parts of the world where it focuses. Morningstar's largest market is the U.S., where Cerulli Associates estimates there were nearly 294,000 financial advisors as of the end of 2021.

Morningstar believes its deep understanding of individual investors’ needs allows us to work with advisors to help them make more efficient use of their time and deliver better investment outcomes for their clients. Its advisor offerings also draw on Morningstar’s proprietary investment research methodologies and research insights.

The company sells its advisor-related offerings both directly to independent financial advisors and through enterprise licenses, which allow financial advisors associated with the licensing firm to use its products.

Morningstar is expanding the range of services it offers to help financial advisors with all aspects of their daily workflow needs, including investment decision-making, portfolio construction, client monitoring and reporting, practice management, portfolio rebalancing that connects with custodial and trading interfaces, and financial planning. Because advisors are increasingly outsourcing investment management, Morningstar is continuing to enhance Morningstar Managed Portfolios to help advisors save time and reduce compliance risk.

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