Morningstar Office Update September 2010

Read the Morningstar Office Version (PDF).

 

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QuoteSpeed

QuoteSpeed is a web-based application that provides real-time return data for stocks, ETFs, and

mutual funds. You can import investment lists from Morningstar Office and create Watchlists of up

to 100 securities in QuoteSpeed.

Click the new QuoteSpeed icon on the toolbar to register for a 15-day trial.    

 

Client Information Management

Assistant View

When logging in, the assistant is prompted to select a user whose role they will assume. The

Assistant will have the same access to the program as the user whose role they are assuming.

When logged into their own account, assistants can only access the Home screen.  

Assistant Management

(Home > Settings > Personal Settings > Assistant Management)

For users who have already registered for a trial, you can create a new assistant account by

entering their email and creating a password or add an existing assistant by entering their

Morningstar Office login information. For users who have not registered for a trial, click Register.   

 

Task Manager

New Navigation

The Task Manager is now accessible via its own page on the Home tab.

You can also access the Task Manager from within a client or account, in which case the system

will automatically filter for tasks related to the current client or account.   

Filters

The Filters area at the bottom of the Task Manager screen allows you to quickly sort tasks by name,

creator, client, current owner, etc.

Task Enhancements

The following improvements have been made to Tasks:

• Multiple Clients – Associate a task with multiple clients at once.  

• Reminders – Add reminders to tasks and create recurring tasks.  

• Accessibility – The Access List feature allows you to set tasks to be visible only to certain

people. You can also assign tasks to other advisors and assistants at your firm.

• Comments – Track progress on tasks and communicate with members of your firm by adding

comments.

• Attachments – Pertinent documents can be uploaded into Task Manager.   

 

Client Web Portal

Upload Document Enhancements

(Tools > Upload Document)

File upload functionality has been improved in this release, allowing you to do the following:  

• Upload multiple files at once.

• Quickly assign to one or many clients or specific accounts.  

• Add notes that appear on the Saved Reports screen.  

• Choose to upload to Morningstar Office only, or upload and post to the Client Web Portal.

Disable Client Web Portal Automated Emails

(Settings > Client Web Portal Settings)

You can now disable automatic emails sent to clients upon Web Portal setup or the posting of new

reports.

Institution Report Name

You can now edit the report name for Institutional Clients within the Client Profile. Previously, this

was only available for Individual Accounts.

 

Portfolio Accounting

Close the Books

(Tools> Settings > Set Default User Setting)

The new “Close the Books” option in User Default Settings saves historical performance data (daily

market values, cash flow, etc.) so that this data does not need to be re-calculated each time a

performance report is run. Applying this setting has been found to decrease run times for report

generation by up to 85%.  

  

New Profile/Settings Navigation for Accounts

In Transactional accounts, the Account Profile screen is now divided into Risk Profile, Account Profile

and Account Settings.  

 

On the Risk Profile screen, you can enter an Investment Objective, Risk Tolerance, and Time Horizon

for the account.

 

On the Account Settings screen, you can set default benchmarks and account-level settings for

reports, management fees, etc.

Account-Level Billing Allocation

(Client record > Client Default Settings)

You can now allocate fees among individual accounts within Account Settings. By selecting a billing

account at the account level, you can choose to have all fees for one account withdrawn from

another account or select a list of accounts from which this client’s fees will be withdrawn and

assign a percentage to each account. It is possible to select the same billing account for multiple

accounts. The billing account can also belong to a different client if you are setting group-level fee

allocation amounts.

This setting is overruled if a client-level fee allocation is applied within Client Default Settings. To

ensure that account-level fee allocation settings are applied, check “Use Account Level Billing

Account” within Client Default Settings.  

Include in Management Fees Calculation

(Account record > Account Settings)

This box is checked automatically for all new accounts. Uncheck the box to have the account

balance excluded from billing. A setting can also be applied within Portfolio Accounting Systems

Settings > Preferences to automatically exclude new Quick Accounts from billing.    

 

Unmanaged Assets Report Setting

(Home > Settings > New Reports Setting)

You can create a report setting and select Omit from Market Value. Accounts with this setting

applied will be excluded from the following reports:

• Client return Summary

• Performance Summary report

• Account Summary

• Snapshot Report

• Performance by Security, and

• Portfolio current value by Security.  

Holding Settings

(Holdings Summary > Action > Holding Settings)

You can now apply the following settings to holdings:

• Unmanaged Asset -- Grays out the holding within the Holdings Summary and excludes it from

the Account and Client Market Value. This does not affect reports or billing calculations.  

• Exclude from Management Fees Calculation -- Excludes a security from management fee

calculations and/or billing across all accounts in the practice.

• Exclude from Performance Calculation – Excludes a security from performance calculations

across all accounts in the practice.

New PAS Preferences

(Home > Settings > Portfolio Accounting System Settings > Preferences)

The following options have been added to Preferences:

• Check on ‘Include in management fees calculation’ for New Transactional Account

Only: By default, all new accounts are created with the setting to include in management fee

calculations applied. Checking this box will apply this default setting to Transactional Accounts

only.  

• Exclude Margin Balance from Management Fee Calculation: Previously, margin positions

(negative cash positions) are subtracted from the account balance in calculating the billable

balance of an account. Applying this setting will have negative cash positions ignored rather

than subtracted.   

• Use Absolute Values of Short positions in Management Fee Calculation: Previously,

short positions are subtracted from the billable account balance. You can instead choose to

have the absolute value of any short positions added.  

• Exclude Securities: You can select particular securities to be excluded from management fee

calculations and/or billing across all accounts in the practice.    

• Capital Flow Limit for TWR Calculation (%): You can set a threshold account inflow

amount as a percentage of the account’s value for the TWR calculation. If there is an inflow

exceeding this threshold percentage input into the account, then the flow amount will be added

to the beginning market value of the account for the sub-period in which the inflow occurred.

This addition occurs only in the time-weighted return calculation and in no other way affects the

value of the account.

 

Transaction Blotter/Wizard

Source/target Fields for Deliver-in/out Transactions

When manually entering a deliver-in/out transaction, the user can specify a source or target

account, or select “out of pocket.” Information is displayed in the Transactions summary.  

Transaction Blotter/Wizard: Reinvest Field for Buy Transactions

Users can also indicate that a Buy transaction is reinvesting a distribution, short-term cap gain

payment or long-term capital gain payment.  

 

Securities in Accounts

View Prices

You can right-click on a security from the list and select “View Prices” to pull up the price database.

This feature is also accessible from Action > View Prices.

 

Definition Master

Price Sources

(Tools > Edit Definition Master > Securities)

It is now possible to manually add securities to this list. Click the +Add Rows button.

Notes for Securities

(Tools > Edit Definition Master > Securities > User-defined security profile > Notes)

Notes can be added to the security profile for user-defined securities.  

Worthless Security Flag

(Tools > Edit Definition Master > Securities > User-defined security profile > Price Information)

On the Price Information tab of a user-defined security profile, you can check the Worthless Security

box to indicate that a security has become worthless, and indicate the date on which it became

worthless. For all subsequent days, a price of 0 will be applied.     

 

Billings

New Account Billing

(Client Management > Billings > Generate Fee Data > New Account Billing)

New accounts can now be billed in advance. Previously, if you billed in advance and a new account

opened midway through a billing period, that account could not be billed until the end of the billing

period.  

 

Now, you can bill newly opened accounts right away by clicking on Generate Fee Data within the

Billings screen. Select the quarter to bill and then select Item Type New Account Billing. Fee data

will be generated and an individual Billing Summary for the client can then be created.  

 

Note: To use this feature, you must do the following:

 

• Set your Client/Group Fee methodology to Individual Account Setting/Balance

• Select Billing in Advance in the Management Fee setting for the account, and

• Change the Billing Start Date to the account’s inception date.  

Available Cash Warning

When generating custodian fee files, the program now automatically checks whether sufficient

cash/money market funds are held in each account to pay the fee. If cash is insufficient, a warning

appears.

Billing Summary (Previously Billing Statement)

Previously, the Billing Statement indicated a Total Amount Due, even if that amount was then

deducted from the accounts by the advisor. To decrease confusion, the report now distinguishes

between the Total Amount and the Total Balance Due. You can elect to have management fees,

which will be automatically deducted from the custodian accounts, excluded from the Total Balance

Due amount. To apply this setting, check the Management Fee deductible from Custodian

account box within the Management Fee Setting Wizard.

 

Batch Reporting  

Attach Uploaded Files

You can now include any document within Saved Reports in a batch template. Click the Add

uploaded file button and select documents from the list.

Include Table of Contents

Within the batch schedule screen, you can opt to include a table of contents.

  

Automatically Create Folder for Batch Reports

You can now choose to save reports from a single batch to a separate folder automatically. Folder

names will be based on date, schedule name, or both.   

 

Hypothetical Illustrations

Custom Date Option

When creating a hypothetical illustration from an account, you can now use a portfolio value from a

date in the past, rather than only the current date.  

Go to Portfolio Management > Accounts > Select account > Action > Create Hypothetical

Illustration from Account > Date Option > Custom Date.

 

Reports  

Billing Management Reports

We have added several report options to aid you in monitoring your billing. Within an admin login,

any of these reports can be run by advisor.

• Billing Setting Validation report: Run by practice or group. Account level data: includes

whether the account is included in management fee calculations, fee methodology, fee setting,

whether the account includes securities that are excluded from billing, etc.

• Billing Information and Fee Calculation Report: Run by practice or group for specified date

range. Client level data: fee methodology, fee setting, number of days billed in reports run within

date range specified, gross and net fees, and current cash available.

• Management Fee Position Exclusion Report: Holding level data: Lists all positions in all

accounts that are excluded from billing, including current market value.

• Insufficient Cash Accounts Report: Account level data: lists total fees billed for specified

time period, current cash available, and cash deficit amount.

• Accounts with No Management Fee Schedule: Lists any accounts not currently included in

Billing.

Data Diagnosis Reports

• Security Price Missing Report: Lists all securities missing any prices and the days that

prices are missing.

• Transaction Price Missing Report

• Transaction Cost Basis Missing Report   

16

Management Reports

We have expanded the scope of the following reports. They are now available at the practice/group

level:

• Global Billing Summary: Shows total billable balance and total amount billed for all

clients/accounts.

• Management Fees: Shows receivable management fees for all client/accounts.

• Global Expense Summary: Summarizes total expenses by client/account for the time period

specified. Data is drawn from all posted transactions. (Also available at the Client and Group

level.)

Improvements to Existing Reports

Account Numbers Included

Account numbers are now included in addition to account names in account-level reports. You have

the option of masking the account number (i.e. ***123) before generating reports.

Account vs. Account/Model

Region information and a risk/return graph have been added to the Performance section in the PDF

report.

Portfolio Benchmark Comparison

We have added the option to group securities by broad asset class.

Performance Summary > Period Gain/Loss Report

A disclaimer has been added to this report explaining that the gain/loss calculations are not based

on original cost basis, but rather on the market value at account inception date. When an error

message is generated, it will include calculation process and troubleshooting data.

Performance Summary >Realized Gain/Loss Report

You can now group gains by long-term and short-term.  

Current vs. Model Portfolio

You can now add a “Recommended Portfolio Asset Allocation by Share Quantity” column. To do so,

you must remove the “Ticker” column due to space constraints.

Current vs. Target Asset Allocation

The option to display available cash is now available.

Custom Asset Class List

(Settings > Asset Allocation reporting Sets)

You can create a custom asset class set and apply it to the Current vs. Model/Target Asset

Allocation reports.

Global Performance Summary

You can now choose to use either TWR or IRR (previously determined by global report settings) and

Gross or Net of Fees (previously only Gross was available.)

Portfolio Holdings Analysis Report

This report now includes the option to use security performance data. Previously, when displaying

historical returns data, this report relied on the available transaction history. If no transactions

existed for the last 10 years, no 10-year annualized return data was displayed. Now, advisors can

use Morningstar’s security performance data when imported data is not available.  

Snapshot Report

The Snapshot report now supports long and short positions in the Asset Allocation graph. The

Investment Activity graph now includes a benchmark.

  

Account Summary

We have added an SEC custody compliance disclaimer.

Assets under Management report

This report can now be run as of any custom date, rather than only month-end dates.

Other Report Enhancements

The 3.9 Release includes the following improvements to reports:

• Aggregate or segregate accounts when running reports from Report Generator or running Group

reports.

• From the Admin login, the option to run all Management Reports and Billing Management

Reports by advisor.

• Improved performance for practice-level, group-level and account aggregate-level reports.

• Portfolio Fixed Income Report added to report options within a Group.

• Show/hide management fees for the Client Return Summary and Performance by Security

reports.

• Global setting to turn off report warning messages: Tools> Settings> User Default Settings.  

 

Charts

Bar and Line Charts Combined for Rolling Return

You can now toggle between the bar and line charts when viewing Rolling Returns.

Correlation Matrix Chart Enhancements

You can now add model portfolios and custom benchmarks to the Correlation Matrix. You can also

toggle between the aggregate and holding level.

Market Value vs. Cumulative Net Investment Chart

This new chart shows the market value and cumulative net investment for a portfolio/account.

Model Portfolios and Custom Benchmark Added to the Add Securities Dialog

When adding securities to a chart, you can now search within the Model Portfolios and Custom

Benchmark universes.

More Securities on Risk/Reward Scatterplot

You can now plot up to 200 securities on the Risk/Reward Scatterplot.

Excel Export

You can now export the contents of charts to Microsoft Excel.

 

Import

Southwest Securities and Genworth Added As Import Sources

Southwest Securities and Genworth Financial Trust Company have been added to the Import

interface. To obtain files from Genworth, email gftinterfaces@genworth.com to receive a secure

FTP login.   

 

Account-level Return Data Import  

You can now input account-level return data either manually or via Excel import. Posted data can be

accessed within the account under Imported Return Series. Both daily and monthly return data can

be stored for each account, but only one data set can be used to run reports at a time.  

Once entered, this data can be integrated into reports that include account-level performance data

such as the Account Overview, Performance Summary by Account, etc.

   

To input return data manually, within the Import Return Series view, click + Edit Performance.  

To import via Excel, use the “Morningstar template – Historical Account Return Series” interface.

You can also follow a shortcut to the import interface window by clicking Import from within the

account Imported Return Series screen.

Custom Positional Import

You can now import any position file, regardless of whether file type is listed in the Import screen. If

you do not see your file type listed, you can email a sample file to your Implementation Consultant.

The Import team will then add the file template to the import sources list in Morningstar Office.  

To import the file, you can then open the import screen and place a check mark next to Custodian

& Accounting Templates – Portfolio Holdings and click Import. Within the screen that opens,

the template name will be listed under Custodian & Accounting Templates.    

 

Firm Administration

Map Custodian Ticker

(Settings > Firm Administration > Map Custodian Ticker)

When generating trade files using the rebalancing tool, Morningstar tickers are used. Occasionally,

these trading symbols are different from the trading symbols used in custodians’ systems, and trade

orders containing them can be rejected. To avoid this problem, you can establish mappings so that

your custodian’s format is used in trade files for particular securities.

Map Advisors to Rep ID Codes

(Settings > Firm Administration > Custodian Import)

Within the Administrator’s login, Account Master/Rep ID codes can be mapped to specific advisors

at your firm so that new accounts imported under a particular code will automatically be mapped to

the correct advisor. Select an import source to pull up the list of available codes. Highlight a code

from the list on the left and an advisor name within the list on the right and click > to apply the

code to the advisor.  

Codes can not be manually added to the list, but only become available for mapping after they have

been imported. Advisor/code mappings are automatically created when new accounts are imported

and mapped to particular advisors.    

 

Block Order Management

(Settings > PAS Settings > Firm Administration > Custodian Order Management> Firm Block Numbers/Advisor

Block Numbers)

Block numbers can be applied to both individual accounts and advisors. These will then be used to

create block orders when generating trade files during rebalancing.

To Apply a firm block number to an account, go to Account Profile > Block Trade Account Number.    

 

Security Exclusion

(Tools > Edit Definition Master > Import Security Exclusion)

If you receive duplicate transaction data for the same position from multiple import sources, you can

now block transaction/position data for a certain security/custodian/account combination from being

imported. If no account number is selected, transactions for all accounts under the selected

custodian will be blocked.  

Cash Consideration Added to Corporate Action Wizard

You can now select a “Cash Consideration” option when entering cash/stock mergers. You can also

specify whether the cash payment should be treated as a dividend or capital gain.  

Holdings Transfer Wizard

You can now automatically generate and post deliver-in/out transactions that transfer assets from

one account into another. Within the import screen, click on Holdings Transfer Wizard.   

 

Planning  

Edit Account Holdings

(Investment Plan > Current Accounts)

It is now possible to change the holding amounts in accounts used in plans. Changing the amount

within the plan does not affect the actual account.

Create Multiple Efficient Frontier Constraints

(Investment Plan > Constraints)

You can now edit Constraints within a Plan. Custom Constraints can also be set as the plan default.   

Custom Benchmarks in Planning Reports

(Settings > Planning Settings)

You can chose a custom benchmark (any security or index) as the benchmark that is used in the

Regional Exposure and MPT Statistics sections of planning reports.

Optional Disclosure Statements

(Investment Plan > Reports)

Four new disclosure statements are now available to be added to custom planning reports:

• Asset Allocation  

• Wealth Forecasting Methodology  

• Risk Tolerance  

• Portfolio Comparison Methodology    

 

Report Studio

This new module can be accessed from the left-hand navigation. Report Studio allows you to create

highly customized account reports from pre-loaded Morningstar templates or from templates that

you create. Report sections can be dragged and dropped into the reports, the format can be

customized, and you can export reports in PDF, PPT, and XPS format.